Takom King Tiger w. Henschel Tur. 505 zimmerit & interior 1/35

[Guest]

perhaps try the Aircraft color RLM 66. That was called German Cockpit black-grey

Will check that colour! Thanks!

[col68]

Jens you have done it right I usually apply 2 coats of gloss clear coat allowing plenty of curing time 24 hours minimum. Before adding decals then I'll apply a further two coats of gloss.
I have used Vallejo decal fix before without any problem's. Although I know of a few people who have had issues with it but IMHO I think they hadn't allowed the gloss coat to dry fully
HTH.

[Guest]

Still in practise mode and painting is perhaps even more therapeutic than the building phase!
Also my new paintbrush has improved my accuracy, and given me a huge confidence booster.
The first figure I painted a couple of weeks ago looked really ugly and I was totally lost on the face and it didn't matter what I did because every attempt looked like a dogs breakfast...

Here is my second figure ever and although it's nowhere close to something you'd put on/in a model for display - I'm still proud of it and it's a huge improvement I think!
It's a bit shiny due to the brown panel line accent colour I used, but a spray of dullcoat as the last step might fix that issue?
There's a lot of room for improvement on the face and the uniform needs some highlights, but it's a step in the right direction.

Paint retarder could also be useful when doing figures because the paint dries too quickly and it's easy to make it look like a skin disease rather than some subtle highlights when the paint starts to solidify whilst brushing...



My "close to black" trainer Tiger I is what it is. It's too late to change the colour at this stage so I'm going to try to add some "light" with subtle weathering. Try is the keyword.



It's the first model I've painted in more than 30 years so it's also what it is, but I think I managed to do a half descent basic paint job?
Again the panel line has caused an unwanted effect, but this time it's because it reacted with my rattle can of primer. I tried to fix it with a filter wash but no joy.
Weathering to the rescue I hope...

...and talking about weathering. Chipping on my "close to black" model is going to be hard to do with a darker colour so I was thinking about using something like the red-brown German primer as a chipping medium, but I'm going to try it on a piece of scrap first to see how it works. The rest will either be weathered with "dust" or some form of dirt. The tank is meant to be new-ish so there's not going to be any battle scars etc, but I also don't want to use it as yet another total trainer and completely cover it in layers of weathering and hide it in a drawer for the rest of my life...
I've still got my "long-nosed" Panther to go mad on so there's plenty of room to get practise on before I start painting my King Tiger for real!

Tomorrow I will start painting the lower hull and interior so I can continue building. Exciting!!!

Cheers!

[Guest]

Jens you have done it right I usually apply 2 coats of gloss clear coat allowing plenty of curing time 24 hours minimum. Before adding decals then I'll apply a further two coats of gloss.
I have used Vallejo decal fix before without any problem's. Although I know of a few people who have had issues with it but IMHO I think they hadn't allowed the gloss coat to dry fully
HTH.

Thanks for that info Colin!
I've not yet tried my Vallejo matt varnish and the one that was playing up was from a rattle can type varnish. It makes sense that Vallejos decal medium should work with their varnish.
I'm still stuck in lacquer-mode and solvents and haven't yet realised that the rest of the world has transitioned to water based paints and products, and the two aren't really working together...
It's like the big house/estate I'm restoring and I only used period (1870-1880) material to do it - paint included! It's been hard to source paint because solvent based oil paints were banned altogether in Sweden, but I don't want to mix the two because modern paints doesn't look right next to 100 year old paint. There's a reason why some things are still holding up after more than 130 years and it's spelled quality.
Automotive and hobby paints are a different breed I think and I just have to accept that solvent based stuff isn't the best any longer. Acrylics are here to win so I have to align my brain to that tune

I'm just happy I do the mistakes on my trainer models rather than my King Tiger. Not that it's that much more expensive but because I'm putting a lot of hours into it and I have a wish/hope that it'll come out as something I'd really love to have on a display at home!

Yet again, thanks so much for all the input!

[col68]

Another tip Jens to get rid of the sheen on the tanker is to use fine pigments either ground art pastels or branded weathering powders applied over dry dullcoat then sealed with a 2nd coat.
I must say for a modeller who is just getting back into the hobby your doing very well.

[Guest]

Another tip Jens to get rid of the sheen on the tanker is to use fine pigments either ground art pastels or branded weathering powders applied over dry dullcoat then sealed with a 2nd coat.
I must say for a modeller who is just getting back into the hobby your doing very well.

Thank you!
I can't really call myself a "modeller" yet because back in the days I never produced anything that was even bearable - but I had high hopes that I could never realise. Now all these years later I'm making a new attempt and it's going much better this time. With time I hope to become a modeller who can be proud of what I can cobble together, and It's until then I'm about to make many mistakes - but this thread is about my King Tiger and I'd be heartbroken if I fudge it... It's going to take quite a few weeks to reach the end and I have more than a few practice tanks to (hopefully) work out the issues with prior to the King Tiger. That's the plan anyway but I've already made a huge error thinking "acrylics" were all the same and loaded my airbrush with AMMO by Mig and sprayed it like Tamiya paint...
I was able to salvage it but it's the reason why I'm asking so many general questions right now, and showing examples of non King Tiger, so I don't make another major mistake like that again!

The plan was to use wash + pigments to give it a dusty/dirty appearance, but I hadn't planned to dullcoat it afterwards so that's the new plan then!

Big thanks for your help!!!

[col68]

Been there and done that mate. When I first swapped to acrylics I made the mistake of mixing Vallejo model air and Tamiya together it took me ages to clean the resulting gloop from my airbrush.
Mr muscle multi surface window cleaner removes dried acrylics if you want to strip a model so you can keep practicing on the same kits

[Guest]

Still in practise-mode and tonight I did the first weathering in my life, and more specifically - chipping.
I looked at a couple of videos on YouTube to get some inspiration but to say that I knew what I was doing when I started is a big lie...

Since my trainer Tiger I is painted in German Grey chipping wasn't as easy with regards to chipping colour, but I decided to use with German Grey lightened with white, and then to put some red-ish colour inside the largest chips afterwards. Like it had gone through all the paint layers on the big scratches and chips.
The chipping colours works pretty well I think and I've come to like German Grey. I've spent quite a lot of time researching my previous question whether the real German Grey was lighter, but it wasn't.

The first bits I did looked nothing like chipping and my confidence, which was already rather low, now went straight to rock bottom. But since this is a trainer I pushed on and after a while some of it started to look like real chipping!

I sadly did more than I'd plan to and it looks a bit "overdone" if you ask me, but it looks worn now for sure.
First I didn't want to show any pictures here since it looked so bad, but a learner I am and I will make many mistakes before I learn so what the h...



(Don't mind the wheels. I was testing colours on them and they will be repainted anyway.)

I tried some parallel scratches on the rear of the turret to simulate scratches accumulated when rotating. Not great but with a bit of practise it might work?

Prior to chipping I used Vallejo dullcoat for the very first time and it worked well in my airbrush, with Vallejo thinner.
After the chipping had dried I gave it another dullcoat to prepare it for streaking grime etc.

Sadly this is where things went bad.

I'm still using my cellulose thinner for cleaning my brushes and airbrush, and I'm also using it to thin my Tamiya paints and as a general "thinner".
The instructions said to use thinner on the surface before applying the streaking effects - but the damn cellulose thinner ate through the Vallejo varnish

I have sourced a supplier of cheap-ish 99.5% isopropanol in Sweden so within shortly I will replace my cellulose thinner.

I might've salvaged it by using a soft brush before packing up for the night, but happy I'm not. I'll have to see the results tomorrow.
I've started a spreadsheet in Excel with a compatible-table where I mix various products with all my different thinners and see how it reacts, and write it down.
I don't want any more unwanted fudge when I continue with my King Tiger if I can help it.

I will take a picture tomorrow when it's dried and I hope it's not too ugly...?

Weathering looks really easy when you watch someone skilled doing it, but in reality it's damn hard because you have to know what to do when, and importantly know when to stop!
You also need to know how to undo something. And knowledge about mixing products. And to NOT use pigments whilst modelling in bed...

The trainer Tiger I is scheduled to receive both some buff and dust, and there will be some light (hopefully) mud/dirt effect on the road wheels and tracks so some of the mistakes might be fixable, but apart from that it's going to have to be what it is. It's the first tank I've ever weathered so it wasn't going to turn out great anyway, but one can always hope.

Luckily my mistakes only affect my confidence and not my happiness for the hobby, and confidence is fixed by practise until it works!
Also I hope by sharing my embarrassing failures I might help a future learner.

Cheers!

[Guest]

Since I am an aircraft modeller, I can't really offer any advice on armor weathering, but based on what I have seen, look into AK interactive and AMMO MIG's weathering range. If anything, you will find that their weathering stuff are very very good. They should not give you the sae amount of problems their paint has. Perhaps a good starting point is using mud and rust pigments from AK Interactive, oil brushers from MIG and some enamel washes for fuel stains. I primarily use AK interactive as they are more geared towards aircraft in my opinion, but they produce some really good stuff for armour as well.
A good starting point would be this-AK-087 AK Interactive and ak 711
Cheers, John

[Guest]

Since I am an aircraft modeller, I can't really offer any advice on armor weathering, but based on what I have seen, look into AK interactive and AMMO MIG's weathering range. If anything, you will find that their weathering stuff are very very good. They should not give you the sae amount of problems their paint has. Perhaps a good starting point is using mud and rust pigments from AK Interactive, oil brushers from MIG and some enamel washes for fuel stains. I primarily use AK interactive as they are more geared towards aircraft in my opinion, but they produce some really good stuff for armour as well.
A good starting point would be this-AK-087 AK Interactive and ak 711
Cheers, John

My main problem, I think, is me rather than my selection of paints and weathering effects...
I've got a descent selection of weathering products from both AMMO and Vallejo, but that's not the same as knowing when to use what, and where?!

I'm starting to get the hang of how to use pigments (which you can clearly see on my sheets now as well since last night... ) but I badly lack skills on how to apply the other products - and which products that are compatible with each other when wet, hence why I'm trying to make an excel sheet to check this.
My thinner eating through the dullcoat yesterday was unexpected and unnecessary.
Practise makes perfect they say and I'm just going to have to prime some plastic jars and boxes so I can practise until it looks right.

Heavy weathering is something I can attempt when I know what I'm doing, but until then I will try to focus on what I think is realistic weathering.

Cheers and many thanks for your tips John!!!

[Guest]

Friulmodel tracks have arrived after a pretty lengthy trip from Hungary to Sweden... Perhaps it took a detour somewhere?
It doesn't matter - it's here and the quality is outstanding!
My only ordeal right now is that you have to drill/ream out the pin hole with a 0.5 mm drill...
I've got drills from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm with 0.1 mm increments, but they are for my PCB work so they are short and aren't really usable for this.
I don't even know where to find long 0.5 mm drills because such a thing would snap in a fraction of a second when used for most applications?
Perhaps a home-made reamer is the best choice instead?

There's very little flashing on the track links so this is going to be fun to try!

I've started to paint the lower hull assembly and I make everything as modules so I can paint larger bits before assembly rather than piece by piece.
I read somewhere that a couple of builders have experienced wonky/unaligned road wheels after assembly. I don't seem to have that problem, which is nice.

I've quit using AMMO primer and instead are using Tamiya paint as primer. Much simpler and more consistent. The rest of the paint are AMMO though and I'll just have to take it slow and apply thin layers until the wanted colour is achieved. I still think Tamiya & co with their "almost acrylic paints" are nicer to work with than AMMO's solvent free paint. At least for us beginners.

I will take some pictures on the next paint session so you can see what's happening!

Cheers,
Jens

[Guest]

Not having a long enough 0.5 mm drill made the prep work for the Friulmodel track links a royal pain in the rear end, but slowly each track link was fixed and I've test assembled a large enough bit to see how it looks and I have to say that I'm really impressed with the quality and how they look!
Weight doesn't scale like most things but they look really realistic I think and they certainly have a realistic sag?!

I've assembled them with the included brass wire just to test, hence why I've left them sticking out, but I will use flattened staples (from a stapler gun) when I do it properly later.
I've also toyed with the idea to use pin needles as track pins since the ones with metal heads might look like a real track pin, but they can be tricky - and very hard! - to cut to length so I might give that a pass even before trying.

How do you do your Friulmodel tracks with regards to preparation and drilling/reaming etc?



Now a request for help: Does anybody have one, or several, pictures of a Maybach HL230 P30 that includes the electric wiring?
My model doesn't include this and I've not been able to find any reference pictures with this either. I was hoping that the King Tiger restoration project in Switzerland had documented this but they'd already pulled that of before they took their pictures. If they did take some complete pictures I missed it.
I would like to try to add this detail if possible because it would look great if successful. I'm toying with the idea to display the engine outside the tank when I build the display later...? Might look good?

The picture below shows some detail and the technical drawing further below also shows wiring, but nothing beats a good photograph of the real deal!
Sadly I don't remember where I found these two pictures so I can't give credit nor link to the originator. If this breaks any rules regarding copyright then please let me know and I'll remove them.



The drawing is big so if you want to see it in full resolution you have to click the picture, or download it and use an external viewer.



Many thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Jens

[Guest]

Tracks are done and I couldn't find the right staples so I went with the included brass wire instead.
It took roughly 8 hours to prep and assemble whilst watching TV and later listening to music, but I'm very pleased with the end results!

If I do it again I will get a proper 0.5 mm drill (a few of them actually in case one breaks) for my dremel to make things easier because it was a bit tricky without, unless someone has got a better method?

My fingers are really sore right now and it feels like I've been rubbing my fingertips on sandpaper the whole time so next time I'll use nitril gloves or something...

Now it's time to sleep I guess

[Razzie43]

lol listen to music???i live 500m from Tomorrowland here in Belgium
Sleep last night 4 hours....
and next weekend to start all over again pfff

abt that engine.....i have almost the same,if i can reach my pc i upload it to you

[Razzie43]

see pictures i hope this works