After many, many, many hours of research, construction, and painting, the final paint coat is on my Königstiger... still needs to be weathered and decaled though.





This is basically a straight-out-of-the-box 1/35 Tamiya kit that I plan on incorporating into a diorama... eventually... no decals yet, I'm seeing if I can find some better ones than the box version, and no Zimmeritt, since i read somewhere that they stopped applying it after a certain point when it was purported to catch fire. Saved me a bit of work too =)

The stock crewman will be replaced with "German Tank Crew At Rest" (also by Tamiya), and I figured I'd include some brass '88 shells and casings from an old Flak project in the final version.

This is my first armor model (usually do aircraft), so the whole 'weathering' thing is somewhat out-of-practice for me. Any tips you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Handsome Konigtiger you got there. A note is that only 2 or 3 Porsche Konigtiger is without Zimmer, so you maybe want to do some more research to find out which one doesn;t carry the Zimmer.

But very nice Camo work you got there.

I am hardly a German tank builder, but that is one nice looking kit.
Well done

It's a handsome beast. Here are a few points I picked out. It may just be that I can't see the model very well, I have a small screen, but I thought I caught a hint of unpainted plastic down the inside of the muzzle. This would have been black if the gun had been fired lately, and the outside of the muzzle would have been coated in black powder residue. A good way to replicate this is with black pastel chalk. If the gun has not been fired recently, the barrel would be a gunmetal color and the paint on the muzzle would be slightly darker than the rest of the paint.

The edges of the road wheels were steel so they would be a bright shiny metal color, or coated in bright orange rust depending on the last time driven. The tracks would be dark brown rust overall with shiny metal on wear areas or bright orange rust on the wear areas, depending on how long it has been since being driven. Bright orange rust can develop in less than a day if not worn off.

The ring on which the machine gun sits would also have the paint worn off by swinging the gun around, so it would also be a shiny metal.

You might want to figure out if it has been raining in your diorama any time recently. If it has the tank would be coated in mud with liberal amounts throughout the running gear. If it hasn't, the tank would have some dust on it, also depending on usage. A long hard ride down a dirt road would coat it in a thick layer of dust, which would be blown or worn off if the tank has sat for a while. Either way, there should be some remnants of dried mud on the lower hull and on the road wheels.

There will be a few spots where the crew normally moves over the vehicle, so hard edges will be worn in varying degrees through the primer and possibly down to metal. Again, judgement should be used to denote either metal or rust. Also, flat paint has a tendency to get compressed when rubbed on, so where the crew walks, take a pencil eraser and rub in a few spots to simulate this.

And finally, metal rusts, so all the little fittings all over the tank would be prime targets to show a little rust on. These would be perfectly shown with rust colored pastel chalks, as these should be more subtle. Not all would be rusted, and all would show varying degrees of rust. Also, rain and gravity would cause the rust to drain down the vertical surfaces of the vehicle, so use subtle streaking down from the fittings you choos the rust.

Your Konigstiger is looking pretty good and has the makings of a well done kit.

Rob

thank you very much, i hadn't noticed that!

armed with those tips, perhaps you can help me a bit more... how do you suggest i make the bare metal show? I know you can use steel or aluminum tint paint (like the metallizers) but is there a specific color or brand you'd reccommend for the metal and/or rust?

pastel chalk.. available at a local art store?

To make metal show, just use a pencil and rub in the desired areas.
I build mostly German armour and I can honestly say that you have a nice looking camo scheme.
Follow the other guys tips and it should turn out well.

Andrew

You can use a #2 pencil. I shave the lead into a small heap and with my finger apply it to surfaces I want to 'shine' up. This can include flat surfaces of the hull and turret that would be walked on. Also, after dry brushing the muzzle brake with charcoal black, go over it with the lead powder (not too much) it will highlight the brake.

On roadwheels, inside the muzzle brake I use the lead pencil and go around the surface to be shined. Once the lead is on you can use your finger to even out the lead and shine up the surface.

Have fun.

Nice looking kingtiger you have there ...the only thing that I can really say is that you will probably have to zimmerit her up if you want it to be really realistic ..Ther were only 3 of the porshe turreted tigers and these were the prototype vehicles which had many differences compared to the production vehicles...1) they had tiger 1 type exhausts 2) front fenders like the tiger 1 3)had binocular siting instead of the single monocular site in the front of the turret for siting and4)had an eighteen toothed sprocket and different tracks for the prototypes. This doesn't mean your kit isn't nice I love the camo and with a bit of weathering will look really nice .If authenticity isn't a big concern then I can say it looks like a porshe tiger and that is what counts..Keep up the good work. I wish my first armor kit had looked anything like that.

Richard

Pencils work well, but in this case, you won't be able to get a pencil in there. Whatever paint you use, it should bevery blue, but not as dark a blue as "gunmetal" paint. Try steel with a little blue mixed in.

Rob

First of all...that's a gorgeous camo job ! Since you've done aircraft, you're probably familiar with using washes for your panel lines. You can use the same technique on armor with great results using artist's oil paints in burnt sienna/black mixture.....the burnt sienna really compliments the dark yellow base of three-tone german armor. Make sure you've clearcoated the model first so you don't destroy the camo. Then you can drybrush with yellow ochre/white/prussian blue (just the tiniest of tiny bits of blue...it's extremely strong) lightening the color with more white as you work. I drybrush over camo and all...but a little lighter over the darker colors...this helps to unite the different colors. The pastel chalks can work wonders as well...for streaked stains, exhaust soot, gunpowder soot, extra shadowing in corners, and dirt stains etc...
Most important, don't be afraid to experiment with weathering techniques, and remember too little is better than too much.
Greg

Sorry, Kaiser, I missed the question about the pastel chalk. It's available through any hobby store, and I even saw some at walmart, but make sure you get the regular pastel chalk and not oil pastels. What you want to do is take the edge of your x-acto and scrape a layer off, like you would do to scrape the mold line off a part. This will result in a fine powder that is perfect for applying a lot of subtle detail. Others use sand paper to sand a little off. The set I bought had a number of brown orange (sienna and burnt sienna) colors, which will produce varying shades of rust. Old rust is a dark dark brown, while new rust is a bright orange. Black is good for replicating muzzle blast and especially good for exhaust stains. I even got a couple colors that were close to Afrika Mustard which came in handy for weathering a whitewash on a Tiger I. The only thing I didn't get was green, I think some subtle grass stains would also be a good trick.

Now, there is some debate about sealing pastels with a clear flat coat. I don't do it because it messes up the subtleness, but then I can't touchit to much or I will rub the chalk off, so there are tradeoffs. There are a number of articles on Armorama and Missing Links about using pastels.

Another trick I thought of after I wrote the last post was to use heavier black washes to simulate grease stains around the wheel hubs. Don't overdo these though.

Rob