A fresh coat of paint for my old, somewhat battered, King Tiger

[Fuijo 943]

I've had this model for more than 20 years now. I originally gave it what I thought was a brave, but rather unrefined winter paint job. It looked okay I guess, but I've never been all that happy with the result.

The rust was applied in an unconvincing way and in an unconvincing colour, the whitewash was applied too heavily, and somehow the surface where the fenders used to be had gone rusty while managing to stay free of the whitewash. None of which really made much sense.

But it looked okay when bashing it around in the snow, so it was still fun at the time. But the wear and tear had taken its toll, and it has ended up being pretty much abandoned back in its box as it was in no way fit for display.

 

So wanting a big summer project, and with nothing really to lose except the cost of paint and thinner, I decided to go for it.

It's now (sort of) finished. By that I mean that I've been working on it probably about every other day for around four months and I've had enough for a bit. I need a break. I thought I'd share some pics of its journey from forgotten old wreck to shelf queen.

 

How it looked before I started. That is, quite a while before I started. It looked worse than this but I don't have more recent pics.

 

Testing the Tamiya paint stripper in a discreet area. Like you do....

 

Lots of upgrade parts were originally fitted.

 

 

Tamiya red oxide fine surface primer.

 

XF-60 Dark Yellow base coat on.

 

I thought the Blu-Tack part would be fun. It wasn't.

I rolled a cocktail stick over the edge to be painted to give a hard-edge to the camo as per the included painting guide for tank 204. Remembering which edge was the painting edge and which wasn't became progressively more confusing for my poor addled brian.

 

Using some cling film to save money on masking tape, and spraying on the XF-61 Dark Green.

I used a green watercolour pencil to mark where the brown would be, so that I could spray slightly past it in order for there to be no hard-edge underneath the brown.

 

I used White-Tack and tape to mask for the XF-64 Red Brown to make it visually less confusing. Stuff the expense. What price sanity?

 

After peeling off all the masking a sigh of relief. A few touch-ups aside it looks okay. Phew!

I added the spots with a brush, following the painting guide for where to put them (mostly).

 

Spraying with X-22 Clear for decals and a Mig Ammo pin wash for German Dark Yellow. Sprayed over the whole model as it darkens the colours.

 

I couldn't be bothered to strip the paint on the tracks, so I just sprayed a 50:50 Flat Black/Red Brown mix right over the top.

 

Then I sprayed a coat of XF-86 Flat Clear to take most of the shine off, and brush painted the tools. The single big cable I bought back in the day. It was too long, so I cut a section out and used tamiya Epoxy Putty to bodge it back together.

I scratch-built the smaller cable which turned out okay I think. And to date that's it for now. I need to do something different for a bit.

Yes I know the tracks need adjusting, but I refer you to the previous sentence.

 

It probably isn't entirely finished yet. So I wont update my showroom entry that has the old paintjob until it is. Link here if interested - https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=129044&id=46480

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at his face. It's that new tank smell.

 

 

[Grumpy pants 5543]

Impressive paint work 👏

[CoolHands 1001]

Love it. Looks superb now. This made me laugh:

2 hours ago, Fuijo said:

Remembering which edge was the painting edge and which wasn't became progressively more confusing for my poor addled brian.

I’ve occasionally wondered about a tank - have you taken to the woods or what when you e wanted to run it? Guessing quite slow so wondering otherwise where you would run it.

[Gebbly 815]

Relax lads. Looks like the Hun has delayed their offensive until after the winter!

 

Very nice job. I can understand being warn out and needing a break after all that work. The original had weathering work on it. Are there plans to weather this new paint job? If so it will be really interesting to keep following the progress.

[Fuijo 943]

@Grumpy pants Thanks!

@CoolHands Heh! Thanks. I really did find the camo a lot harder and more frustrating than I thought it would be.

I've run it at the local park, in the woods, in the back garden and in the house. It's quite fast as standard. A bit too fast actually for a realistic speed. I've geared it down quite a bit with a Wecohe gearbox mod for this reason and because with metal tracks

and wheels and all the other metal parts it is crazy heavy, so the extra torque helps.

The more modern tanks like the Leopard and Abrams are much faster, as you would expect. But all are significantly slower than a 380 motor car, so very little risk of crash damage. Which is good considering how long they take to build and paint. The cost in paint and thinner and other materials

for such a big model is easily enough for one of the higher spec TT-02 variants.

@Gebbly Thanks! I would like to add a bit of colour-graduation to break up the big slabs of colour a bit. Probably a Mig light rust wash faded in and out with thinner across the panels.

And a bit of light streaking with the same Mig wash for German Dark Yellow as the pin wash. But that will likely be all. The problem with realistic dust, dirt and mud is that it looks like dust, dirt and mud. So leaving it out on display might be harder to square with my wife.

 

 

[toyolien 6113]

My god, that is a fantastic paint job. I bet that took a lot of time and patience. Are you going to run it? I've always fancied a tank, but really have no idea where to start.

What's a good tank to "hop up"?

[Fuijo 943]

@toyolienThank you, it took a while yeah.

This is really the end of its running life. It's been used and abused over 20 years. I wanted it to look nice for the shelf.

I only have experience of this tank and the M4 Sherman 105mm Howitzer. The Sherman was left standard and has proved significantly more reliable, which might be because of my mods, or might because the Sherman kit makes a more reliable tank anyway.

So make of that what you will.

I have an unbuilt Centurion kit to do. Apparently these are well designed and mostly reliable. So I shall run that instead.

[toyolien 6113]

14 minutes ago, Fuijo said:

@toyolienThank you, it took a while yeah.

This is really the end of its running life. It's been used and abused over 20 years. I wanted it to look nice for the shelf.

I only have experience of this tank and the M4 Sherman 105mm Howitzer. The Sherman was left standard and has proved significantly more reliable, which might be because of my mods, or might because the Sherman kit makes a more reliable tank anyway.

So make of that what you will.

I have an unbuilt Centurion kit to do. Apparently these are well designed and mostly reliable. So I shall run that instead.

Thank you. Wouldn't mind seeing a build thread on the Centurion if you can spare the time to do a build?

[Fuijo 943]

On 10/29/2024 at 8:22 PM, toyolien said:

Wouldn't mind seeing a build thread on the Centurion if you can spare the time to do a build?

Honestly, a build thread is unlikely. I prefer to document my builds like I've done here.

[Tamiya Fan 1 421]

Great paint job!! Do you run stock plastic tracks on it? Mine would always break. Mine dosen't look as good as yours for sure. It will look good on the your shelf.

[Fuijo 943]

@Tamiya Fan 1 Thanks! No, it has metal tracks. Which are heavy, so require upgraded track-tensioners and drive-shaft support-bearings. That adds a lot of weight and the gearboxes start to struggle, which means it needs

gearing down more with different or modded gearboxes. And round and round we go. Open-wallet surgery.

 

[Fuijo 943]

@Tamiya Fan 1I actually should probably have given you a more serious answer than above.

People think tanks are go-anywhere, drive over everything vehicles. But really they aren't. Even full-size tanks generally stick to roads wherever possible.

 

When the tank turns, particularly with pivot-turns, the tracks are sliding sideways over the ground. This scoops up dirt, stones, or even snow which will sit on top of the lower edge of the track and then get carried

as if on a conveyor belt towards the idler. As the track rises up to meet the idler, most of the debris will fall away. But not always. Wet or damp dirt and snow may well not fall away and end up being wedged between the track and the idler.

 

In an ideal world when this happens, the track tensioner would slip until the stress is relieved. Easy fix, clean off the dirt and re-tension the track.

The standard Tamiya tracks being plastic also allow a small amount of stretch, so if the adjuster doesn't slip, it still might be just enough to get away with it.

 

Beyond that, a track link will snap. This is actually exactly what you want. There has to be a point of failure somewhere and this is where you want it, as it's the easiest and cheapest thing to fix.

Scroll up to the top of this thread and have a look at the pic of my road wheels stripped of paint. These wheels are solid aluminium billet. Yet I managed to buckle two of them, because with metal tracks that have no give in them,

heavy-duty adjusters that don't slip easily enough, and a much lower ratio gearbox fitted, the wheels became the first point of failure. Think about how much force was required for this to happen!

 

So yeah. If I could put back the clock, I'd have left this tank with standard running gear for actually running it and save all the metal parts for the shelf (the sag of metal tracks really does look good), and just

have kept plenty of spare track links in stock.

I have still seen spare links from time to time on Ebay. But maybe you could find someone like me a bit closer to home who has swapped out the standard tacks for metal ones and might be prepared to sell you their kit ones.

I would help you out with my kit tracks if you lived in Europe. Unfortunately sending stuff from here to the U.S is problematic at best.

 

In the meantime, it's probably best to avoid those pivot turns.

 

 

 

[Gebbly 815]

Thanks for that detailed explanation @Fuijo, after your previous post I was thinking I needed to investigate metal tracks and all that goes with it for when I get round to building my tank but after this last post I'm thinking maybe I'll go stock and see if I can scrounge up some spare tracks to store for repairs.

[njmlondon 640]

Wonderful work! 
I tackled a very similar build that took me several years to complete and remember how much time and effort went into it. I checked back to see it in my showroom and was gobsmacked to see I added it back in 2012. Where did those years go!?

I used some lovely Mig oils to gently weather mine.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=114383&id=396

Looking forward to seeing your evolution and some “action” shots would be great!

[Fuijo 943]

@njmlondon Thanks!

They do take a while don't they? Weathering it for me will take even longer. I have to be very cautious because I don't know what I'm doing and I love the way it looks now.

So I'll have to make and paint a test piece in the same camo to practise on first. That wont be quick to do. It'll have to be a large test piece too because my initial attempts are likely to be poor.

If by action shots you mean placing it outdoors, posing it for shots, then I can probably do that at some point. But I probably wont be running it again. Although I could paint up and fit the standard wheels and tracks I guess.

I can't really run it as it is at the moment because 2 wheels are a bit buckled and the track pins are fitted from the outside, which worked ok for its previous life, but now a track pin would have to stick out by only a little and it would rip the fenders right off.

I've seen your tank. It looks fantastic. Very nice work! 12 years ago? Yeah. One day you wake up, look in the mirror, and some old codger looks back at you. That's why we don't find scary movies scary anymore.

[njmlondon 640]

On 11/28/2024 at 10:09 AM, Gebbly said:

Thanks for that detailed explanation @Fuijo, after your previous post I was thinking I needed to investigate metal tracks and all that goes with it for when I get round to building my tank but after this last post I'm thinking maybe I'll go stock and see if I can scrounge up some spare tracks to store for repairs.

Metal tracks look pretty but the strain they put on gearboxes etc is crazy. I too would stick to stock.

Worth noting is the the Tamiya King Tiger is just like the real thing, pretty unreliable. 
 

If you want a Tank to run, the plain old Tiger, not the King, is perfect straight out of the box.