Dragon #6312 KINGTIGER (Porsche Turret)

Looking excellent! The tracks are especially well done.

Nate

HOLY COW!  Now this is the Z-I-M-M!  I am so glad you heard my voices... I was standing right behind you when you worked on it.  Now I can't wait to try it on my old Tamiya kit... Panzer IV Ausf J for Eastern Front GB I signed earlier.  The tracks look great too!

That zimm is looking really good. Haven't worked up the nerve to try scratched zimm myself yet but maybe one day. I really really like how the running gear turned out. The weathering and drybrushing really paid off on it!!

Thanks for the good comments.  It's good to hear about this zim, I have been trying to figure this stuff out for a while ( even before this build).  All good opinions lets me know to keep going but any negative is just as wanted so I can correct.  Moving to work on a partial scratch build of the interior of the turret.  All hatches will be open so will put something in there to look at.  Decided I needed no interior for the driver's hatch, plan to have a man on top of the tank with his head poking down through the hatch filling most of the space.

Update on where The tiger is at.  Same excuse as a lot of you, work has kept me from the work bench last week.  First 2 day weekend off for some time now.  Started the scratch build of the turret.  Lots of styrene, spare parts and wire.  Has been slow going.  For those of you that have a Kingtiger parked in your garage, this is not for a 100% accuracy it is to give a good representation of what would be in case some one wants to take a look inside.  Would spend more time if one would be able to see the details a bit better.  Unfortunately not much will be able to be seen once the turret cover is on.  Had to put something as the kit did not provide much.

That is all the kit provided.  Here is where I am at now.

Still much left to do.  Commander and loader's area, more around the gun and gunners site.  Also more junction boxes and wiring on the upper turret ring.  The back part of the turret will be receiving the ammo racks.  After that will move to the turret cover for a few items.

Nice work spiffing up the interior, glad to see you're able to get in some bench time and keep this one moving along.

Few touch ups here and there but mainly will start work around the gun / coaxial / gunners site.  Hope to have some paint on soon then load the ammo racks with a few rounds.

Very nice and One Step Beyond

Tony Lee

fantastic detailing, well done..

_Many_ years ago (actually probably 25-30 years ago, talk about a long-term project) I started playing with doing zimmerit on a Sturmgeschutz kit I was working on.  I used Squadron green putty and a small flat-blade screw driver.  I spread a small amount of putty out on the surface with a putty knife, and pressed the blade of the screw driver in at an angle.  It seemed to provide me with nice little ridges on top and bottom, as well as squeezing out some putty along the sides, providing the little vertical ridges, too.  Comparing to pictures, it looked pretty good. 

I haven't returned to this kit yet, but want to finish it with added details, and, of course, finish the zimmerit. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Panzerwaffe....Really nice work all around there.  Nice detailing and scratching.

Hey, thanks for all the great comments.  Been away with real life activities.  I will be back at it with the weekend here.  Should be able to finish the interior and close this turret up.

Rob

Wow, are you kidding!! Great work on the turret interior!!

Commander, loader and rear turret hatch.  Should the inside of the hatch be the red/brown primer color or should it be the off white color, the same as the turret interior?  I know these were different colors on different vehicles at different times of the war.  Which should I go with?

Me likes what me sees...I wanna turn your turret into a condo and move in...

What ever the exterior color is. Makes it harder for aircraft to see from above.

Tony Lee

Tony, thanks for the info.  That is what I will do.  I did not think it was white but I did not know it was the same color as the exterior.  I guess that made it much easyier for the factory workers and helped blend it into the vehicle.  Just out of curiosity when did they start making the hatchs the same color as the exterior?  Didn't the early vehicles have white hatches?

Manstein, vacancies will be opening very soon but from my understanding you just got married to Bill's PZ III.  Will both of you be moving in?  Be sure to ask being a new marriage!

I'll let Wild Bill answer that question, he's the historian around these parts I think.

Did I say you're doing a fine job sir?

Tony Lee

PANZERWAFFE

Tony, thanks for the info.  That is what I will do.  I did not think it was white but I did not know it was the same color as the exterior.  I guess that made it much easyier for the factory workers and helped blend it into the vehicle.  Just out of curiosity when did they start making the hatchs the same color as the exterior?  Didn't the early vehicles have white hatches?

Manstein, vacancies will be opening very soon but from my understanding you just got married to Bill's PZ III.  Will both of you be moving in?  Be sure to ask being a new marriage!

Here are some more pics of where I'm at with the turret.  I have to say, it has taken a lot longer than planed.

This is the left side of the turret basket

This is the right side of turret basket.  This side was the only place I had no idea of what was there so i decided to put in an ammo rack for the MG34?

Still have to finish up on the turret top, just has a base coat on now.  Tomorrow will finish the top and then finally put the top on and then back to zimmerit.  I am also going to try to make a large shell hit on the side of the turret.  That is how it is in the picture I am building from.  Did not penetrant just left a nasty scare.  Any suggestions on how to make this?  I have used heated objects (nails) for small stuff in the past but not sure if it would work well for a larger hit that i am going to try to make. 

Thanks for looking.

Great use of color,lookin good.

Tony Lee

That is a fine looking turret!

Nate

Hello all.  Nate, Tony glad you like the turret.  I was pleased with it.  This is a shot of it completed right before closing it up.

Well turret is closed and started work on the outside + zimmerit.  Before my primer coat still must finish the rear hatch and the cupola. 

Here is the zim that has already been applied.  Looking for ANY comments about the zim.  Wondering what others may think, if this stuff looks right?  I am excited about getting paint on to see how it works out.  Start with the over all tank.

Right side turret.

Left side turret with the begining of battle damage.

Front turret

Looking inside.  First  is from rear hatch next 2 are from the commanders hatch, last from loaders hatch.

Surprisingly much of the inside is very visible.  Hard to see that in these photos.  Thanks for looking.

Rob

Rob, your zim looks REALLY good! I am no expert by any means, but if I were to give any negative feedback, I would say that your columns look SLIGHTLY too wide to me. Other than that, it looks great! I wouldn't change anything at all.

Nate

Rob your interior effect is outstanding.  The zimm will blend better with paint and washes on it and not be so stark.

Still watchin this one

Tony Lee

Pvt Mutt

Rob your interior effect is outstanding.  The zimm will blend better with paint and washes on it and not be so stark.

Still watchin this one

Tony Lee

Rob,

I'm not sure how I missed this one until now but, I'm glad I caught it.  The Zim may be a bit wide.  That being said, are you going for an exact scale replication or representation?  I like the effect you have achieved with the zim and, as Tony said it "will blend better....".  Things are quite stark right now, though with the coming paint and other steps to follow this will be quite a stunner.  Now, I am going to have to catch up on this build.  The turret interior is looking amazing.  I may look big on the outside but it looks awfully cramped inside.  Keep up the solid work and updates.  Thank you for posting your work.

Cheers

Dave

That interior is looking very nice!

On the question of the hatches (I didn't see that until now so sorry for the delay), there are reference pics out there that show some of the early panzers like the IV-D with side hatches still in the interior color but I don't recall ever seeing that happen with the commander's hatches. Considering how they opened, it makes sense for them to always be hull color since there wasn't much value in leaving then in elfenbein from a visibility standpoint and they definitely would draw attention when open if not matched to the hull. We tend to think of tanks trundling around with all the hatches buttoned-up all the time but it was far more common for the commander to be up in the cupola with the hatch open because of the much greater visibility it afforded as well as increasing his awareness in coordinating with other vehicles in the same unit/formation.  

NATE - Thanks for the good comments.  You are right about the width of the zim.  This one will stay as is but I will play around a little bit more to see if I can improve before applying to a new build.

TONY - The interior is something I was definitely pleased with.  I am just surprised at how much can be seen.  I had to get the turret closed up because everytime I came back from a break, I kept planning on putting more stuff in it.  Finally I had to tell myself that was enough.  Glad you liked it!  The paint is still a few days away but am very excited to see how it goes on and looks.

DAVE - Sounds as you are saying the same as Nate about the zim.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I will have to try to make them smaller on future builds.  Using this medium (polyseamseal) width was the only thing that proved a bit difficult.  Had to work quickly.  As soon as I pulled the zim tool through, had to use a square flat end blade and cut away the excess.  If to slow when cut it would peel the whole run of zim that was just layed.  Just need more practice.  You are right about the inside being cramped.  Did not find many photo's but the ones I did showed the inside just packed full of stuff.  No room at all.

BILL - Great to hear about the hatch's.  That helps on this build and ones to come.  So with the Tiger I will have all of them the same color as the exterior base (dunkelgelb).  Very true about hatchs being open even in combat.  Not sure if any of you have been in AFV's but on average, with everything button-up you cannot see anything around the vehicle to about 10-15 feet somrtimes more.  Anything in the distance is all tunneled into the periscopes giving a very limited field of view leaving the crew and vehicle vulnerable.  Thanks for the comments and much thanks for the info.

The reason I keep asking about the zim is it is new to me and I want my Tiger to come out nice.  Also, still have a Sturmtiger and Jagdpanther waiting to be built.  These two will also be receving zim.  There will be more experiments with the polysealseam to see if I can make the width smaller.  Also, yesterday finally received some Tamiya Polyester Putty.  It took about a month to get here.  Had to order it from Japan.  So will play around with that before my next zim build.  Some of you may onder why I do not just get the after market zim.  I will admit that it looks good but after paying average $40 - $60 a kit I am not willing to spend almost the same for he after market.  Besides I do enjoy trying to figure it out (sometimes).  Well thanks for looking and tonight will take a break from building, I am tierd.

Rob

Hey guys what's the name of that yellow paste, Mori Mori are something like that????

Have seen several use it and the zimm looked pretty good. Maybe that stuff would work better for him.

Tony Lee

I believe the width for the columns to be about 3 or 5mm in 1/35. I think it's 3. That being said, you've done a very credible job nonetheless.