Hi All!

This is my entry for the MEOW campaign, a Revell King Tiger in 1/72 scale. It is my first small scale armor and I can say it is jolly good fun, except for its size (which I find disturbingly small, if a King Tiger is this small, what size can a willys jeep be???)

The King Tiger? I think there's no explanation needed, it is a King Tiger as we all know. Tiger's larger brother, eh?

The Revell Kit? Before I tried my luck, I heard nice things about Revell's 1/72 armor, so I decided to take a shot. The kit has surprising detail for its size. The plastic is somewhat softer and easy to shape and bend. The tracks are not vinyl, instead they are separate plastic pieces which I always prefer to vinyl. However I need to work out at the end point connections, my tracks are connected rather "sharp". There are no flashes visible in the sprues, everything is as it should be. Very easy to assemble, the wheels require some attention to fix properly, but other than that, piece of cake. A nice piece of cake.

This is the kit after the main assembly, prior to paint:




To show its huge(!) size, taking cover behind a Tamiya Extra Thin Cement:

After the assembly, I decided to paint the tank with the Gunze Panzer Color Set 2(standing in the background in the assembly pics). I first painted the tank with dark yellow and waited for a day for it to dry completely. Then I proceeded to paint the green and at that moment, trouble struck. I found out that my airbrush was squirting out paint even if I didn't pull back the trigger and the amount of paint was inconsistent, a huge blob one moment and no paint the next. By forcing my will and my airbrush, I still proceeded to paint the greens and then the German red brown. The end result is sloppier than I would like it to be, however I'll stick to it.

A day later after investigations could I find out that the "Resistance" in my house (my brother) dropped my airbrush and a whole new head assembly was needed for repairs. By then it was already too late for the dear King Tiger.

Anyway, yesterday I started detail painting with my hand brush and painted the tow cables and other stuff black. I am undecided about the tracks though, I sprayed some leftover RLM 66 in my airbrush on the tracks and it didn't look too bad. Should I stick to RLM 66 or cover the tracks with black anyway? The pieces of track on the turret will be painted with rust as well as the exhaust pipes.

Let's see what happens.

Here are the pics of the miniature cat:

I am very impressed by the quality of your paint job - I had to keep reminding myself it was 1/72 scale!

What pressure, airbrush did you use and how much did you think the paint to get such fine lines?


Sean

i would get some steel and do a light brush over on the machine gun, and cables. I think I would go over all your track pieces with a slightly darker than steel color, then go back and do a light brushover with regular steel. It really is a great job you have done made moreimpressive by the fact that your airbrush was severly damaged

The airbrush used was a Badger 100G with a cracked tip leaking paint(my brother dropped it), pressure was 1/2 bars. How I managed to paint even I do not know, I was so frustrated and mad at the airbrush being broken down I forced all my luck and will. If the airbrush did not squirt at times, the camo could be thinner and better shaped.

The cables and all the metallic things(shovels, MG, etc) on the tank will receive a final coat of buffing metallic paint (Humbrol No:27004 buffing gunmetal). Since buffing paints do not get well along with clear coats or weathering, I will have to apply them last. The black is a sort of "primer" for the buffing paint, since I need to brush it on(instead of airbrushing) some of it comes off when I'm trying to polish it. The black paint is to cover areas in case the buffing paint is peeled of (which is quite often as I discovered).

Hi Folks!

The construction of the King Tiger progressed last week. It was first coated with Gunze Clear, then the decals were applied. I say be careful on those Revell decals, they do come of the decalsheet pretty quick and if you are not looking they slip off to somewhere in the galaxy. However they are thinner than most decals (like Tamiya) I have used so far and with some aid from Microsol-Microset fellas it looks good. Then another coat of Gunze Clear followed.

After that, I made a mild wash with Burnt Umber to give some depth to the vehicle. Then I tried my hand with chipping, I used Humbrol No:67 Panzer Grey. I think the overall chipping is more fitting for a 1/35 scale King Tiger, but apologies it was my first chipping attempt. Seeing it went overscale I didn't push my luck. After that I made attempts to show leaks and stuff, but again 1/72 scale is hard to work on after 1/35, so I grew tired of trying and decided to try my luck on some other tank some other time.

Lastly, the tracks received some Humbrol No:29 Matt Earth and the tank received a lightly airbrushed Humbro No:63 Sand to make it look dusty. My plan here was to skip a final matt cote by appyling sand, however the tank still looks a little shiny, so my plan went overboard.

I thought I could finish it yesterday, however one of my molar teeth was broken so an emergency dentist visit prevented the model from finishing. I hope to finish it today and conclude my entry for MEOW.

other than the shinyness which you have addressed, JOB WELL DONE!!!! Hope the trip to the dentist wasn't too painfull. I think I hate that more than anything ele in the world.

Nice build - any chance of adding a small bit of wire for the headlight lead?

Well, considering this is my first 1/72 tank, I haven't had much sleep for a week or so and I am full of caffeine (up to 5 cups a day, so my hands are shaky) I'll pass the wiring for the headlight offer for this one.

However, I found out I really like the 1/72 scale AFV. I've acquired a Tiger, again from Revell and I will definitely try wiring the headlight for that, after I find time to get some proper rest.

Just now I'm about to apply the matt cote, if everything is OK I'll be done tomorrow with the pics.

Report to Headquarters--- Urgent---

It is done.

My KingTiger finally rolled out of my war factory, made a trip to the front and participated in some manevuers. So this is its current condition, a little beaten up by the conditions but ready for a fight.









We are awaiting further orders from head command as well as some gift for all our workers and engineers and supporting stuff at the war factory, who made this achievement possible.

Emroglan out...