chadwijm6

9 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

That camo scheme  looks  excellent  - really  authentic,  love  the ideas   you  mentioned  about figures  etc.

 

OC.

Thanks OC. I tried to vaguely follow the instructions but it's definitely more adlib than accurate. 

6 minutes ago, Baker said:

Brother Baker is little bit late, i think 🫣.

But is now following. 

Welcome!

The leather looks fantastic Rob. 

So the original colour I painted the wheels in I think was too light/pink. I've resprayed them in a darker red/brown, Vallejo Armour brown 71.041. 

Much better I think. And I carried on and did the rest of the camouflage. The green is Vallejo again, their medium olive green 71.092. Both paints were part of a German tank camouflage set that I bought. 

I've also been out to the local hobby craft store and bought some materials to have a go at my first diorama. I bought some foam, a picture frame to use as a base, Sculptamold, DAS clay, Woodland Scenics Conifers, Brambles and their static grass kit. Not exactly sure what theme I'll attempt yet but I'd like to have a go at making a brick wall and putting some grass down, so I guess there'll be those in it somewhere. I've also bought some tamiya German tank personnel figures that are arriving this week. 

So my first tank suddenly also becomes my first go at a diorama and a first attempt at painting figures as well. I blame the fact that I've been looking at the other excellent modellers on here for tempting me to believe I can do this. Anything better than rubbish and I'll be delighted! 

I'll follow along too please Rick. Interested to see what the mini art kit is like and your thoughts. They have a few models that have caught my eye but I've never tried one. 

In the meantime there's a couple of aircraft/modelling events coming up in the UK that I've bought tickets to go to.

First up is Model world live at the NEC in Birmingham. This has been set up by Pete Waterman, he's one of the producers behind Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley amongst many others from the 80's, and he's a keen model railway fan. The event has lots going on ... https://www.keymodelworld.com/modelworldlive

The next one is the Midlands air festival with the Red Arrows, hot air balloon displays, wing walking display, fly pasts from a Spitfire, Lancaster, Mustang etc. and large model aircraft too. 

https://www.midlandsairfestival.com

A bit more done today. Landing gear is on, rotors have been primed. Almost ready for his first coat of gloss. 

4 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Yeah, it's a very late war version, also see the other note right above the one you enclosed... The 9 tooth drive sprocket...

 

So, what this all means is, if you want to produce a historically accurate Tiger II of Panzer Abieltung, (battalion) 503 during the defense of Berlin in 1945, you need to make those changes with aftermarket products expressed in the note... Otherwise you will have a generic representative Pz.kfg IVB from 1945 on transport tracks...

 

For that transformation you will need a full set of combat pressed steel road wheels, a 9 toothed sprocket and workable combat tracks...

 

That's the Airfix 1/35th King Tiger.... ok...

 

Generic aftermarket, they don't make tracks and wheels specifically for the Airfix Kit...

 

So we go with...

Last production batch 18 tooth late type tracks...

https://quickwheelstore.com/1-35-quicktracks-t-35068-tracks-for-sd-kfz-182-tiger-ii-kgs-73-800-152-last-production-batch.html

9 tooth sprocket late pattern...

https://spruebrothers.com/trxtr35093-1-35-trex-disassembled-king-tiger-sprocket-9-teeth-late-type-pattern-2/

 

As far as the road wheels, in combat configuration she carried 40 of them {chuckle} the kit wheels are adequate just not enough of them....

 

There are other vendors and manufacturers out there those two links are just a sampling... And finding the road wheels in 1/35 is going to be a chore given all the 1/16th scale products out there...

 

Amazing information! Thank you.

I'm thinking it's going to be generic then. But I have another 5 Airfix Tanks, different models, I bought a bundle from them, so maybe I'll spend more on one of them. But for this one I'll just build it as it is. I'm expecting it to end up far from perfect as I want to try the weathering products I bought, which I imagine will be a learning process 

But thanks again for the information. Very much appreciated 👍🏻 

13 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Your talking road wheels correct? Yes they are transport tracks, just wide enough they would fit on the rail cars without overhanging the sides...

 

First thing the idler wheel on all versions was pressed steel, it's rolling surface would be bare shiny steel.... The road wheels could be either pressed steel, pressed steel with a rubber tyre, or cast steel with a rubber tyre...

 

The easiest way to tell is the presence of the tyre.... it would be square shouldered and not shiny, there would be a steel bead affixed to the rim of the wheel to hold it in place... So you would have the flat surface of the tyre, and a square shoulder on the steel rim of the wheel... Pressed steel wheels wouldn't have that rim bead and would be curved right to the rolling surface....

 

What you have are late version pressed steel road wheels, the surface would be bare worn steel, light metallic grey unpainted...

 

And that fits with your choice of late war yellow, red-brown and forest green camo.... Brother Baker will probably be able to pin it down even better...

 

Thanks @Egilman for the info. 

I'm a little confused though. This is what the scheme details say on the kit, I've highlighted the bit about the transport tracks. 

Nice couple of hours with the airbrush this morning before the family wakes up

My first attempt at freehand camouflage on the wheels. 

Tracks next. I'm sticking with the supplied set by Airfix but it seems that they are transport tracks in this kit. Maybe on a future one I'll try some after market metal variety but as this is my first I'll keep it OOB.

I'm thinking I'll paint them in a gunmetal grey and then probably dry brush a bit with aluminium for wear, there seems to be a lot of conjecture about this being right or wrong on the net, and then see if I can start to get some rust and mud on it.

Thanks for the comments and views so far.

I actually had a better experience with PE on the tank I'm building so maybe it's practice and, as Rob said, the right tools.

Stripes on now, needs a bit of fettling but I'm happy.

And found this feature on my phone that cuts out the main subject from the background.

Most of the build is done now so I've been priming. The PE parts supplied by Airfix went on well and so far the fit has been excellent. 

I'm really enjoying this build. Tanks are fun!

3 hours ago, Canute said:

Good luck with your maiden flight. The twist in the airframe is there to counter the torque of the motor and prop.

You're right Ken. I did it on purpose! 😀🙄

On 4/1/2024 at 10:31 PM, Darius359au said:

The liquid pigment work well same as the rust ones you've got - little hint to make life easier wet the area your working on with some odourless thinner or which ever thinner your useing to break the surface tension and makes it easier to get the pigment to go where you want.

Ive added some photos one's a T34/85 thats just dirty and the others an extremely weathered Panther G ,(T34 is 1/16 and the Panthers 1/35)

Richard

These are great, thanks.

I've made a bit more progress today, restarted the interior and then added a bit of detail. It really won't be seen but it feels wrong not to make some effort.

I've also started to paint the exterior underneath and behind the wheels. I'll do this in olive green on black primer so it's quite dark.

And unmasked.

There's a dark sea grey stripe to do between the grey and orange next but he's looking good.

The grey is on, but hidden at the moment, just trying to get the orange to right shade. I think I'm about there.

He's ready! 

Just need to find somewhere to fly him! And for it to stop raining!!

33 minutes ago, madtatt said:

Thank you, James.
Unfortunately I couldn't take part because my wife was ill and had to have an operation that weekend. 

I'm sorry to hear that. Hope she recovers fully. 

Incredible! I just found this build and I'm blown away by it.

I'm curious, how did you get on at the show you were hoping to display it at?

I'm in too

While I'm waiting for paint to dry on my Sea King I thought I might have a go at my first tank. This will be a project to try and improve my weathering, so I intend to make this very worn and weathered.

I've bought some pigments, liquid ones from AK. And some German to i8tank colours from Vallejo.

The tank itself is a King Tiger, one of 6 I bought in a mystery Tank bundle. 

I've been doing a bit of research and it seems that the interior was generally an ivory colour. I'll likely take my own approach to detailing the guns etc. Black and white photos are hard to interpret for colours! That said I've found a couple of photos that I'll use for reference.

I've also found a video on YouTube that looks useful for the techniques to apply the camouflage.

I've done a bit of building so far and had a go with the pigments in the inside of the turret, where they won't be seen. I think I should have glossed it first.

That is a beautiful aeroplane. Very cool, well done Craig.

I think he looks cool in black

New office/workshop looks great. I have a similar setup.

And the build is looking really impressive 👍🏻

3 hours ago, davec said:

James - I think your work looks great, and the photoetch you have used, especially the instruments, really add to the model.  I also agree with CDW that a lot of the  photoetch in the sets isn't very helpful.  Some of the prepainted instruments are way better than paint and decal and some of the  folded metal looks way better than thick molded plastic.  Some definitely doesn't.  Picking and choosing which to use definitely makes sense.  I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the model come together.

4 hours ago, CDW said:

Turning out to be a very impressive model. I like Airfix kits, particularly the newer releases.

I agree with you, James, about photo etch to a certain extent. There are times when it's helpful and adds detail not available with the kit parts, but more often than not, I end up not using much of the set parts because they specifically do not add detail or realism to the kit. It's as if the parts are there simply as a "parts count", to make it appear the set is a bigger value for the money spent than it actually is. Many partially used photo etch sets sit idly in my spares box. I do admit however, sometimes the parts became useful in some other build the set was never intended for. For the most part, I try to stay away from buying photo etch sets unless I think it's something too important to pass up. Most of the time, it's not.

I agree with you both on this. The instrument panel I've had from Eduard for this and the spitfire have been worth it for sure, excellent detail that I'm sure I couldn't have achieved with decals. But looking at this kit and then looking at the PE, Airfix have added so much detail that I'm not sure it's worth it. But on some kits I'm sure it i would be. I think I'll just be selective in future

And thanks for the nice comments.