KING TIGER - a project for 2019...

[Guest]

Does anybody know if all Porsche KTs had Zim on them? i hope not, I don't relish the job of adding it

To the best of my knowledge, only the very early vehicles didn’t have Zimmerit — photos of ones with the early turret but no Zimmerit aren’t very common.

But it’s not actually difficult to make with putty (from a tube or two-part) and a modelling saw.

[JR]

Peter.
Great drawings of the bee box thank you , we hang one of ours facing south, as one year the bees used old Red Wall plug holes in the south facing extension. The mud covering the holes was a great find, one good thing about these Bees they don't sting !
John.

[Steve Jones]

WOW!! Seat pulled up for this one. A fantastic project Peter. I wish you all the best

[langy71]

hope you don't mind another body squeezing in...
(i'll stand at the back so i don't stand on anybody's toes), you can't beat a tiger king tiger build.looking forward to seeing this 'grow'

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Peter,

Porsche had 50 turrets built with Krupp 8.8 cm Kw.K 43 L/71 guns mounted in them. The first 3 turrets were mounted on prototypes V1, V2 and V3. These prototypes had no Zimmerit. Production began with Vehicle # 280001 to 2800047. These were produced and fielded before June 1944, when the Henschel turret took over. Zimmerit was discontinued in Sept. 1944, so the Porsche turret Tiger II's would have had it applied. Unless you attempt to build a prototype V1, V2 or V3, Zimmerit was on them all. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Sir.

I will follow along and if you do decide to forgo the Zimmerit and build a prototype, I can help you with line drawings and some photos of them. I also believe you can get aftermarket Zimmerit for the kit, but not from Meng at this time. They only offer Zimmerit for their Tiger II with Henschel turret….

Prost
Allen

[rtfoe]

Hi Peter, I'm not a Tiger II fan but would like to sit in for this if you don't mind. The info coming in and your build might convince me to like this subject.

We don't have that many bees here but loads of wasps that make homes in our wood furniture or steal mud from our potted plants to build their homes. I've had a few land on me....I have to stop lazying on the daybed. :tears-of-joy:

Cheers,
Richard

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

Jakko & Allen - thanks for the info. Hmm, not what I hoped for so it looks like it has to be Zimmerite since I am not too keen on an early version since I will be including a cobat crew inside. Allen - thanks for the offer of early version info. I have not tried to make zim from putty before, but it may not be too bad since most of the bodywork will be cut away.

John - a red raw plug, naturewill use whatever is around. Knowing my luck they will prefer anything other than my boxes!

Steve - thanks for the support, I hope I have not taken on too much ofa challenge

Chris - glad to have you aboard

Richard - I would not call myself a fan of the KT either, the attraction here is the interior details, and a soft spot for cut-away models. What really sold me on the project was the availability of a full crew posed inside the vehicle. Surprisingyly, last year we had very few wasps, a very large number of bumble bees - one group even colonised an openfronted nesting box which in previous years a robin had used. We did catch one queen Asian Hornet in one of our traps, not a welcome visitor but at least she didn't get a chance to build a nest.

This evening I am back sculpting a bust so it will be a few days before I summon up the courage to start this.

Peter

[Allen Dewire]

Evening again Peter,

Upon a little more research, I found that Meng does make a Zimmerit set for the Tiger II w/ Porsche turret. The set # is SPS-060. As this will be a cut away build, you could use it by cutting it up as needed of make your own from scratch. Tamiya also make a Zimmerit set for their Tiger II w/ Porsche turret (# 12649). could be used in the same way by cutting it up...HTH.

Prost
Allen

[Peter Gillson]

Allen thank you for the updat - great minds think alike, I just ordered a set of the Meng decals.

Peter

[Peter Gillson]

This arrived today - the Meng zimmerite decals. They look ok, I am not an expert in zimerite but to my uneducated eye they look ok, except they are perhaps a little too regular.

A photo of the decals:

[ATTACH]325690[/ATTACH]

I expected the, to arrive in an envelope, instead they were in this box:

[ATTACH]325691[/ATTACH]
A big box for something 1mm thick!

I am not going to buy any etched brass nor the workable tracks so now all I have to do is muster the courage to actually start ...

[Guest]

Peter,
Agree about the tracks and metal. If you are doing the cut-away then most of the focus will be on the interior and not the exterior.
Cheers, Mike.

[Si Benson]

I feel bad for bringing it up now
Interested to see how it goes together though :thumb2:

[Peter Gillson]

While I am finishing off a few things ( and while working on a remodelling of our bathroom!) I thought I would hsare with you the two cut-away models I have made:

The first is a hetzer:

[ATTACH]326293[/ATTACH]

With hindsight I think the amount of cut-outs should have been a lot larger, it looks abit like it has huge rust holes!!!
[ATTACH]326294[/ATTACH]

The second model is a 1/72 B-17 which I crewed using Legends 1/72 crew:

Sorry for the dark photo.


[ATTACH]326295[/ATTACH]

[Steve Jones]

Wonderful builds Peter. Thanks for sharing. Glad to see all the parts of the project are starting to come together. Do you have an idea on when you are hoping to make a start??

[Guest]

I make hedgehog homes for them to hibernate in, but the bees seem to nest in them and drive the hogs out!

Pete

I had that a couple of years ago and last year they took over two of the bird boxes.