The ventilation channels with flaps for the cooling air were glued together.
One coat of anti-rust paint was applied.
The parts were only put together without glueing.
This gives an impression of the beautiful detailing of the engine compartment.

Thank you, Claude. I assembled this kit only out of the box.
There are a lot of mistakes in detailing the interior. But that was not so important for me, because the model is on a diorama.

Back to the report:

The cardan shaft, the turret drive, various hydraulic components and the inside of the rear wall have been assembled.
Then the various components were painted first in black, then in stainless and last in red-brown .
With a sponge scratches on the paintwork were imitated.
This was done by dabbing of black and silver color.
After that followed a treatment with pigments.
Also, these modules had not been permanently installed.

Since the last publication I've done the following work:
- All currently finished components were fixed.
- The inside of the back wall was (2-part) glued into the hull.
-the torsion bars were fixed.
-The tracks (1 element with, 1 element without a guide tooth) were shortened.
- Hoses to the hydraulic pump on the tank bottom and the bulkhead to the engine room were fixed with superglue.
-The pigments have been reworked.

The rear plate was assembled and provided with Zimmerit (Magic sculp structured with a stamp) The same at the front of the turret.
The covers of the exhaust pipes were provided with a metal casting structure.
I created the structure with plastic glue, which I distributed on the surface, dabbed it with an old, hard brush to achieve the desired effect. The kit parts were too smooth.

Then the anti-rust paint coating for the rear wall, the turret front and the cover of the engine compartment and some flaps, hoods and sheets was painted on the parts.

Very top notch work and brilliant painting buddy!
J

The shells were separated from the sprues.
At least 72 pieces ..... monotonous work soon.
The water can inside was painted first in black, then dark yellow.
Paint damage was made with Mr. Metal Color iron black, painted with a fine brush and then polished with another, broader brush.

The fastening strap was made from a thin metal piece and glued. Overlapping side was provided with a buckle (rest of an edge part).
The strap was painted in brown the buckle in metal color.
Finally, a mild treatment with Mig pigments Europe Dust.

Here the pictures:







The shells were airbrushed with metal color gold once more and then polished.





Because of this photo.......





........I'd painted the shells in this way

the completion of the shells took an afternoon.
The bottoms of the shells was fitted with etched parts labeled with Sprgr AZ or Pzgr.
Since it is different grenades, I've painted the cartridges also different.
I do not know if this was so ..... evaluates it as artistic freedom.
The explosive grenade got an iron-black color and a white tip.
In recent days I have been busy with the ammo rack.
These consist of a total of about 90 parts.
I'd painted the parts black after the building of the racks (Metalcolor black).
Then the parts were polished.....this gave a beautiful metallic luster.
After drying, on each rack, a little water is applied and the part pressed into salt. Too much salt was removed carefully with a brush.
After drying, the racks were painted white.
Again to allow to dry.
The salt has been removed with a hard brush.
In this way I imitated damages of the color-
Then the racks were fixed.
After drying, some grenades were trapped in the racks, just to show the finished look.
Here are the pictures:

Then I began to build the turret.
The turret is made of two parts. For this reason the thickness of the armor is very realistic.
Both parts were assembled.
The fan, a few small parts and an periscope (Winkelspiegel in german, I don't no the meaning in english)
The interior of the cupola with seven periscopes and mechanism (attachment or flaps for closing ... no idea) was assembled and glued to the turret.
Then, the base of the turret was fixed with tape to the bottom of the turret, and so began the misery.
The sprocket (?) of the hull didn't match with the pendant at the turret.
With the alternative transparent hull of the kit exactly the same problem.
So I cut off the teeth of the sprocket and sanded the parts.

I was very angry about this and so I turned away from the tank and devoted myself to the figures at first.
Sorry....I was confusing the report.
I started with the making of the figures
At first I edit the resin figures in the fine weather in the garden with the Dremel.
A damn dusty affair.
Here the the 5 kits
From Verlinden:
Armoured Crewman with grenade kit S09
WW II German tank commander kit 966
SS Obersturmführer Russia 1944 Kit 1239
SS Infanteryman WW II Kit 0451
Legend:
"Halt" kit 1607



After removing of the casting residues the figures were assembled (except the weapons and other items that hinder the painting.
The parts were glued with cyanoacrylate ahesive.

Wow, keep it coming man, Frank this is awesome!

Cheers Dave

Thank you very much, Dave

A little confused, but I love the diversified.
In addition to the figures I have continued the building of the Köti (short form of Königstiger =kingtiger).
The commander's cupola was assembled and created a slight cast structure by carefully dabbing plastic glue with a hard brush.
In the same way I treated the fan openings of the engine covers.
The cover of the front machine gun (ball mount? In german Kugelblende) was fixed
Then I built the tailgate of the turret.
The parts of the tailgate are movable.
The gun mantlet was built to make the Zimmerit coating for the last parts.
With Magic Sculp and a Zimmerit stamp the parts (tailgate, ball mount and gun shield) were covered and structured.
After drying, the clay coated were airbrushed with "anti-rust paint".

Later I noticed a mistake:
The Zimmerit only covered in the reality the base of the gun shield and not whole part.

Then I continued the detailling of the interior.The commander's hatch locking mechanism, the loader's hatch with lock and gas cylinder (?) and various parts inside and out.
Here are the pictures:

I built the next part of the interior now.....the fighting compartment.
I like the detailing very well, so I would like to share the images, although still missing a lot of parts.

This is just incredible to watch!

Thank you very much for the comment.

Meanwhile, the fighting compartment was almost completed and fixed provisionally to the base of the turret with tapes

Also today, the half-figure of the commander has come .... extremely expensive, but "damned good."
The figure is from Scale Fanatic, design by Robert Döpp.
It is equipped with etched parts and perfectly cast from resin, packaged in a tin and costs € 36.95 € .... but awesome!!










Then I had assembled the gun.
The gun barrel was plugged in only and not glued.

Now the ammunition racks had to complete and than the painting of the assemblies.





















I've made a lot of photos for our scratch builders ;-)

Now, the two MGs were assembled.

These are also detailed extensive.





Since I am fascinated by the commander figure, I have published photos of the unpainted figure at his workplace.
Furthermore, I had placed the assemblies without glueing.













Greetings from Reutlingen

Frank (Lappes)

Meanwhile, all assemblies were completed and it was time to priming.
For this I took Mr Hobby Color Color iron-black and black-brown.
The turret interior, the ammunition rack, the gun, the MG's were treated.
Then the fighting compartment was airbrushed reddish brown.
The color was partial removed with a knife and a hard bristle brush to simulate scratches and scraped color.
The floor in front of their seats was shown particulary strained.
Then followed a treatment with Mig Europe Dust pigments.
Here are the pictures ..... a detailed painting followed later.















Today the turret interior, the gun and the ammunition racks were painted.
At first I dabbed mustard on the surfaces, which are painted in Mr. color black iron or dark brown. With this method I mask the ground color.
The parts were airbrushed with white color.
Then I removed the mustard with my "special tool".

The tool I made from a bristle brush . The wooden handle was removed. The metal was squeezed with a pliers.
With this tool I removed the mustard under pressure or by scratching.
In this way I imitated scratches and paintless.
The tip with the mustard is not from me. I read this in the context of a weathered winter camouflage in a forum. This is used for chipping, since mustard can apply controlled than salt and hairspray. The effect is the same.
The details still need to be painted.
Here are the pictures:











My "special tool"

Now followed a washing of the parts. This was done with thinned burnt umber.
Since the parts have not been previously treated with gloss clear coat, color excess and unwanted color collections had to be immediately removed with a brush or cloth to prevent edges or excessive darkening.
After the washing of the fighting compartment followed a drybrushing to highlight small details.
This was done with oil paint english red mixed with a little white.
After this pigments were added again , since some pigment were removed.

Now some little things were done.
The fighting compartment was glued to the bottom of the tower, the gun and the racks were fixed and the grenades were glued into the racks.
Furthermore, I painted the riflescope in black brown, then washing in black, then drybrush in silver.
The inside of the loader's hatch is still painted in dark yellow, since the inside folds outwards and therefore was not painted white.

I have assembled the turret top with the turret base now. Then the assembly of the aperture of the gun barrel and muzzle brake.
The visual effect is of course immensely.

Then I sprayed the interior of the upper hull with white color.
The engine compartment was left in anti-rust color.
I created the paint chippings with a sponge in black brown color.

Now, I fixed the upper hull to the bottom.
This was not easy.
There were many assemblies, which must be mounted perfect to ensure the correct fit of the upper hull.
The adhesives had to be set free from color.
Both adhesives, upper hull and bottom, were applied with glue.
The parts wwere pressed together and fixed with many tapes.
I'll probably leave at least 24 hours.

Now, I painted the wheels.
The wheels had received a painting with Mr. Metal Color iron black at first.
After that a treating with mustard on each wheel to mask the wheels partial.
Then followed a painting in Hobby Color green-brown (more a brown yellow similar to the Africa Brown from Revell).
Finally, a layer Hobby Color dark yellow.
Then I scraped and brushed away the mustard.

As the wheels were completed, I fixed the rear plate.
The fit wasn't good unfortunately and I had to fill this with putty.
Otherwise the hull was very solid after removing the tapes.
No creak and crack was to hear and the hull was very rigid.