Achtung!
Status: New built
Date: 20-May-2012
Comments: 6
This is the spectacular Full Option King Tiger. I have always been fascinated by Tamiya's tanks and as a bit of a WWII history nut it seemed too interesting a project not to do. If I knew how much I would end up spending and how many hours I would end up investing in it, I probably would not have ever started!
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 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. 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 Aber and the Schumo Kits detailing set and real steel towing cables give extra depth to the mode, as do the numerous butterfly bolts which adorn the cable racks. I used overscale bolts in the skirt hangers because the scale ones looked too puny.
The body was liberally covered in Mr. Surfacer 500 and then sanded to give the flanks that rolled-steel look and the weld seems were replicated with putty,
I painted it in the classic 'ambush' scheme. This really was a labour of love and it has about 6 or seven coats of oxide coloured primer and then 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.
Th metal lower hull was heavily weathered with oils to give it a deep but varied shadow. The steel wheels were weathered with 3 different shades of oil and the rims were painted with graphite and the edges were scraped with wire wool to revealt the steel below. The tracks received numerous washes of browns blacks and rust to give them a gently lived-in look. I figure they will weather naturally in use.
Finally the upper body was all gently weathered with some oils and pigments to try to really pick out the texture and to give the paint some variation, but I tried not to go overboard.
I hope you like it. Thanks for looking.










Comments
Wyoming
Cool tank. Liking the upgrades! I never run my old KT cause it breaks down every run at some point after 19 years I have it. Those upgrades look pretty useful
Hamster
Wow, looks fantastic, love the detail you have put into the welds and plating
pininy
spectacular!!! very nice! clean! always like a tiger without it's skirts...lol
MadInventor
Looks awesome. How did you apply the dots for the ambush scheme ? I did mine with an airbrush and they came out massive. Have a look at my super heavy king tiger build on the scale armour section of the forum. I cheated to get the rolled steel look and the welds right by using rolled steel welded together
. How about some 'action' shots of it running ? PS, I see you sprayed yours with the speaker box fitted as well
Tamiya should really mention in the instructions it's a good idea to put a piece of newspaper or something over it before painting the shell.......
njmlondon
Thanks for the feedback! The upgrades do seem to eliminate all of the weaknesses from this old design, so if you have a KT it is well worth installing them. As for the ambush spots, I hand painted them with a decent small brush. I have admired your real steel KT Madinventor... now that really is heavy metal!
Tamiyamandan
WOW....FANTASTIC ....Looks really nice and very realistic !!!!
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