This is the spectacular Tamiya Full Option King Tiger.
Whilst the KT is great straight out of the box, I could not help myself and started upgrading it. This was a slippy slope! I kicked off by upgrading all the running parts so it is as good as it gets as a runner.
Up front are Impact all-metal gearboxes with upgraded motors enabling this heavy monster to easily handle 45 degree slopes.
The suspension was upgraded with more supple torsion bars and I spent far too much money buying Wecohe's all steel wheels which add a lot of weight. Finally I threw on some Impact metal tracks. The combination of the wheel weight and the supple suspension will really helps this glide over anything. At the rear I used the almost compulsory upgrade for the track tension adjustors.
I then moved on to the cosmetic upgrades and started by replacing almost all of the standard screws with hex-bolts which just seem more fitting for a beast like this.
I spent a lot of time trying to get the texture right, using Mr. Surfacer 500 and a lot of sanding to achieve the rolled-steel look and putty to create the weld seams.
Photo-etch meshes from Wecohe and the Schumo Kits detailing set and real steel towing cables give extra depth to the model.
I painted it in the classic 'ambush' scheme. This really was a labour of love and it has about 12 coats of paint on there! It was my first time out with an airbrush and I was delighted with how easy it actually was to create a realistic finish. I used the miraculous Silly Putty to mask of the complex camo and then just hand-painted the millions of small dots.
Finally it was all gently weathered with some oils and pigments to try to really pick out the texture and to give the paint some variation.
The steel tracks were washed in a variety of oils but I held back on over-rusting them.
There is no radio fitted yet and I also need to fit the machine gun and finally fit the turret rotation motor which I always do last after painting.
I hope you like it. Thanks for looking.
