Well, I finally got around to taking some pictures and posting them. This is the Tamiya Königstiger Ardennes Front kit, my first armor kit ever. I used the Eduard PE set and metal gun barrel. The PE was a new challenge for me, but I’m very impressed by the level of detail you can achieve with this stuff, and I look forward to using more of it. I made plenty of mistakes while building this tank, but learned a lot of things that will make the next one better. I’m planning on painting this weekend, so hopefully will have some more pictures to share. Any comments on the build are appreciated, especially criticism that will help for my next build (Panzer III Ausf.J). I know there’s a lot of slop, but I had to work through this one without worrying too much about it, or I’d just stress myself out.
Aloha and many mahalos to the great folks here on FSM that have helped me out.
Thats looking very nice so far. I recently finished tamiyas other Henschel turreted KT, which i guess is the same kit but different markings.
I have been useing Eduard PE for a few years. However, i am starting to look more at useing Aber. Eduard is good, but some of the details are to flat. There are other PE sets out there which are better, as long as you are prepared to pay the extra for it. When i did my KT, i didn’t use the PE gun ring on the turret. I think the kit one is better as the PE is to thin. Just because its in the PE set, don’t feel you have to use it.
I assume thats the Jordi barrel you are useing. Are you going to fit the kit tracks or AM.
Bish is right about the PE sometimes being too flat. You have to decide aboutthe trade off but many time the kit part is better simply that it is 3 dimensional.
Looks like a good solid build so far. Don’t see a lot of the glop you refer to. Maybe a bit around the track hooks on the turret but you see that with the tracks in place… I also just finished this kit…so don’t worry about that. looks like it’s gonna turn out just fine.
For your first armor build, your King Tiger looks fantastic![tup] Don’t worry about the mistakes you make, it’s you first build, with more practice you’ll make less and less mistakes. I’ll certainly be looking forward to your next build, the Panzer III Ausf.J.[:)]
I’ll look into the Aber PE sets for a future build; when I bought the Eduard set, I didn’t realize that there were other companies selling PE upgrades. Bish, the gun barrel is the Eduard one, but for the Dragon King Tiger (a mistake on my part, but it fit fine). As far as the turret MG ring, I guess I just wanted to roll the PE one into shape and glue it to the cupola; it was good fun. I used a wine cork to get the right radius.
I guess the “glop” as you put it, Wingnut, is not too visible in the photos, but you’re right about the track hooks on the turret: I figured it wouldn’t be visible with the track links hanging there, so I didn’t try too hard to hide the glue marks.
Doog, my budget ran out before I could get any AM tracks, so I was planning on using the rubber-bands that came with the kit. After thinking about it though, I may put this aside and wait to get at least the Tamiya indy tracks before finishing the kit. It looks like it can get expensive buying tracks for every kit, so the next two I’m building have Dragon’s magic tracks; we’ll see how they go.
Thanks for the kind remarks mg.mikael, I’ll try to do a better job of taking pics while building the Panz. III so I can post some real WIP shots, rather than just a nearly completed model.
Thanks again for the comments fellas, it’s real nice to have a club to share these things with. My friends just don’t get it.
Judge You do have to be careful because it can get very expensive buying all the AM stuff for a certain kit. I recently boughta lot of AM stuff for quite a few kits, both armour and aircraft, only to find there is better out there. I had intended on getting metal tracks for every kit, but now i am only going to do it for kits with rubber band tracks. The dragon one i have look pretty good at a first glance. Just shop around and stick to your budget. I think its better to stick to OOB than settle for a poor AM set because you can’t aford the better stuff.
Yeah, my plan is to do the next two kits OOB. They’re both Dragon kits, the Panzer III I mentioned, and their Panther G. I think the magic tracks look pretty good, so I’m looking forward to getting them together to see how it goes. There’s definitely less PE to do than using the Eduard set on the King Tiger, so I suspect they will go considerably faster. I like your advice on using the box stock parts over AM stuff that isn’t what you want or is settling for less.
I’ve got to say I’m really impressed by the quality of the Dragon kits; the moldings are superb, definitely superior to the Tamiya kit in detail, and the Tamiya kit was quite good I thought.
