King Tiger Help

SnakeEyes097

...my spray paint was flaking off easily...

Flaking paint indicates poor surface preparation -- quite possibly left over mold release agent..  Did you wash your parts prior to painting?

FWIW:  I prime resin and metal.  I do not prime plastic.

The time to really prime is when you have many multimedia items such as an aluminum barrel and PE parts. I wouldn't call it mandatory, but it will help adhere the paint better and make it more uniform a finish, but again I never really do it, except maybe the barrel.

I took a look at your photos I didn't see any real disasters there. A little sanding, some putty, fresh paint and you're back in business. Welcome to the world of armor modelling, you'll find it's pretty forgiving.

Relax and have fun.  That's what modeling is about.  Your skills will improve with experience.  Choosing a Tamiya kit to start was a good move.  I'd stay with them for a dozen kits or so.  Try their T-34s, they're a good, fast build.

Welcome!

Thanks for the kind words and advice, guys. It may be that I'm being too picky, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I have a few photos up now. I went out and got some Bondo Glazing & Spot Putty to fill in my gaps. I think my plan will be to finish the hull in two pieces, and the turret by itself, and I'll airbrush over the grey with the proper camouflage. This way it'll have that dark undercoat if I want to try and weather it later.

I thought you had to prime the pieces because like I said the Tamiya spray paint scratches off easily, but also because in a few magazine articles the builders always prime their tanks in the photos, although they seem to prime in red and all I have is grey. (FSM April 2012, pg 28-31 "Step-by-step desert weathering", FSM March 2012, pg 22-23 "Mastering late-war camo for a tank hunter", Military In-Scale Jan 2012, pg 16-20 "Isreal's Lion Cub, same issue, pg 22-29 "Snow Cat") Since those are literally the only three magazines I've acquired so far, but mostly because my spray paint was flaking off easily, I thought priming would be best. Then of course when I went to my model store, the guy there said priming is essential and sold me 2 cans of primer

I'll post more photos as I go. Thanks again everyone for your advice and encouragement!

I can't add much to what the other fellas have already said, but I would recommend that you don't get down because your first model didn't turn out very well. You'll find a ton of experienced modelers who make mistakes, mess things up and even once in a great while toss a kit. The main thing to keep in mind is try not to make the same mistakes on the next kit. As for me, my style of kit building is to build almost the complete model before I paint anything, unless I'm doing some interior detailing or the like. I don't always prime a model, but if I've used a lot of photo etch or resin I will just to have an even color base to work from. If you're going to use the kit's gun tube always glue it together and sand the seams before you paint. This is a great, but kind of expensive hobby, try to have some fun and keep that first build so you can compare it to the next and so on. You'll be surprised how quickly your skills improve.

Welcome Snakeyes. 

Exactly like Eric said. 

I use Bondo Glazing & Spot Putty to fill in seams.  You can find it easily at Canadian Tire and it's relatively inexpensive.  I'm almost exclusively using toothpicks to apply it.   Try to wet sand it if possible, the dust isn't good to breath. (or use a paper mask)

A visit to a beauty store's section (Shoppers Drug Mart, Zellers, Wal-Mart....) should give you a good choice of very good quality tweezers for around $10 that will last you a very long time......  I actually own more "Revlon" tweezers than my wife.    I prefer the "flat" type without seration to hold parts during sanding, gluing, ect... You can also find inexpensive nails shapping sanding sticks there.  I personnally like the ones with 4 different grits on them.

Hope it helps! 

Welcome Snakeyes.

I'm not sure where you heard that you have to prime it? I've never primed any kits that I can recall.

You are correct to assume that painted parts don't adhere well.

For the seam, you'll have to sand it down and putty over it and then re-paint.

For pictures go to www.photobucket.com and set up an account. It's very easy to load photos. Just click the bottom action with the [img]..............[img] and paste into the thread.