1/6th scale King Tiger project

It's been awhile since I had any updates, but I recently had time to complete the king tiger gallery page. I have also taken the King tiger and my other RC tanks out last weekend for a weekend drive.

http://www.eastcoastarmory.com/tigerII_366/kingtiger.htm

I have a lot of video footage that I have of the tank that I will be uploading to youtube very soon.

Here are some other pics I took of my other tanks that day.

Thanks guys, The tank's MG34 and MG34 ammo bag have been painted and have been added to the model. The tank is now 100% complete!!!!

 I have also added the rest of the resin king tiger parts to the product line http://eastcoastarmory.com/germanparts.htm

 For the tank's MG34 I used the new tooling 21C MG34 set that was released a number of years ago. The gun itself is nicely detailed, and is nice out of the box.

 To improve the gun I eliminated the seam running down the barrel and gave the gun a nice repaint and weathering.

 The gun was an easy fit to the armorpax gun mount.

 I took advantage of the moderately warm temperature and took some out door shots of the finished King tiger and my newly finished DML schwimmwagen.

 In the rare case the tank ever breaks or gets bogged down I can always tow it with this back up plan. It's not an M88, but it will do the job .

 Now that the tank is complete I will be creating the gallery web page. Once complete I will be able to start on my next tank!    

Thanks guys,

The the last of the tank's components have been added completing the tank.     

For the tank's tow cables the kit supplies you with pre cut and pre assembled steel tow cables and transport cable. The cables were a perfect fit to my revised tow cable locks and were simply painted, weathered, and mounted to the tank. 

For the tank's gun cleaning rods the kit supplies you with several wood dowel rods, and CNCed Brass end tips. The kit parts were also nicely done and were used. The rods were treated and the brass rods were painted and weathered. 

The kit supplies you with an Armorpax resin German AFV fire extinguisher. The part is nicely detailed and casted. The component was simply painted and installed with no mods. 

Another Armorpax component that the kit supplies you with was the German AFV Jack. Like the fire extinguisher the jack was nicely made and was built out of the box and mounted to the tank. 

The kit supplies you with two cast bronze tow claws. These needed no mods and were used as is.

The kit supplied crank shaft and crow bar were also used. The crow bar needed a small tweak. The kit supplied bar has a flat end with a machined brass tip. On the real component the tip was flat with a bend. This was quickly added to the kit rod. Once done they went into painting and were mounted. 

for the other hand tools the kit supplies you with a set of Armorpax white metal German AFV tools. The only mod that was made to the tools was the replacement of the supplied metal handles with scratch built wooden ones. 

The tank supplies you with a pre cut block of wood for the jack block. The block was the correct size and shape and was a good base to add the details. 

The tank's antennas have been scratch built and added. The sternantenna was fabricated out of turned brass and aluminum. All components had to be made out of metal because the antenna connects to the tank's radio receiver and extends the tank's radio range. The only resin components that were used on the sternantenna is the antenna base and the insulator.  

The tank doesn't come with the copula mounted AA MG, or the MG mount. For this tank I picked up the Armorpax white metal MG mount. The mount is excellent and was moded to have the gun and mount pivot. For the Gun I will be using the new generation 21st Century MG34, but I'll have more info on that later.

After these parts were added I took the tank out for a joyride. 

I was also able to post a quick video up on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2juMDkbXNE

The last thing that needs to be added to the tank is the MG34, and the MG34 ammo bag.

Thanks guys,

The the last of the tank's components have been added completing the tank.     

For the tank's tow cables the kit supplies you with pre cut and pre assembled steel tow cables and transport cable. The cables were a perfect fit to my revised tow cable locks and were simply painted, weathered, and mounted to the tank. 

For the tank's gun cleaning rods the kit supplies you with several wood dowel rods, and CNCed Brass end tips. The kit parts were also nicely done and were used. The rods were treated and the brass rods were painted and weathered. 

The kit supplies you with an Armorpax resin German AFV fire extinguisher. The part is nicely detailed and casted. The component was simply painted and installed with no mods. 

Another Armorpax component that the kit supplies you with was the German AFV Jack. Like the fire extinguisher the jack was nicely made and was built out of the box and mounted to the tank. 

The kit supplies you with two cast bronze tow claws. These needed no mods and were used as is.

The kit supplied crank shaft and crow bar were also used. The crow bar needed a small tweak. The kit supplied bar has a flat end with a machined brass tip. On the real component the tip was flat with a bend. This was quickly added to the kit rod. Once done they went into painting and were mounted. 

for the other hand tools the kit supplies you with a set of Armorpax white metal German AFV tools. The only mod that was made to the tools was the replacement of the supplied metal handles with scratch built wooden ones. 

The tank supplies you with a pre cut block of wood for the jack block. The block was the correct size and shape and was a good base to add the details. 

The tank's antennas have been scratch built and added. The sternantenna was fabricated out of turned brass and aluminum. All components had to be made out of metal because the antenna connects to the tank's radio receiver and extends the tank's radio range. The only resin components that were used on the sternantenna is the antenna base and the insulator.  

The tank doesn't come with the copula mounted AA MG, or the MG mount. For this tank I picked up the Armorpax white metal MG mount. The mount is excellent and was moded to have the gun and mount pivot. For the Gun I will be using the new generation 21st Century MG34, but I'll have more info on that later.

After these parts were added I took the tank out for a joyride. 

I was also able to post a quick video up on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2juMDkbXNE

The last thing that needs to be added to the tank is the MG34, and the MG34 ammo bag.

An amazing journey in modeling

that just a work of art!! Simply amazing man, you are a artist!

Everything on it is amazing!

Absolutely stunning work.  I couldn't help but think that the main gun could have been made from a real .50 cal. barrel and actually function but then thought the model wouldn't be able to stand up to the recoil.  You sure have a piece of equipment to be proud of.  Congratulations!

                                                                                                        Pat.

The tank's markings and weathering have been applied. along with the tracks, side skirts and grenade guards. I didn't add the steel drybrushing to the tracks because the tracks will scratch themselves after the tank runs a short distance.















The tank is now about 95% complete. Next will be the addition of the tools and the antennas. Then the tank will be ready for action.

The tank's ambush cammo pattern has been applied. I still have to finish up the side skirts and the grenade grills. Once complete they will be ready for the next step.

The tank will now get it's markings, then it's weathering. More progress to come.

Today I was able to take the tank and apply its final prime and base coat.
 
Final Prime.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Base Coat of Dunkelgelb.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
the tank will now be getting it's cammo. More info to come.

Thanks Guys, Brad I don't have a dragon wagon, but I do have something else to tow this tank around, but there will be more info on that later ;)

The last bits have been added and fabricated and the tank is now ready for painting.

The tank's rear grenade grill guards have been fabricated. These grills were fabricated out of brass, steel, and aluminum. They will be bolted to the tank permanent after the tank is painted. These were the last components to be scratch built for the model before painting.

The tank's side skirts have also been added. The kit supplies you with a set of laser cut steel side skirts with Photo Etch Brass skirt edgings. The skirts are excellent and were assembled OOB with no extra mods needed.

The kit supplied laser cut steel front fender tips come pre welded and are basically ready to install out of the Box.

The edgings were all soldered to the fenders

The fenders were then primed and mounted to the tank. The fenders went on smooth with no problems or hang-ups.

After the fenders were added I wanted to take the tank for one last test drive to see how the tank runs with the side skirts added. The tank ran very well and I made a video of the test drive and posted the video on youtube.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DkyaOQjwWw

 I was also able to make the video showing the driver's periscope and defense weapon functioning

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hccUaoMU9iA

 The tank will go into painting tomorrow more info to follow.   

Outstanding, just outstanding!  The skill and know-how that you show, too, are really amazing!

I don't see why the show organizers wouldn't like to see your King Tiger, though I see your point about moving it.  Maybe you need to build a 1/6 Dragon Wagon to transport it

Best regards,

Brad

Man this just gets better and better! I am seriously loving this build and look forward to more of your craftiness!

Is it me or does the commanders range finder look like its held down with a giant lego? lol

Awesome job man!

Dave

Thanks Brad, I should have the tank finished up by next week, but I won't be able to take this one to Mosquitocon, It's too heavy to put in my car and I don't think the NJIPMS brass would appreciate a RC all metal model at a static plastic model show.

I have just about completed the tank's turret detailing.

For the tank's loaders hatch the kit supplies you with an armorpax White metal KT loaders hatch kit. The kit is excellent and was built as is OOB with no mods needed.

For the spent shell hatch the kit supplies you with an aluminum CNC hatch and hinge.

The hatch has no interior detailing and is just flush.

To rework the hatch I first cut the kit hinge freeing the segments. After freeing the segments I scratch built the interior detailing

A water deflector was added along with a hatch stop and welds.

For the gunner's scope the kit supplies you with a basic CNCed aluminum scope box.

The scope box is missing the periscope, and is too squared off. To re work the box I had to mill out the interior. The periscope was machined out of a block of resin. The corners were rounded off. 

The Kit supplies you with an air filter cover. The kit supplied piece consists of two parts, a laser cut steel lower disc and a CNC Aluminum top lid.

To rework this component I used the laser cut disc, but the top lid was too small and was placed in the spare parts bin. Like the real component I added the ribs that hold up the top lid on the interior portion of the intake. The whole air filter was reworked with parts made from plastic and resin. 

for the tank's copula the kit supplies you with a basic copula with components crafted in casted zinc, aluminum, and steel. The copula also comes with a set of resin periscopes. 

The copula has no interior detailing besides the basic periscopes. All head rest detail and hatch opening spring canister detail was scratch built. out of brass, resin, and plastic.

The hatch spring mechanism and handle are functional and actually assist in opening the hatch and swinging it to the open position. 

for the copula hatch pivot arm the kit wants you to use a large Allen screw. The problem with using the screw is that the threads show when the hatch is in the open position. To fix this I covered the exposed threads in solder and turned the solder down flush thus removing the threads. To mount the bolt to the hatch I drilled a hole through the hatch arm and the bolt, I then inserted a lock pin to secure the whole unit together.

On the copula's exterior the kit supplied periscope covers were re worked to have backings to them. Before I was able to add the backings I first had to rework the shape of the guards giving them an angle. Once the angle was ground into them I was able to add the backings.

The backings and the MG rail were soldered to the periscope covers. In addition to the backings I also added several other small copula details including hatch aligners, hatch arm details, and a range finder.

The kit also supplies you with the turret crane bosses. The bosses were made out of CNCed steel. Before I was able to add the bosses I first had to widen the hole of the bosses on my lathe, and I had to grind an angle into two of the bosses so they sit level on the turret's roof.

Another piece of detail that I added to the turret front was the addition of the commander folding range finder. 

Two barckets were added to the turret's rear along with the kit supplied armorpax D rings. 

The turret antenna base mount was machined out of resin and mounted to the tank's turret.

The final bit of detail that was added besides the final turret plate welds was the close quarter defense weapon. The kit supplies you with a CNCed aluminum mount that has some basic details. 

The kit wants you to glue this component into it's place, but I decided to make the part pivot as per the real vehicle. This was done in a similar way as I did the front driver's periscope. After some basic slot screw details I mounted the weapon and it pivots smoothly. Once the tank is complete I will post a you tube video showing the grenade launcher in action. 

With the turret complete I can now add the finishing touches to the hull and the tank will be ready for painting...hopefully by the end of the week more to follow.    

Great progress!  Are you going to have this done by Mosquitocon this spring?  I hope so, I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.

Best regards,

Brad

Wow!      That thing's huge!

Excelent work as always! 

I have made more progress on the tanks turret.

I was able to add the rear hatch torsion bars. The torsion bars themselves come with the kit and are two simple steel rods. The rods were missing the tapered end tips which I fabricated out of turned resin.

After the bars were added I fabricated and mounted the torsion bar armored covers out of length of PVC pipe. With the addition of these guards the rear portion of the turret is now complete.

The turret welds were added along with several torch cut lines. A few of the lower rear etchings were not part of the kit's pannels and were added with a dremel.

The tank's gun and gun elevation equipment was assembled and added. The kit supplies you with everything you need to make the gun elevate. The elevation equipment was built OOB and works well. The only mods that I made to the gun elevation were the addition of lock washers on the fasteners, and the addition of two extension springs. Since I'm not going to add the blank gun system the gun elevation is missing some weight towards the rear making the gun very front heavy. This puts strain on the elevation motor when the motor is pulling the gun barrel up. The extension springs and the large steel bolt act as a counter weight and do help with the gun elevation performance.

I was also able to make a video of the gun elevation in action and posted it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykQzdlOLMSs

The tank's mantlet was also added. The kit supplied mantlet is a very nice all aluminum sand casting. The mantlet comes pre drilled and pre machined and is ready for installation OOB.

The only mods that I had to make to the mantlet was to clean up the mantlet rim. It seams that when the mantlet was casted some of the sand broke off leaving the rim clogged with aluminum. After a quick pass with a Dremel the rim was cleaned out.

After the rim was cleaned out it was time to mount the six retaining pointed bolts. The bolts were supplied with the kit, but they are solid. On the king tiger these bolts had a wire retention system which held them in place and kept them from getting loose. I drilled a 1/16th hole in all of the bolts.

After the drilling the bolts were added and the wire was inserted and twisted in place.

In addition to the wire a small bracket was added to the mantlet's top

The tank's barrel and muzzle had also been added to the tank.

The Tank's barrel is nicely done and was used with no added mods

The tank's muzzle is all CNCed aluminum and a few mods were needed. These would include wrench slits, and PVC muzzle baffle rings.

The final bit of detail that I added was the addition of the track racks. The track racks were included with the kit and are nicely made. The only mod that was made was I soldered a threaded shaft to the track hooks so that there is no exposed fastener head that will be seen.

After the parts were installed final welds beads were added.

These parts now complete the turret sides; I will now be focusing on the turret top details. More progress to follow.  

Happy New year everyone, I have made some progress on the tank's turret.

On the tank's turret I had already had the basic turret bolted together from earlier in the construction which saved time. To get the turret ready for the electronics and machinery I gave the interior a shot of primer and a nice coat of dark yellow.

The tank's turret grenade guard was attached. This component was scratch built out of sheet steel and was bolted and soldered together. This went together very quickly and smoothly. with this out of the way I can now fabricate the grenade guard grills on the engine deck.

Happy New year everyone, I have made some progress on the tank's turret.

[img]http://eastcoastarmory.com/forumPic/tigerII/rear_hatch/DSC00206.JPG

On the tank's turret I had already had the basic turret bolted together from earlier in the construction which saved time. To get the turret ready for the electronics and machinery I gave the interior a shot of primer and a nice coat of dark yellow.

The tank's turret grenade guard was attached. This component was scratch built out of sheet steel and was bolted and soldered together. This went together very quickly and smoothly. with this out of the way I can now fabricate the grenade guard grills on the engine deck.

After the gueard was added the whole turret bottom got a coat of primer and dark yellow.

The rear turret wall is missing the indentation for the rear hatch. Instead of removing the plate and attempting to mill the recess into the plate I just added two sheet styrene plates to each side of the rear wall giving me the recess without having to do any hard machine work. In addition to the plates I also etched the torch cut lines to the rear turret panels. Welds will be the next detail that will be added.

I was also able to complete the detailing on the rear hatch. For the rear hatch the kit supplies your with the basic components to assemble a basic working hatch. 

The kit supplied hatch doesn't give you any interior detailing so all of the hatches interior detailing needed to be scratch built. I decided to make all of the functions fully functional. To do this I first had to enlarge and add a taper to the pistol port lug hole. By doing this the kit supplied lug was not used. a new machined lug was fabricated and used in its place. The pistol port lug hole

for the interior detailing the components were scratch built out of plastic, metal, and resin. 

The hatch was painted and weathered, then was installed to the tank. 

All that remains left to complete the hatch is to add the hatch torsion bar rods, Once complete I will be able to start the gun and gun elevation mechanism. More info to follow...

Your work at the top of the page looks great. I'd love to follow this thread closely, but my computer can't process hundreds of pictures on one page... hopefully this comment will add a new page to the thread so I can actually see your next update.

I have added the last remaining details and welds to the tank's rear deck.

For the King Tiger's 4 fuel vents I created the valve portion out of resin, and used a brass rod for the lines. I hollowed out the end portion of the brass rod to give the illusion that it is a tube. I will be adding these parts to the product line very soon. These components are also found on Panthers and jagdpanthers.

Since this model is radio controlled I decided to build this tank as a command vehicle with the Sternantenna D. To build this model as a command tank I needed to fabricate the rear insulator armored drum, Antenna storage rod tube, and retracting antenna base holder. There will also be another antenna that will be mounted on the turret.

I machined the armored drum out of PVC and resin. Resin bolt heads were added to the drum's interior. The drum will be where the Sternantenna D antenna will mount. The Sternantenna will mount directly to the tank's Radio receiver and should give me improved radio range. The Sternantenna D itself will all be machined from brass and will be fabricated after the turret is complete.

For the antenna storage tube I fabricated the component out of a solid bar of aluminum with metal and resin details added to it's surface. The tube is solid and non functional.

For the folding antenna holder This part was fabricated out of brass, resin, and parts from my resin Tiger I Jack mounts. For the vise mechanism in the antenna holder I used the handle from my US soft skin AFV pintle mount kit. The rest was crafted from resin and plastic 

the bottom portion is all constructed out of soldered brass. a small strip of steel was soldered across to keep the antenna rods from falling out

The way the part functions is then when the tank is not in motion the antenna is extended and secured inside this mount. But when the mount is not being used it hinges down ward. (Note I'm using a screwdriver to illustrate how the part would hinge outward when in use. I will not be building the extended Sternantenna D antenna for this project)

These were the last details that were needed to complete the rear deck. I will now be focusing on the turret. I will be adding the two large protective mesh covers to the engine deck, but these will be added after the lower turret armor is added. I'm doing this because I don't want to fabricate these complex parts without first finding out how they will clear the turret.

More progress to follow!! 

Thanks as for the tracks I disconnected the tracks which is why they look so saggy. As for the sag the tracks sag more when the tank is finished because of the extra weight of all of the components,

I have more progress on the model's engine deck. Most of the details have been added and the engine deck is about 98% complete.

I used the kit supplied grills for the model. The kit supplied grills are all made of CNCed aluminum. They are nicely machined but needed a few minor tweaks.

Fan Grills

Radiator Grills

For the fan grills cast texture and foundry marks and numbers were added

The radiator grills needed to have the one segment cut away from the rest of the grill. The stock grill does have the segment partially removed but not all the way.

Before

After

For the grill meshwork the kit does supply you with laser cut steel frames and metal mesh.

The Laser cut frames for the radiator grills were reworked to make them hold the mesh, but the kit doesn't supply you with 4 frames, only 2. So the other two frames were fabricated out of sheet steel by using the laser cut ones as a template.

For the fan grills the laser cut parts were not used because they were flat. From the images that I have of the grills and from the aberdeen jagdtiger the fan grills were made out of a round rod that the mesh would wrap around and would then be welded to the fan grill. To fabricate the mesh work I bent two brass rods into the same size circle as the grill, and soldered them together.

For the mesh I also didn't use the kit supplied material. I felt that the kit supplied mesh was too thick and would not only be too difficult to work with, but would also cover up the intake and fan detail that I built into the tank earlier. Instead I went with varmint mesh that I have used on my other 1/6th scale tank models.

The mesh and frames were first installed on all of the grills, then were all mounted onto the tank.

After the grill work was mounted to the tank focus was then shifted to the engine hatch.

The kit supplies you with the parts to assemble one basic detailed engine hatch. As with most of the tanks parts they are all constructed out of metal   
 

The air intakes were returned on the lathe to further sand down any tool marks left from manufacturing 

The hatch hinges were also reworked.

Stock hinge

reworked shape, before the hinges were mounted hinge stops and cast texture were added.

In addition to the hinges the lever mount, air intake discs, and resin hatch retaining latch were added.  

The hatch locks and latch point were also added. The locks are functional, and these parts will soon be added to the product line.

After the hatch was completed I then focused on the rear deck access panels. 

The stock components have the correct size and shape, but are missing the mounting bolt, the panel and mount is one piece missing the crease line separating the mount.

To rework the mounts the mounts were resanded on the lathe, cut the crease line into the mount, and I drilled and mounted the top mounting screw. 

For the other air intake the kit supplied part was used as is.

The only additions that were made were a small screen mesh cap and resin bolt heads.

For the engine deck lift hooks I used the kit supplied laser cut steel hooks. The only mod that was made was the addition of a small hole drilled into the hook's bottom point

The fan plate hooks were not included in the kit and were scratch built out of sheet styrene. The antenna storage tube was another addition that was scratch built.

After I finished mounting the hatch I had the idea of mounting interior lighting. The purpose of the lights is that when I have to access the front or rear of the vehicle for maintenance or to recharge the batteries I can have light so I can see what I'm doing. The lights were easy to mount They consist of four white LEDs (two in the front and two in the rear). The lights turn on automatically when the hatch is opened and turn off when the hatch closes like a refrigerator. The lights activate via two impact switches, but I also have a main cut off switch so I can kill the power if the hatch will be open for a long period of time saving battery power.     

I only have two small parts left to fabricate to finish off the deck. I can then move to the turret. More info to follow   

Superb work you have done on this and the sheer amount of work is mind blowing. You are full of talent and cant be that short of cash either. My hats of to you dear sir.

Beautiful work.  Some real craftsmanship here.  Quick question, it looks like your track sag came back ?  Tracks looked taut after you removed the 2 links, but now looks like correct track sag again ?  Its a shame that with the correct track sag, the thing wont run properly !

It has been a while since I had an update on the model, but I have been working on the tank's rear vent work and was delayed due to raw material deliveries.

Before I was able to start on the vent work I mounted the kit supplied rear roof panels. All of these panels are laser cut and pre drilled.

The vent work was completed and installed today

My favorite portion of the King tiger is the rear engine deck. On this model I wanted to make this section special by adding many functions and details.

To start I made the cooling fans functional. For the fans I used two 24 volt PC cooling fans as I did on the jagdpanther last year. The fans serve two purposes, they pump cool air into the model cooling off the electronics, and the fans act as a unique detail element.

For the tanks radiator grills I decided to create the interior radiator detailing with louver duct detailing. For the louvers I decided to make them function as they do on the real King tiger.

All of the louvers are scratch built out of sheet steel and are all soldered together.

For the tank's radiator detailing I reworked 4 of my resin M4 Sherman family engine oil radiators and added them to the model.

The grills were hooked up to the RC equipment and the louvers work in unison. I have made a video of the vents in action and posted the video up on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHXMkg6WH0.

Now that the vents are completed I can finish up the rear engine deck detailing like the grills and the engine deck hatch. More to follow.

More progress has been made on the tank.

The tank's front portion is now mostly complete.

The top deck has also been mounted permanently to the tank. The turret's one piece brass bearing ring was also mounted. All of the bolt holes have been filled and sanded. Epoxie welds have also been added

The tank's headlamp has been mounted to the head light mount

Prior to mounting the head lamp the electrical wiring was relocated to the rear portion of the light where the actual conduit would connect to the lamp.

The wiring is too large to fit into a tube that would be used for the conduit. For the head light to work I made the wiring enter the tank through the front armor plate. The hole is concealed with the dummy conduit and the conduit welds.

The front periscopes were also installed to the tank. The kit supplied periscopes are made out of CNCed aluminum periscopes and two steel brush guards.

For the pivoting drivers scope the kit wants you to permanently glue the scope to the scope mount

Instead of gluing the scope on permanently I was able to make the scope pivot. This was done by attaching a small length of PVC pipe to the scope's bottom. The scope was then hooked up to a servo and the driver’s scope now pivots remotely. Once more of the functions are hooked up I will post a youtube video showing the periscope in action.

For the front bow hatches the kit supplies you with a lot of components that are made from numerous types of materials such as steel, aluminum and brass. All of these components were used on my model with some alterations.

The kit supplied hatches are designed to open and swing like te real hatch. This is done on nicely machined brass and steel pivots.

The hatch plate and the top deck are two separate panels as per the real vehicle. To mount the hatch plate to the top deck the kit supplies you with a laser cut steel plate that bolts to the bottom of top deck and to the bottom of the hatch plate.

The kit supplied hatches don't have any interior detailing. New interior detailing had to be scratch built. 

All details were scratch built out of brass and steel. Due to the design of the hatches making the hach locks functional was easier than making them static.

The hatches were pre painted and weathered.

The hatches were mounted to the hatch plate, along with scratch built lift hooks, reworked air filter and hatch locks.

The kit requires you to bolt the hatch plate to the upper hull permanently, but for this model I need the access to the functions and to the smoke generator refueling pump.

The solution was to make the plate removable. To do this I designed the plate to lock onto the top plate with two locking lugs. To remove the plate the lugs are attached to the air filter which becomes a knob that when twisted will unlock the two lugs simultaneously allowing me to remove the plate.

I have also made a youtube video showing the hatch plate removal in detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8c4SEBBliI

All that is needed to finish up the top front is the addition of the tool posts and then I will be able to focus on the grill work. More to come

I have just finished the tank's side hull tool posts and tow cable mounts.

The kit supplies you with tools, Tow cables, basic tool posts and tow cable locks. The tank's hull is also pre drilled for all of the tool posts. To improve on the most of the tool post locations needed to be relocated. The kit's holes were filled in and will be sanded over.

tank's tow cable mounts were the first of the tool posts that were reworked. The kit supplied cable mounts are made out of CNCed Aluminum braces with laser cut steel strips. The braces are missing the groves for the gun cleaning kit and the tow cables. The braces are also missing the pivot points on the one end for the folding retaining bolt. The braces are mounted to the tank very securely via counter sink bolts with nuts anchoring them on the inside of the vehicle.

To keep the braces as strong as possible I didn't make the pivot bolt functional, instead I modified the kit supplied base to appear that the pivot works. The way I did this was the kit supplied braces had inlets machined into the one end. The brace now has the detail of the pivot, but still has it's full strength.

For the center grooves I took the center groove portion from one of my resin Tiger tow cable mounts. The resin center was installed over the flush counter sink bolts after the braces were added to the tank.

The kit also includes small tow cable mounts for retaining the tow cable ends and for retaining thee steel cable towards the rear of the vehicle. Like the other mounts these locks are produced form CNCed aluminum. The tow cable locks have a functional hinged top, but are missing the front portion of the lock with the pivot bolt.

Like the other mounts I didn't make the pivot bolt functional, instead I made a resin detail shroud that slipped over the steel bolt. This again gives me the maximum amount of strength and detail. On the hinged tops I had to transform the drilled out bolt hole into a slit that would have been used for the pivot bolt. The slit doesn't effect the strength of the mount in any way, and still locks securely.

The kit supplied track cable mounts were also very basic and needed to be reworked.

The mounts were re bent and had a M3X16mm bolt soldered to the the inner end.

This procedure was done with the other Armortek cable mounts.

Before

After

Before

After

For some of the tool posts I had to scratch build some completely. These would include the track cable end mounts, shovel mount, and tool handle locks.

The front transport cable end mount was fabricated out of a brass angle and a spent .22 cal shell casing. The angle has a slot milled into the top and a nut was soldered to the shell casing. This allows the end mount to be adjusted along the brace to adjust the tension of the cable.

For the rear cable end mount a spent .22cal shell casing and a M3X16 hex bolt was soldered to a reshaped Armortek rope support mount.

For the front shovel the kit does supply you with a shovel head mount. The mount itself is made out of CNC aluminum, however I decided to fabricate an all new one out of steel and brass. For the shovel the kit supplies you with a white metal armorpax shovel which is a nice addition and will be used on this model.

Kit supplied component

New scratch built mount.

All of the added components had epoxie welds added completeing the side hull details.

Now that the side is complete I can now install the top deck and work on the top deck details. More to come.

I have made some progress and I have completed the front portion of the tank.

The tank's front mud flaps were completed and installed.
 

For the fenders I reworked the kit supplied metal mud flaps. The kit supplied mud flaps are all made out of laser cut and pre bent sheet steel plates.

The hinges are made out CNC aluminum and come pre drilled with counter sinks.

The fenders are functional but detail wise are very basic. The fenders are missing their internal support ribs, and rivet detailing. The side portions have two holes pre cut into them to mount to the sides of the hull via two bolts.

Both of the kit supplied mud flaps were used, to rework them the two holes for the bolts were deleted and the support ribs were fabricated and installed with button toped rivets. All parts were constructed out of metal and were soldered on.

The two holes were deleted because the kit way that the mud flaps were to be retained and locked in place to the tank is incorrect. On the King Tiger the front fenders were held in place via a single retaining pin that is mounted on top of the tank's front side armor.

To attach the other side portion of the fenders I soldered the nuts into the support ribs. This way I can simply bolt the fenders together without having to worry about loosing a nut. It will also make the skirt removal a lot easier.

After a shot of primer they were installed onto the tank.

The body work was completed on the hinges fully removing the traces of the mounting bolts. The hinges were installed OOB with the welds being the only detail addition that was made.

The fender locks were fabricated entirely out of brass and are made to be functional. They along with some weld details were added to the model and actually work keeping the fenders from moving up and down.

The headlight mound was another bit of detail that was added to the model. The kit supplied you with a laser cut and pre drilled steel bracket, a length of aluminum wire to be used for the light wiring conduit and a most impressive fully functional cast bronze aftermarket Bosh head lamp. The head lamp comes pre wired with a light bulb, and has a removable blackout lid with a clear injection molded plastic light diffusing lens. The headlamp itself is perfect OOB with absolutely no upgrades to be needed.

The bracket itself is very basic and is simply designed to be bolted onto the tank. The bracket itself is missing the center support and would mount to the tank in an incorrect way.

To rework the mount the bent portion that would bolt to the tank was removed. The center hole for the electrical wire was deleted and the center support was fabricated and soldered onto the plate. Now to install the plate onto the tank a M3X35mm hex bolt was soldered onto the support. The bolt had to be long enough to get through the 1 inch thick frontal plate so a nut can secure the plate onto the other end.

The tank's frontal plate has three holes pre drilled into it. Two small mounting holes for the kit mount and a single larger hole for the headlight power cable. The headlight cable hole will now be used for the mounting bolt. The hole was widened slightly to have the hex head of the mounting bolt to lie flush with the armored plate. The headlight power cable will be redirected later once it is installed to the tank after the roof gets installed.

The new mount now sits onto the front plate as it does on the real tank.

Welds were added covering up the two head light mount installation holes and further securing the mount to the tank.

Now that the front plate detailing is complete I have started the side hull tool posts and tow cable mounts. Typically I do this step last before the tank is about to the painted, but on this tank I need to secure the posts to the tank's sides with fasteners that bolt to the tanks inside. Mounting these parts will be very difficult once the tank's roof is installed so they will be done next. Here is a sneak peek on what will be coming in the next update, More to come..

Thanks guys,

I have made more progress on the tank and have completed more of the tanks functions and details.



For the tank's sprockets I added the hubs, with the bolt details. All of the tension plates were scratch built out of sheet steel.



I added the tank's smoke system. For the smoke generator I used my own system that I hooked up to a remote control for throttle control.







I built into the tank a battery powered fuel pump to refuel the smoke system. With the built in system I can refill the fluid reservoir from a long rubber tube away from the tank. With this system I remove the chance of spilling the smoke fluid onto the tank which can ruin the paint finish. I have used this system on every one of my 1/6th scale RC tanks.





The tank's bow MG ball has been added. The kit supplied MG ball is nicely scaled and can pivot freely.







To make the ball fit better onto the tank I sanded the edges slightly.





Prior to installation the ball was airbrushed in it's base coat of Dark Yellow. With the paint being airbrushed the coat is so this that it will not scratch once inside the ball housing, also I won't have any spots that I will miss on the ball once the tank is painted.







Once the ball was mounted to the tank the ball had it's rouch cast texture and weld beads added.





I decided to make the MG ball pivot via remote control. For the MG barrel I used the kit supplied CNCed steel MG 34 barrel.





The final function I was able to add was the tank's turret transverse function. This was done with the kit supplied parts and works very smoothly. The tank's interior if filling up quickly, as are the empty functions on the tank's radio. Prior to installing the tank's upper deck I will clean up the loose wires with wire ties and cable mounts.





I have added a video of the tanks functions on youtube. The video can be seen via the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEluua_YhqY

To finish up the lower hull I will now add the front fenders, headlight, and side hull tool posts. Once these are out of the way I can proceed to the top deck and top deck details. More to follow.

What an outstanding build! I would love to tackle an armourtek build but lack the coinage to do so.

Would anyone care to donate a kit?

James