War Of Art
 - E v o l u t i o n s -
Tamiya 1/16 King Tiger F.O.K.
The Beginning

I was always fascinated of large vehicles especially trucks and excavators so I always wanted the King Hauler Semi Tamiya sold but for a kid like I was it was a too expensive model to that time and I stopped to think about the idea to get the King Hauler

Half a decade later after a serious time of playing Battlefield 1942 a similar fascination related to tanks grew and there was that memory telling me Tamiya also sold Tanks to that time.

So I went to Tamiya's website and found 4 Full Option Kits of 2 German and 2 American Tanks from WWII, decision was not that easy but after some investigations in RC-Tank related forums my choice fell to the King Tiger #56018.
( okay, he's also the largest and most impressive of the available tanks, a real King ;} )

Since we all know Switzerland is expensive with quite everything and I'm still not a rich man I had to find a shop somewhere else. Thanks to a friend I found a shop overseas that sold the model ‘For an apple and an egg'.
( saved about 700.00USD compared to the local prices )
  A week later a 5kg package from eTamiya.com covered with post stamps all over stood in my house telling me I gotta take some serious spare time for this one ;)
The Plans
Okay... Before we start with the Diary here are some informations on the plans i had with the Model.

This was my 7th model, the 3rd in the last 8 years and it's the best painted one.
( I'm not going to loose a damn word about the paintjob of my first 4 models... )

Here's the Plan:
- A propper paintjob.
- Selfmade Zimmerit.
- Changed suspension.
- Changed idler drum.
- 2 akkus in the chassi.
- Do some modding on the electronics for better
- maintainance and charger handling.
- Moving the On/Off switch to a better location.
- MOD the gearboxes to be more stable.
- Give some details like real towing cables.
- Change the plastic tracks to metal ones.		 Kinda selfexplaining why, hmm?
The sticky foil with the model look unnatural.
Tamiya's one is too stiff.
Tamiya's one is useless like it's ment to be used.
More power is more fun ( until it comes to the charging )
I t just plain sucks to open everything just for charging.

I wonder what they thought when putting it under the turret.
I heard they're fragile
Makes the tank unique when battling with others.
Nothing beats real metal tank tracks.
Done
Done
Done
Done
Future
Future

Done
Future
Future
Done
The First Hours
 

Picture 2 & 3 show the outer and inner sides of the package with partly transparent areas granting visual access to major parts of the tank like metal sprocket wheels, drilled aluminum barrel, DMD T-03 and MF-01 Control Units and the speaker which generates the recorded sounds from the last working King Tiger stationed in the Tank Museum in French Samur.

On 4, 5 & 6 you'll see all the parts laid out on our dining table which has been covered like this for quite some time caused by the lack of workspace for a project like this in my own room.
 
The First Impression
 

Even knowing i had to dissemble the tank again when the new suspension and metal 'Vorgelege' arrive I couldn't resist to loosely build him up to see what I can expect when he's finished.

The more I completed him the more impressed I got from the huge size of this model, some numbers:
L: 64cm, W: 23cm, H: 20cm & 4.5kg. IM-PRES-SIVE! © Quake3Arena

  
The First Custom Parts
With the custom torsion suspension arrived and the tank disembled i took the chance to apply the metal primer to the metal parts which has to be done so the color won't come of.

One wheel is made of 8 parts and 3 screws holding them all together, pretty nasty work to assemble AND disemble 18 pieces of them. ( that makes almost 200 pieces for 18 wheels! ) 		 

Picture 10 shows the custom torsion bar suspension I bought from WeCohe.de. I think they're worth every cent and give the tank a big plus to realism, though I memorized another, much lower, price than the current one. Oh well...

Btw. the plates to the left are the old suspension pars, quite a difference compared to the new ones to the right huh?

  

The last picture in this section shows a close-up to the installed metal 'Vorgelege' which, in reality, houses a planetary gear giving more torque and the possibility to move the gearbox and steering system a little more into the tank.

Below the hull with the installed metal Vorgelege yo'll see the original plastic ones shipped.

  
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
 

During the buildup process I thought the hull sounded and felt a little weird for such a monster of a model so went into a shop specialized in scale modeling and bought some T-shaped brass bars and glued them into the hull of the turret and the upper section of the chassis. Later, I also filled the gaps between the bars with bitumen heavy layer-mattes usually used for PC Cases.

Little sidenote:
Had alot of fun with the "Special" super-glue... The salesclerk told me to be cautious but it went something like in and out of my ears in a blink of an eye. One of the profiles slipped my fingers when i was about to place it along a premarked line and landed about a 1mm next to it. I wanted to correct it but after just 2-3 seconds it was like welded into the plastic. No chance to remove it anymore.

To make sure my fingers wont be the next victims to the super-glue i got myself a pair of tweezers. Using a scalpel to cut of the skin was an absolute no-no!

Back to topic:
To that time I waited for another delivery of custom parts like a photo etched grills-set, metal track spares turret hooks, a metal tow shackle set, a metal handholds sets, a steel antenna and some screws. Feel free to visit Axel's Modelbau Shop for more Scale model upgrades and add-ons.

Until the package arrived I did the plans for the color scheme of the tank which ende in the grayish-blue urban camouflage pattern of the final model.

That's Just The Primer...
Because i still had to wait for the delivery from Axel i couldn't apply the Tamiya surface primer to the outsides of the turret and upper hull of the chassis but that was just a small problem.

For this sprayjob i used 3 primer spraycans and something told me i need more colors for the tank than i bought to that time, i was damn right. 		   
 

Finally we got the parts from Axels Modellbau Shop and i have to say they're just great!

The metal track spare turret hooks needed a hole for each part of the set ( 16 hooks & 8 holders ) which wouldn't have been a problem with a larger needle and a candle but because i already glued the brass profiles into the turret some of them overlapped the holes for the turret hooks i had to get a small driller set for the Dremel to make holes through the profiles.

I also applied the brass handlebars to all the hatches ( 3 on the turret, 3 on upper hull ) which, in the end, could also have been made with a thicker Electro cable.

At this point i wanted to start making weldmarks to get the hang out of the Putty which i also used for the Zimmerit coating, Tamiya offers a tool for this but only for the smaller 1:35 models so i used a comb i cut into different sizes and it worked pretty well ( at least I think it did ;D ).

I also made the radio operators hatch movable so i could have put some switches under it like one for on/off or lights, etc...

Last but not least there were the photoetched grills. They look great but i noticed there's some tension between them and the boltheads of the upper hull if you push em into theyr position.
 
 

These pictures were taken on Day 41 counting from the day i got the tank.

The Zimmerit is now on the model after alot of pain because of the little time it takes in drying.
( The next model is not going to be a German one, or at least none with Zimmerit ;D )

I got a little scared of the look at that time and really hoped it would look better after the coloring or at least after priming it which still had to be done because of the parts not covered with Putty.

The idea with the comb wasn't that bad but like i already mentioned the Putty dried really fast on the comb and every few seconds i had to clean it before i could continue...

Really a messy work but i think it looks more like the real Zimmerit than the one Tamiya shipps with the model.

  
 
   

The model is now completely covered with Primer and ready for airbrushing and weathering.

That was the time to think about an interesting camouflage pattern and color scheme but more on this a little later...

The tracks were one of the more time-consuming parts of the tank and I almost finished myself with them. Took me about a day to complete them starting with priming and the basecoat mixed with XF-1, XF-25, XF-40 and XF-57 to get a grey brownish base, continued with the hand painted rust done only with red pastel chalk and X-20A Thinner and later followed with sand effects done with yellow pastel chalk poured over the tracks using a Dremel and then fixed with lots of matt lacquer.

The areas usually coming in contact with the ground and the wheels have been brushed with a brush and the color of a silver marker. ( dip the brush on the marker and then brush on the model otherwise you'll get completely covered areas which don't look that great )

I think it looks quite good for a first attempt ;D

( P.S.: Later I found out German WWII tank tracks didn't rust like those from the US or Soviets, etc... because of a special alloy. They don't even rust in today's museums so all the work was kinda useless ;D )

 
  The colors for the hull are fantasy and have never been used in combination with the line pattern i used. First i started with Tamiya XF-63 ( German grey ) followed by XF-66 ( Light grey ) as the 2 major colors and then XF-2 ( White ) as a seperator between them.

This is also a good point to mention always to look if the color u buy really IS the one u want before u apply it to the model. I accidently used X-2 ( glossy white ) instead of XF-2 ( flat white ) which gave me some brainstorms until i found out what was wrong. ( *sigh* )
We are now at the 39km mark of this Marathon project.

The last shade of grey ( XF-66 ) has dried and the scotch tape to cover areas from beein painted has been removed with almost no problems ( a little bit of color peeled of from the gunbarrel but nothing to get mad about ).

After some time to dry i started to paint the areas where Zimmerit has been destroyed/fallen off the tank with Tamiya X-10 ( Gun Metal ). Because of the lack of a professional Airbrush set ( and my lack of experience with standard set ) i had to go for the brush technic ( pretty lame ;D )

For the next model i think i'll spend some money for a professional airbrush set and a compressor, not the worst choice!
       

Washing a model is like salt in the soup, tires on a car, Microsoft vs. Linux, etc... and should always be done!

It's an easy step to make a decent model look great and more realistic!
( Oo-kay... you could also just drive your model through the wildernes and never clean it but i think that's not quite the right way. )

The washing has been done in with a solution of XF-1 ( Black ), XF-10 ( Brown ) and X-20A ( Thinner ) in a 1:1:10 ratio applied with a big soft brush and then rubbed away the excess with a soft swab with almost no force to prevent the paint coming of.

I started with the inside of the tires to get the feeling for it and because a KTiger has 18 of it i had lots of testing area ;}

Side note: Washing is a total mess and can ruin a fine model ( thats the risk ).

 
 
"We have liftoff!"

After 64 days of work the model is finished. Quite some time but i'm pleased with the result, my best looking model ( not like i have made alot in my life... ;D )
       
Recently i bought the metal tank tracks for the realism and they just look ( and sound! ) great!
The typical sound of metal on the ground is awesome and the added weight gives the tank a way much better appearance.
Something i would recomend to every RC Tank fan.

The only problem i had were the bent pins of the metal tracks, sometimes they prevented the track from running fluidly so i had to replace em with the ones from the original Tamiya tracks > i now own about 200 loose, rusty painted, plastic tracks.