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Recycling Your Old Kits

I used a gun and mantlet from an 60's Tamiya Kingtiger. The mantlet has to be corrected a bit to look more realistic. I wrapped a piece of paper tissue around the muzzle brake to hide it.

I super-glued the Kirin hull and rear armor together and started test-fitting it with the Tamiya hull. The wide was OK, but then...

I spent a total of two evenings fiddling around and trying to find out why those halves do not fit together smoothly. I then realized that the angles of the 2 kits are different. The Tamiya 80's version is using steeper angles than the 90ies version. As there are no hull sponsons to indicate the correct fit of the upper hull it is difficult to focus on something to get the right fit. I did not dare to add some sponsons as I was not sure at which level of the lower hull they should be glued on. I therefore installed the complete running gear and then started trying how the hull is fixed best in a horizontal stage...

After a long time of try and error I decided to cut out the front armor of the lower hull and about 4mm from the front floor. I fiddled along with the zimmeritted Kirin part of the frontal armor until it snuggled together with the front armor of the upper hull smoothly and the whole upper hull rested 100% horizontally on the lower hull. I used a water-level to be absolutely correct.

Once the glue is dry it is time to correct angles. The side armor has an overhang at the front and back and is housing the eyes for the towing hooks. The angles of these overhangs have to be corrected to become parallel front/back armor plates: As the overhangs are too thin I thickened them up with plasticcard to look more realistic. I also recreated the area around the front towing eyes as Tamiya's reproduction has nothing in common with the real thing. I also detailed the transmission bow guards to get closer to reality.