Posted this in the armour forum as well, but those wishing to add to their Tiger library, Amazon has a free digital download:

http://www.amazon.com/Tigers-in-Combat-Vol-1-ebook/dp/B00E4UWW4Y/ref=sr_1_1/184-0113776-9767331?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1380808628&sr=1-1&tag=vglnk-c914-20

regards,

Jack

Hey guys, I'm almost done with the repair work on my kitten. She should be in one piece again on Sunday evening (I won't get any bench time today and tomorrow, so I have to add the last bits on Sunday afternoon)

There are also some books by Jentz available for download at

bookos.org/.../Thomas%20L%20Jentz

Eric

That was cool Carlos. Which dude was you?

LOL! I was at home here in California working on my T-34 ;-) I was there only in 1/35 scale.

Hi there gents!

My apologies for the (additional) delay. I simply didn't have any time to post my photos untill now. I'll try to post them either tonight when I get home, or tommorrow evening...

Hurry!

Don't worry guys, I didn't forget about the pics. I just thought I'll post way better pics tomorrow. I'll go to my LHS and they have a really good camera there... I found an MG-42 in one of my 251 kits that isn't needed. Were those things mounted on the gun cradle of the King Tiger as well, or was it MG-34s only?

Hi SchattenSpartan - the MG42 was a topic very early in this GB thread, I think even before anyone had started building.  It was strictly an infantry weapon, with a very high rate of fire and only one trigger setting, it's doubtful it was issued to the panzer arm - unless you have a photo showing otherwise.

Look forward to those completed build pics.

regards,

Jack

The owner of my LHS told me that he would send me the pics at approx. 12:00 PM. It's 10:48 right now...

I just got an email telling me that I won't get any pics today due to technical failure...

So I thought: If I can't post the pics from my LHS, I'll take some pics myself at least (with worse quality) and show them to you...

So here you go:

I'm calling her done now!

The model was painted with Gunze acrylics (dark yellow, olive green and chocolate brown) and then sealed with Alclad clear gloss. Then I sprayed Vallejo Air white in a blotchy pattern on top. When the white paint was dry, I used Vallejo's airbrush thinner and a large brush to remove the white again. The kitten recieved some streaking with black and brown oil paints, as well as a black washing to give it a grimy and used look and to bring out some details. I sealed everything with Alclad flat clear and applied the pigments (black pigments on the engine grills and muzzle brake, mud on the lower hull and suspesion/tracks, rust on the exhausts).

The inspiration for this kitty was actually this small drawing on the back of my reference book:

I'm quite happy with how she turned out, but I think the mud doesn't look that good.

This is my 3rd Armor model (the other ones being 2 Tamiya Shermans) and my 1st Dragon armor kit.

I really enjoyed this build for the most part, but there were some things I didn't like:

• Assembling/mounting the tracks - They are magic tracks, but I still had to remove 3 ejector pin marks on every track link. Mounting those things was a royal pain as well. Next time I'll use friuls!
• Sanding all those roadwheels - I guess I have to live withat issue when building german armor...
• Mounting the towing cables - This was the last and worst part of the build. They didn't fit under the mounting brackets properly and i almost ruined the model when attachiong them. Everything turned out quite good and I only had to rebuild one of the brackets from scratch. I'll use an AM solution here as well when building another King Tiger (or any other German vehicle with those thick cables)
• Assembling the bent engine grills - They were wrinkled when I got the kit, so I had to straighten them out before even trying to bend them and glue them in place. Their fit was also horrible to make things worse: They were too big and the shape was completely off...

Everything else was pure joy and I think I have to get me another one of those kits (or the Tamiya King Tiger)!

This little kitten is nothing compared to the amazing work you guys did here, but I did my best and learned a whole lot by building with you folks! Thanks for hosting this great GB, Eric!

I hope I get the good set of pics tomorrow.

Cheers, Clemens!

hooray!!!! Well, hopefully the fancy pics will be in first thing tomorrow. But yours look very nice there Clemens. You really achieved a well worn look there.

Clemens, for only your third armour build I would call it remarkable! You've embraced a suite of excellent techniques and your result is very attractive and convincing. I would hope to turn out a tank as good as that one day!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Worth the wait Clemons! Great job- the weathering looks very convincing!

Very nicely done Clemens. I'm still not sure whether the "Spanish School" heavy weather approach is realistic in the narrow sense or if it evokes an image (in your model's  case  fatigue and menace). Either way it's impressive. I really am going to spend the time to give the Rinaldi/Mig Jimenez approach an honest try on my next tank - hope it looks as good as yours.

Eric

Thanks a lot, guys! You're way too kind!

Stik: Well, I just got the pics and I'm uploading them right now!

Eric: I don't really know what the "Spanish School" is... I just tried to get my kitten to look as beaten-up  as possible. I had no clue what I was actually doing half the time, but I think it worked... And as you already mentioned, I didn't particularly try to make her look realistic, but to create the look of a well worn tank...

Ok, here are the nice pics! They are a bit bright because of the white background (the whitewash looks a tad too bright), but they are still way better than mine...

Oh yes, those are nicer photos. The better lighting shows off the detailing and weathering to much better effect. Overall VERY nicely done!!!! One small critiique- on your next Konig, hollow out the exhausts ;-)

Thank you very much, sir!

Regarding those exhausts: Oops, looks like I forgot to do that. I drilled out the barrel of the MG-34 though...

Clemens, nicely done that.  

Looks  it would fit quite well in a winter setting.  I also like how your white wash turned out.  Kind of cool in that, at the same time,  the vehicle looks to have had a light powdering of snow that has been somewhat wind swept.  

 I would of liked to have seen a few different coloured weathering powders on the lowers, looks a bit too uniform - or did this get washed out in the photos?

regards,

Jack

Awesome job clemens. I will post a picture on the Wall of Fame.

I posted a thread in the armor forum on the completed builds.

Spanish School - inspired by Mig Jimenez, Adam Wilder and later Mike Rinaldi. Lots of fine art techniques - changing in color density (modulation) lots of filters, washes, pigments and oils. Maybe should be called the Spanish Store now as MIG industries (Adam Wilder top artistic guru) and AK International (Mig Jimenez) are selling a blizzard of weathering paints, filters, washes, DVDs etc etc: a tidy little business in both cases. Rinaldi has two books out called Tank Art (Vol I and Vol II) that just drip with splendid eye candy detailing how these complex effects are pulled off. Of course a lot of modelers have been using the many of the techniques for years maybe just not in one gulp. But if you compare one of the Spanish School efforts with a "state of the art" AFV model of maybe 15 years ago when Tony Greenland was kind of the hill, the look is greatly different - maybe not better but sure different.

Eric

On another forum a member, that utilizes the Spanish method, directly pointed out he painted his models that way because reality was boring - so eye candy might be a good definition. I do believe that is what that style strives for, while reality/historical accuracy would be a close second, again depending on the individual.

I do find they play a lot with lighting, and sometimes turn it on it's head, creating a three dimensional look on what is really just a flat surface.  An example is with camouflage, where the edges are darker and only center is weathered lighter.  It defies reality, but viewers do respond positively to it.  I think has something to do with the fact that the brain  perceives high contrast  as being 3D, and therefore concludes it must be real.

regards,

Jack