Hey everyone thanks a ton for your support !

Hi all, well I just finished my second session of spraying the big kitty, and it'll take a third just to finish the basecoat! The weather has been strange and the paint seems to want way more thinning than usual, so I've been chasing the ratios and using more tank pressure than I should. It's looking nice, though, the Cavalier zim looks great under paint! I'm using Tony Greenland's recommendations for hue, scale colour and lustre, and it's going to be interesting to say the least. I may run the yellow and brown deliberately underthinned for the weather conditions to get finer/tighter control when I come to lay down the soft-edge camo, which in the pattern as researched is very wavy, almost frilly edged... Pics soon!

Mike/TB379

Okay, promised pics: Here's the Tamiya KT as the painting process gets underway. First, the turret ring, axles and exhausts were masked:

Here's the running gear after two coats:

And the main structures -- you can see a few thin patches that'll get hit in the third round:

I added the cable to the headlight on the forward hull from fine wire, my first time attempt at cabling. The last grab handles and the AA MG mount are now in place. When the paintjob is done I'll go round and drill out all attachment holes for external fittings.

As you can see from the shade of green, I'm trying a scale colour effect, an addition of 20% dark yellow to pale the green a bit.

I may not get a chance to paint tomorrow, I have work, but hopefully I'll get the camo done over the weekend, maybe spray the tracks as well. The next round will be a base green again, the underside remains to be done, hit all thin spots on the hull, and turn the wheels over to zap the backs, plus the hubs still on the sprue.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Finally, I feel as though I have made some degree of progress compared to the wild a** rate some of you all are moving at. After some careful filling with Mr. Surfacer 500 and Gap Filling CA and careful sanding I got the PE zim on the gun mantel all smoothed out. Then PE zim on rear plate. A bit off kilter in a couple of spots but I can easily accomodate that.

wing_nut: The paper zim' had some challenges but the results look good!

TB379: Great to see the paint fly..lookin' forward to seeing the camo' work!

JOE RIX:  The primed zim' looks good, the effort was definitely worthwhile.  Hey, don't sweat the build speed...you have until the end of April!  FYI, you need to bore out the second view hole on the mantlet next to the barrel.  The mid' had two holes versus one...check the instructions.

Joe, the primed zim looks even better then the brass look. Keep up the great work.

Thunder , looks good , waiting to see more paint .

Joe , the p.e. zim looks very nice .

Just a quick thank you too all for your comments and a couple of base coat pics.  Heading to Chicago for a wedding.  I plan to start drinking at the airport.

Joe, TBolt... Day-um that's nice work.

I've been looking at some pics of the Konigs Tiger and this Steel Cat has some rough surfaces that i want to attempt to duplicate .

The housing for the bow machine gun looks to be a cast piece .

I duplicated the cast look by first stippling the surface with a stiff brush soaked in lacquer thinner . When that cured i lightly sanded the surface .

Then i used a soft brush dipped in lacquer thinner to smooth the surface .

Here's the gun base housing of the  which is cast and machined.

The armor plate on the front of the turret is rolled steel but it still shows emperfections on its surface .

I used a engraving bit to rough up the armor plate . The gun base was given the cast look with the stippling process .

Marc , paint looks good . Have fun ...........we wont see on the evening news being hauled off the airplane will we ?

Joe Rix, the PE Zimm look great.

I got the wrong one, it's made for a Tamyia and I'm trying to make it fit the Dragon. It's close but I'm havinmg to do more work with oputty than I thought so I'm making mine with more "battle damange" than I ha first planed,

Will have been at the bar for an hour or so...maybe

T-Bolt, looking good with the coat on.

Marc, ditto to you sir.

Catl, just noticed the welds on the track hangers. Do you ever sleep dude? 

Eric .......... cat naps

Shellback:  Talk about sweatin' the details...WOW! Superb work  BTW: Where'd you get the great photos?

SMJmodeler

wing_nut: The paper zim' had some challenges but the results look good!

TB379: Great to see the paint fly..lookin' forward to seeing the camo' work!

JOE RIX:  The primed zim' looks good, the effort was definitely worthwhile.  Hey, don't sweat the build speed...you have until the end of April!  FYI, you need to bore out the second view hole on the mantlet next to the barrel.  The mid' had two holes versus one...check the instructions.

SMJ - I'll be danged if you ain't right. Checked my reference and then the instructions and sure as shootin' there it is to drill out the second hole. I got lured in by the fact that the PE zim panel only had one hole. What's that old addage about assuming? Anyhow , I got er drilled out, Process lifted the zim panel but I got it reglued. Thank You SMJ for setting me straight on that. That's exactly what makes working in a GB a real worthwhile pleasure.

Carl - So, this Dark Side stuff enables you to accomodate 48 hrs of benchtime into a 24 hour day? Hmmm...Ponder this I must.

JOE RIX

Thank You SMJ for setting me straight on that. That's exactly what makes working in a GB a real worthwhile pleasure...

JOE RIX:  You're welcome...but I have to admit, I didn't point out this oversight because I'm a Tiger expert (there are some true experts here on this forum that I lean on for help) but rather by a mistake I made when I glued the pieces behind the mantle before drilling the hole.  It was an easy fix but it made me well aware of the second hole.  Anyway, I told ya' I got your back on this build and I agree it does make these GB's a real pleasure. 

BTW:  Where do you fall in the light versus heavy weathering camps?...hmmm?...care to truly experience the power of the darkside.?!

SMJmodeler

Shellback:  Talk about sweatin' the details...WOW! Superb work  BTW: Where'd you get the great photos?

SMJ , the pics i used are of Tiger II tank #332 when it was at the Patton Museum at Fort Knox . Its been moved to Fort Benning . Here's a link to some pics of it from Prime Portal when it was at Fort Knox . By the way the port side of 332 has been cut open (turret and hull ) to show the inside .

http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/dmitry_kiyatkin/king_tiger/index.php?Page=1

JOE RIX

SMJmodeler

wing_nut: The paper zim' had some challenges but the results look good!

TB379: Great to see the paint fly..lookin' forward to seeing the camo' work!

JOE RIX:  The primed zim' looks good, the effort was definitely worthwhile.  Hey, don't sweat the build speed...you have until the end of April!  FYI, you need to bore out the second view hole on the mantlet next to the barrel.  The mid' had two holes versus one...check the instructions.

SMJ - I'll be danged if you ain't right. Checked my reference and then the instructions and sure as shootin' there it is to drill out the second hole. I got lured in by the fact that the PE zim panel only had one hole. What's that old addage about assuming? Anyhow , I got er drilled out, Process lifted the zim panel but I got it reglued. Thank You SMJ for setting me straight on that. That's exactly what makes working in a GB a real worthwhile pleasure.

Carl - So, this Dark Side stuff enables you to accomodate 48 hrs of benchtime into a 24 hour day? Hmmm...Ponder this I must.

Joe ...that and being retired

Here's an experiment .I havent tried this before so i'll see how it looks with a coat of primer over it . I did the gauging on the surface and then applied some smears of Bondo glazing randomly .Then i used a stiff brush soaked in lacquer thinner to smear the Bondo around . When all of this mess cures out i'll sand it smooth .....not competely smooth ,i want some imperfections to be left on the surface . I know the armor on the King was rolled steel but it lookd to perfect as is out of the box  .And besides this is a bad a$$ tank and it needs some roughed up skin ...............something for my future oil washes and weathering to stick to .

Egads, you guys are flying! Got about 20 pages to catch up on from the last 10 days or so.

Bergetiger coming soon. :)

Dupes , that will keep you busy for a while .

I sprayed the turrett with MM panzer gray , as a primer to bring out the surface detail ..i think i'm satisfied with the results , for now .

well carl my face is a little flushing I'm breathing heavy.  I think I'm in love.  with the turret that is.

Yeah great work all around guys but gee that turret looks fantastic Carl!

BTW: Started airbrushing the camo on my Tiger- hopefully photos soonish!

Marc , careful now , dont get all shook up and pass out or anything ....................... . Thanks , Is the wedding over ?

Gamera , thanks , will be here to see those pics .

Carl, sheesh brother, you are such a superlative detailer. I guess I'm just a modeler. Hah! I love the welds and the pitting on the turret. Kudos. 

I feel sort of left out, but that is because of my schedule. I think I'm going to be audacious and start my Dragon Tiger I too!  For the moment, I'm done with major construction, except the tracks on my Jagdpanther. I need a little "building downtime" when I get home late from work. I can't see well enough to paint in bad light. Man I'm nuts!

Wedding is tonight.  we all flew in a couple of days early for a reunion thing and to party before the party.   I little chilly in Chicago so I was on the patio in a rocking chair by myself, enjoyingthe quiet, with a large bourbon and an equally large cigar and was checking the boards on my phone.  After a cocktail reception the speech to test feature is extremely handy.  

I am going to take a close look at that technique.  i really like the look.

Hi guys - great work going on everywhere I look (as to be expected)

Saturday Update (13th October 2012):

I've been in the office for a lot of the day today and with the second Saturday of the month group meeting to go to shortly I've not managed to do much - but I've made progress all the same!

Today I've sorted out the wheels, test-fitted them and took photos then put them on sticks for airbrushing next weekend. I'll also be basecoating the main build next week as the weekend is all mine!

Tomorrow  I'm working from home taking calls for assistance from our service users but it's usually VERY quiet! I've got a few little bits of clean up to do and I'm going to attempt to assemble them padlock latches for the stowage bin. I'm also going to assemble them Lion Roar cables.

I haven't fitted the side track guards yet. Annoyingly, Dragon have moulded them in one very neat length with detail showing the four parts that make up the entire length.

I can't find my super fine razor saw so I'm taking this kit and the box with me tonight - Alan, the head of the group, is going to saw them into 4 individual parts and help me fit them and add some light bends to each so they all look offset like they should do!

Photos:

The track guards - ready for chopping up and installation:

I'm still keen on showing an MG34 on the Cupola Mount so I'm taking these with me tonight to see what the guys reckon:

Sorry I haven't got more to show you but, like I say, time was very limited today!

Hopefully I'll be able to post a decent update tomorrow!

Take care,

Ben

Eric , so glad you like the way the King is turning out . Hang in there my friend , with your work ethic you will be rewarded !

Marc , i get it now , so this is the pre wedding party pre party ..............or is it the post wedding party pre party ? Oh heck , after a few it dont matter anywho .....................

When you get back we can take a better look at the technique .............you know it has to be easy if i can do it .