Kit Build/Review: 1/72 Forces of Valor King Tiger

I bought this King Tiger kit, by Forces of Valor [sic*], a new brand to me, from the Ely model shop. Partly on account of it being quite cheap, and partly 'cause I want to build a King Tiger and paint it up in the unusual (one known/documented example, I believe?) octopus camo' scheme.

But I also wanted to have it in zimmerit, which the octopus King Tiger isn't. But hell, this is my model, and historical accuracy or authenticity isn't the be all and all. So, goddamnit, I'm going to have a bit of fun with some historical licence, and combine the two things I love in one King Tiger.

All the main bits zimmerit-ed.

The zimm' took bloomin' ages! We have a guest round, and we had a barbecue dinner out in the garden yesterday evening. With all that going on and the intense heat, even though I started on it about 3pm, I didn't finish till about 1.30 am this morning! 

I do my zimmerit using white 'superfine' Milliput, which I spread as thinly as I can. In some places I try to work around detail, preserving the raised profiles of other details if poss'. In other locales - such as the sides of the hull in this instance - I'll remove surface details (tools and cable in this case). 

Once the surfaces are covered in as thin a layer of Milliput as I can manage, I use a very small flathead screwdriver to form every single indentation of the zimmerit individually. It takes aeons, but I like the irregularity. I almost bought some PSC Panthers with zimmerit already on 'em, at the recent Other Partizan, but didn't because; 1) they are to pricey, 2) the zimmerit is just to uniform/regular.

Rubber band tracks, plus... 

... other bits? The commander and two'grommets'.

The running gear sprue.

Running gear assembly is crisp and easy.

Removing some zimmerit to accommodate drive wheel assembly.

The running gear in this kit is very nicely designed and manufactured, being clean and crisp and going together easily and in good solid alignment. One excellent little detail is the way the two drive wheel mounting parts have different sized male/female gubbins. The tracks are some kind of stuff rubber/vinyl typed deal. A bugger to glue, alas. I used superglue, which got me there eventually.

Something I'd never seen before: a vinyl/rubber commander figure, and two grommets, or big fat washers. The latter are part of the turret/gun mount assembly. Without them the gun will just flop and flap around. Being on a different sprue, in a different material, there's a chance you might overlook them.. er, well... I did!

Cleverly designed, with different male/female bits.

Thar she blows!

If I hadn't opted to do my DIY zimm', this'd've been a pretty quick and easy build. With the zimm' and one or two balls-ups, it's wound up being a bit of a marathon. But it's a nice model, and I'd heartily recommend it as a base-kit, for wargamers in particular. Is solid, looks great, and is fun to build.

With the kit more or less completely assembled, you can see where I've removed parts of the mudguards. With just a small missing segment near the front on the  left, and a larger central section on the right. I also added some battle damage, in the form of two shell penetrations, and some dings on the left 'fender'.

King Tiger, sho' has a big butt!

Here's the larger gap on the right side.

Still need to zimmy up the machine gun bulge.

At this point I added one or two tools, to replace those I'd removed before adding zimmerit to the hull. I chose not to use all the spare track on the turret, as I didn't want to cover up all the zimm', or for that matter, the camo'  (when I get round to it). And then it was undercoat time. I noted only afterwards that I still need to zimm the mg!

Basic build and undercoat done.

Note added tools.

What a handsome beast!

Lean? Hmmm... not sure. Mean? Most definitely.

A nice ground level view.

Next step? Paint the beast.

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* American spelling, I'm guessing. But then they have '501st SS Schwere Paner Abteilung'! So maybe it is just a typo?

Kit Build/Review: Zvezda 1/72 King Tiger, Ausf. B

Enthused for all things Tiger Tank, by a combo of Bovington, and the book I just read/reviewed, I decided to make a start on my Zvezda snap-fit 1/72 King Tiger, Ausf. B. 

I want this tank to have zimmerit, as I'm modelling it on the King Tiger in the Bovington Tiger Collection. So I've gone and done what I did with the Fujimi Elefant I built ages ago, which is to use a very thin layer of white Milliput and the tip of a tiny flathead screwdriver, to mimic the anti-magnetic mine paste. And boy, is it hard work!

As you can see, no zimmerit on the Zvezda kit.

My DIY white Milliput zimmerit, on the appropriate surfaces.

I cleaned up the zimmerit, removing it from areas where it wouldn't be applied, and opening up various holes that the snap-fit kit requires. Now I'll have to exercise some restraint, and let the Milliput harden overnight.
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The next day...

More snooker on TV, and more modelmaking on the sofa. Not the best for posture or lighting. And easy to lose bits of kit down the sofa! Still, fun stuff! Further work in the King Tiger finds me guiding the turret to near completion, and getting the running gear in place.

Prepping parts for turret assembly.

Components ready for the rear of the tank.

The snap-fit wheels and tracks are very interesting. Well designed, overall, but still awkward to install, and requiring trimming. At least that's what I've found. I do this modelling lark for fun. And yet sometimes, as when I was putting the tracks together, I began to wonder if it wasn't actually a form of masochism!?

Very interesting snap-fit wheels and tracks.

Getting the running-gear ready to put in place.

I decided to put all the spare track on the turret. I did consider leaving some off, and making it more like the Bovington King Tiger. But after the hard work on the running gears, I just wanted to take it easy. The barrel is nice and cleanly moulded. I drilled out the muzzle brake. And at close of play, it's a kit of three main parts: upper hall, lower hull, and turret. And then there's a load of stuff to put on the vehicle. The fully in-the-round sculpted tools, etc, look fab.

Next step in turret assemblage.

The basic core elements: lower hull, upper hull, and turret.

State of the model at close of play.

I put the three major elements together. But they remain unglued. It's just nice to see the vehicle taking shape. Tomorrow I'll add the remainder of the parts. Then I'll undercoat it in Halfords grey, and perhaps even get a base coat of dunkelgelb on.

All the various doodads that go on the body.

Assembled and primed.

And the other side.

Some hours and a couple of Columbo episodes later, and I've also dunkelgelbed several models: two Elefant, the Radschlepper Ost, and the King Tiger. My aerosol of Tamiya dark yellow ran out, in fact. But I think I got everything adequately covered.

The colour looks a bit weird under the side lights.

Sort of lemony-green!?

Still, looking pretty good. 

Rear-view.

The King Tiger joins the ranks of ranks and other vehicles awaiting painting and decals. I think I might actually bite the bullet and try and do some painting tomorrow. It'd be nice to finish a couple of these recent builds.

1/72 WWII - Italeri King Tiger

I built the Italeri 1/72 King Tiger over the last day or two. It was a simple and enjoyable build, by and large. The first few pics just show the usual 'what's in the box?' stuff.

You get two sets of tracks, as pictured above: a link-and-length set, and some of the old rubber band jobbies. The only really tricky part of the build was the tracks, as we'll see below.

The rubber band tracks are, as can be seen, oversized. So, I thought I'd do the link and length ones...

Hmmmm!? So, I made a right mess of these, and in addition to that... they're too short!

 So... back to the rubber band tracks.

The two driver type figures are identical, and are fixed to the little bracket type parts you can see pictured above.

I decided to go with just the driver, and leave the other hatch closed. The machine gun is in position. It can be built in movable mode, but I decided to glue it securely. The MG includes inner hull detail of the stock/handle that won't be seen when built.

Building the turret. I opted to use the commander figure. I might want to modify his right arm: the left one sits atop the hatch, the right kind of floats above... nowt.

The completed kit. I've chosen to paint the whole thing post-assembly.

I thought about replacing the rubber-band tracks with the link-and-length ones, as it turns out that with the mudguards in place you can't see the upper part of the tracks, so a gap in them wouldn't really matter.

 I like the above view: the two figures look good, and the vehicle itself has a commanding presence.

At the top is my first model, the Airfix 1/76 Panther, and another early model, a Kettenkrad from a set of WWII light vehicles by Academy. The unfinished Brummbar and the King Tiger being my most recent builds.

This King Tiger was a fun straightforward build. Admittedly the tracks aren't great. There is also a slight anomaly, in that the figures included are not referred to at all in the instructions. Another notable thing is the difficulty of separating some of the parts, e.g. the tow cables, from the sprues without damaging them.

But, all things considered, this was a simple and fun build, and that's got to be good!

UPDATE:

Since first posting this build I did a bit of surgery on the commander's arm, as it was floating in mid-air (see directly below). And then I undercoated in black. So this King Tiger joins the growing ranks o' tanks awaiting the arrival of a decent airbrush.