Global Scale Modeller

You waited long enough for this...



Today i started the assembly of this beast, it will take a long time but i´m not in a hurry anway. I had nothing else to do this afternoon and my experiments with the selfmade Zimmerit coat (which we have to apply on this model!) were rather successful.

First of all a kit review (Coen made one aswell recently, which made me start this beast), do not forget to turn on the English subtitles.

[youtube]ZXIxKWOwvzs[/youtube]



The assembly starts with the wheels, i just made the sprocket and idler wheels. They are not glued but screwed together. Steel rods are also inserted to give the model the needed stability later (i think it will be quite heavy in the end).


The suspension system: First i glued this black long part in place, on it i mounted the axes. It more or less snaps in place, but i glued it anyway.


The assembly of the spring system was a bit tedious, because nothing stays in place, so it would be helpful to have at least 3 hands.
First you plug the springs behind the axes on the inside of the lower hull (they won´t stay in place), then you insert a screw from outside and screw it together with another plastic part and a nut.


It took me about 1 hour to get to this stage.

Nice ill watch that vid later, this is a kit I've wanted for a while, heard good and bad things about it

OOh nice.

Great start dude.

FINALLY!!!!!
Haha
I guess I better dig mine out. The one that I've chosen to build is an earlier version Tiger I from the battle of Kursk Das Reich. It means some alterations and some scratch building. But I won't have to do the zimmerit like our friend Michael. I'm not that brave. Haha
It might be a couple of weeks before I start mine as I'm waiting for parts, but if you don't mind Michael I'd like to join you in this build.

Thank you all guys

@Coen: I know this is a bit unfriendly from my side to start this thing without letting you know first but really i had to If you are in the right mood do it right away, at least thats what i tend to say. I have some other stuff on my bench aswell so i won´t be very fast with this model. For example my ASU-85 group build i do with Strom22tpt, this will keep me busy aswell. I´m sure you will be able to join me soon enough, i would be honoured if you do so mate!

I never thought for a second that you were unfriendly Dude, it's your kit... of course you can start it or stop it whenever you like.
I have a tonne of things on the go as well, this project should go slowly I think. It's worth it.
I'm just happy that I can join in.
I can start a few little things, mostly I need to collect together the reference material that I'll need before I begin and wait for the parts that I've ordered.

Michael and Micheal's Excellent Tiger Adventure Begins.... Wow... maybe we shouldn't call it that. Haha

Coen wrote:I never thought for a second that you were unfriendly Dude, it's your kit... of course you can start it or stop it whenever you like.
I have a tonne of things on the go as well, this project should go slowly I think. It's worth it.
I'm just happy that I can join in.
I can start a few little things, mostly I need to collect together the reference material that I'll need before I begin and wait for the parts that I've ordered.

Michael and Micheal's Excellent Tiger Adventure Begins.... Wow... maybe we shouldn't call it that. Haha

Alright, so be it All those conversions you will do on your kit will be interesting to see, i will do it the easy way so to say I just saw another folk joins us, the more we are the better it is!

We may have to set up a special thread for the three (or more) builds.
That would take the POWER OF LEE AND PAUL... big booming scary voice.

Cool model. Will there be any exposed interior? Does it come with a commander?

If there's more than 2 of you ill set up a buddy build for you guys. Just let me know

gosselin2112 wrote:Cool model. Will there be any exposed interior? Does it come with a commander?

There is no commander included and unfortunately all hatches are moulded on, so you would need a saw to open them up which might be very difficult to do. I´ll go for a exterior model only, it will be impressive anyway

Paul wrote:If there's more than 2 of you ill set up a buddy build for you guys. Just let me know

Coen will join in at a later stage whenever it suits him in the next weeks.

Looks like there's the three of us so far.
Might be a good idea just to keep things neat Paul. If you don't mind.

Coen wrote:Looks like there's the three of us so far.
Might be a good idea just to keep things neat Paul. If you don't mind.

Yep,no problem I'll go set it up now for you

Coen wrote:Looks like there's the three of us so far.
Might be a good idea just to keep things neat Paul. If you don't mind.

Ok set up and Michael's and pedro's threads moved, do you not have one yet dude?

I'll start one this morning.
I'm starting my figure build and the tiger both this morning.
Haha... right now I'm trying to whittle down all these emails.
Busy Busy busy

I got some more work done today:


I assembled the wheels. They are supposed to be screwed together but i glued them instead because thats a faster method.


Then i started with the backplate. I used Tamiya masking tape to mark the areas where i won´t apply Zimmerit. I also removed a moulded on tool because it looked aweful and will be annoying when i apply the Zimmert coat.


The exhaust pipes needed a lot of filler. On the top there is a little flap missing, i might add it on my own we will see.


The gun got assembled by screwing the parts together.


I sawed off the muzzle break from the plastic part which i don´t like and assembled it. It turned out that the aluminium barrel i bought from Hobby Fan is a bit too thick on the front end, so i will saw the mounting for the muzzle break off and glue them together.

Great progress Michael. You'll be caught up to Pedro in no time.
I'm curious to see you apply the zimmerit. I want to see how that tool that comes with the kit works out.

So tempted to get one of these and join in, but I think I don't have the spare time sadly.

I know that I don't... so I started mine anyway. haha

Coen wrote:I know that I don't... so I started mine anyway. haha

Lmao

These Tigers are gonna look sweet guys.....
3 modelling pro's building the same kits, together in 1 thread... WOW..
.....feeling like a 12 year old girl at a 1D concert......

This will be a blast to follow!

Thank you very much for showing so much interest


As i mentioned before the Hobby Fan aluminium barrel is a nice product, but unfortunately the muzzle break did not fit at all on the attachement point. I sawed it off but the surface wasn´t flat enough to glue the muzzle break in place properly. I took the barrel with me to work and corrected the surface by removing a bit of it on the lathe.


Now the muzzle break fits perfectly


The barrel is designed for the Tamiya kit i think so it did not fit very well into the gun mantlet (the barrel is slightly too thin). I glued some stripes of plastic sheet on it to stabilize it.


The gun is now glued in place, everything looks fine. All i need to do now is removing the seamlines on the muzzle break.


Here i tested a way to create a rough cast steel surface - i applied Revell Plasto filler with an old rough brush on those parts. Looks very rough, what do you think? I might sand it down a bit or apply a coat of Mr.Surfacer over it.

I think the rough steel surface turned out great buddy

I think the rough steel surface turned out great buddy

Thank you for your opinion


There were these bulges on the front plate of the lower hull which are incorrect, so i sawed them away.


Then i coverd the entire front plate with plastic sheet. I used instant glue because normal plastic cement would eat through the thin plastic sheet. Coen demonstrated this approach in one of his videos, this was very helpful for me so thank you very much buddy!
There were also those sinkmarks on the sides, i needed to get rid of those aswell.


I´m glad i have enough plastic sheet ready to use


To fill some small gaps i used Revell Plasto filler applied with a injection. Very handy, not messy and there will only minimal sanding needed later.


Finally i assembled the main parts of the hull, wow this thing is huge!

Brilliant work Michael.
I like what you did with exhaust guards. I think that I'll do the same. I may add a layer of Mr. Surfacer 500 after to blend it a bit. If I don't like it I'll sand it back a bit.
Thanks for that. I hadn't figured out how to handle that yet.
Great work fixing that barrel. I wish that I had a lathe... lucky bugger.

That bow turned out flawlessly too. Well done. Great idea with the CA glue. Less work that way. Looks so much neater too.

Awesome... just awesome...

Brilliant work Michael, great job on that rough texture I think it looks perfect.

Thank you all very much
I think i will cover the rough steel texture with Mr Surfacer anyway, i think it will look better this way when painted.

Looks amazing!!! what a "big" clean build!!!
and that metal barrel looks great!!! wish I had one!!!


cant wait for the next update!!!!

hi there mister Barkas
lools real nice so far think i will try the texturing on my tiger as well
hope to see more soon
cheers Mark

Alright, after a long break from this project i can finally continue I tried to make my own Zimmerit coat on the model, but all my attempts did not satisfy me at all. Because of that i decided to wait for the Atak resin zimmerit set, which i finally got.

It comes with a complete resin mantlet with the Zimmerit texture on it, but i already installed the kit part. I was not sure whether i glued it or not.



Luckily i did not glue it at all, i just had to remove the screws and install the new resin part. Perfect fit by the way!



Gun barell installed, everything worked fine. Luckily

Looks lovely - great to see an update on the 1/16 builds!

Now, when do i start mine?

Good to see that your back on this build
The atak zimmerit is good stuff
I made the mistake to use the version for the tamiya kit
It will fit but the mantlet needed some modification
I think that i will continue mine soon when i have my gb entries done
And Coen mentioned he will pick up his soon too
So maybe we can finally finish these monsters
Good luck with the zimmerit and the rest of the build
Cheers Mark

As soon as the Kursk GB is done, I'll be opening mine back up. I've been chomping at the bit for it for ages now. That mantlet looks the nuts Michael. With that metal barrel an that resin it will be really heavy.
Some counter balancing my be in order.

I´ll continue on the model whenever the motivation strikes me There is not that much to do with regard to the assembly, it is a rather simple model. Painting and weathering it will take some time for sure Great to have you guys on board again Let´s do this!

Very nice so far. I want one of these soooooo bad and now atak do Zim? It is so big I would have to build it on the living room floor like I was 10 again (and then getting chased down the road by Mother for getting glue on the carpet). Happy days

Scooter