KING TIGER - a project for 2019...

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

Firstly, a happy New Year to you all, I hope everybody had a good Christmas.

Before looking at my tank build, a little non-modelling build I did over Christmas - a home for solitary bees. The grooves are different sizes to (hopefully) attract different types of solitary bees. On one side the grooves are covered by plywood, on the other side they are covered by a perspect sheet, and over that a removable panel so we can occasionally look inside to see what they are doing.




Now onto my modelling build: As some light relief from sculpting I got one of the Meng King Tiger kits.


And with the kit I also got the Meng interior detail set:


Both have had some good re iews so fingers' crossed they will go together nicely.

And to go with them this set of figures from Stalingrad:


I had not heard of this make before but the figures are very nice.

My intention is to build it as a cut-away model with the crew in the vehicle, which I hope will really show just how cramped tanks were.

I will blog the build, but do not expect it to be quick, I have to fit in in and around my sculpting so I do not expect to finish until the end of 2019.

 

[Fernando N]

Happy new year to you too Peter and nice work on the bees home, with their numbers dwindling always good when someone helps them.
Interesting KT project you’ve started, will try to follow along.

 

[stillp]

I make hedgehog homes for them to hibernate in, but the bees seem to nest in them and drive the hogs out!

Pete

 

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
Love the bee house. We have a couple of bought insect houses and they do get used. We have seen some of the tubes sealed with mud.
The king tiger project sounds great. The Stalingrad figures are very nice.
Jim

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Nice kit. I built that (sans interior) a couple of years ago.

Not sure if you are aware, but there is an issue with the suspension arms towing in. There's a couple of workarounds you might want to look into.

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

Those suspension bars should be ok as the interior set supplies the torsion rods.I had that problem with the Meng 'production' turret Tiger II until I used the additional suspension set.
Jon.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

A terrific idea Peter - I always love cutaways. And thumbs up for doing a favour for the bees.

 

[JR]

Good idea Peter .
We have 2 bee and insect houses .
Jim mentions having some sealed up tubes, you probably know they are done by the Masonary Bee . The female lays an egg , with some food, them makes a mud wall , lays another egg , and so on up to 3 . The idea is the first hatches and brakes through the next wall and if lucky they all break out . Masonary bees can pollinate more apples than a hive of the same no .
I often come across the solidarity bee in moss covered ground or old hanging baskets. You suddenly hear the sound of the wings and a rather disgruntled bee appears ! Beautiful bees I really love seeing them.

Will take seat and wait some action, no rush we have all year !
John . thanks

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

Fernando - as you say, the numbers of pollinators are dwindling so it is nice to help them.

Peter - I build a couple of hedgehog houses in the autumn, so far nothing at all has used them, perhaps next year.

Jim - nice to have you along, I am quite impressed with the quality of the figures. Glad you insect homes are being used.

Bob -thanks for the warning re the suspension arms.

Jon - hopefully you are right about the interior set fixing the issue with the suspension arms.

Peter D - glad to have you along. I have a bust to finish before I really start this project in earnest.

John R - hopefully I will get some masenary bees. I have a mixture of hole sizes so hopefully will attract a number of different types of bee, iincluding the Masonary bee. Apparently where the bee lays more than one egg they hatch in reverse order: the youngest egg is closest to the entrance and hatches first, making way for the second youngest etc, with the first egg laid hatching first. Clever stuff. I hope your seat is comfey - this is going to be a long build.

Here is a guide I found for the type of bee and size of hole:



For the KT, now I have the kits I just need to gather some reference material - heading off to the WWW. How did we research before the Web?

Peter

 

[MikeC]

hello Peter,
Happy New Year.
And well done on the bees sanctuary, I have an asian family next door and if it has more than two legs they are petrified, so the bees took over their old shed towards the end of the summer and now have a nice warm home.
Good luck with the build, no rush, it will get finished when it is finished.
Cheers, Mike.

 

[Si Benson]

Afternoon and happy new year to you Peter,
‘‘Tis the season” for Tiger II builds it seems...look forward to seeing how you get on with the kit. Is the zimmeritt moulded on or do you have to add it yourself?

Great to see you doing your bit for the wildlife and a nice bit of woodwork too

 

[Deleted member 4539]

I think this will be a great build.

 

[scottie3158]

Hi Peter,
I will pull up a chair with the others looking forward to see what you do with this.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

mike - nice to have you alone, your neighbours would hate it here, with a pond and my wife's two honey bee hives we have a lot of insects.

Si - the 'zim is not moulded onto the kit. Does anybody know if all Porsche KTs had Zim on them? i hope not, I don't relish the job of adding it, I was hoping this would be more or less a straight out of the box build, well out if the 2 boxes at least.

Ralph - keep your fingers' crossed for me.

Scottie - welcome, i think biscuits and lots of coffee may be needed as well as a comfy seat.

So far I have spent a couple of hours on the WWW to gather some research and found the following sites which look to be useful:

These first two are of the Takom kit but all of the interior details may be useful:
http://www.themodellingnews.com/2017/01/build-guide-king-tiger-henschel-turret.html
http://www.themodellingnews.com/2017/05/build-pt-ii-andy-works-hull-in-cut-out.html
Unfortunately, I cannot find part III.

The next is of a Meng kit, but again not a full build: http://www.armorama.co.uk/modules.p...kBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=257748

Another incollete build blog, which may also have a few pointers:
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/178529.aspx?page=2

This is probably the best site - buildin the 1/16 KT, which should show a lot more details than I can fit into a 1/35th kit.
https://public.fotki.com/Liejon/scale-modelling/armour/116/kingtiger-colours-1/#media

Finally, a review of David Parkers book of his build of the 1/16 KT which shows a number of pages of the book, which again may be useful.

http://www.themodellingnews.com/2015/02/superking-building-trumpeters-116th.html

Now I just have to summon up the courage to start.

 

[MikeC]

Hi Guys

mike - nice to have you alone, your neighbours would hate it here, with a pond and my wife's two honey bee hives we have a lot of insects.

Si - the 'zim is not moulded onto the kit. Does anybody know if all Porsche KTs had Zim on them? i hope not, I don't relish the job of adding it, I was hoping this would be more or less a straight out of the box build, well out if the 2 boxes at least.

Ralph - keep your fingers' crossed for me.

Scottie - welcome, i think biscuits and lots of coffee may be needed as well as a comfy seat.

So far I have spent a couple of hours on the WWW to gather some research and found the following sites which look to be useful:

These first two are of the Takom kit but all of the interior details may be useful:
http://www.themodellingnews.com/2017/01/build-guide-king-tiger-henschel-turret.html
http://www.themodellingnews.com/2017/05/build-pt-ii-andy-works-hull-in-cut-out.html
Unfortunately, I cannot find part III.

The next is of a Meng kit, but again not a full build: http://www.armorama.co.uk/modules.p...kBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=257748

Another incollete build blog, which may also have a few pointers:
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/178529.aspx?page=2

This is probably the best site - buildin the 1/16 KT, which should show a lot more details than I can fit into a 1/35th kit.
https://public.fotki.com/Liejon/scale-modelling/armour/116/kingtiger-colours-1/#media

Finally, a review of David Parkers book of his build of the 1/16 KT which shows a number of pages of the book, which again may be useful.

http://www.themodellingnews.com/2015/02/superking-building-trumpeters-116th.html

Now I just have to summon up the courage to start.

Its the sadist in me, like watching the kids try to guess if the dogs are in or out (sadistic snigger).....
Mike.

 

[Jakko]

Does anybody know if all Porsche KTs had Zim on them? i hope not, I don't relish the job of adding it

To the best of my knowledge, only the very early vehicles didn’t have Zimmerit — photos of ones with the early turret but no Zimmerit aren’t very common.

But it’s not actually difficult to make with putty (from a tube or two-part) and a modelling saw.

 

[JR]

Peter.
Great drawings of the bee box thank you , we hang one of ours facing south, as one year the bees used old Red Wall plug holes in the south facing extension. The mud covering the holes was a great find, one good thing about these Bees they don't sting !
John.

 

[Steve Jones]

WOW!! Seat pulled up for this one. A fantastic project Peter. I wish you all the best

 

[langy71]

hope you don't mind another body squeezing in...
(i'll stand at the back so i don't stand on anybody's toes), you can't beat a tiger king tiger build.looking forward to seeing this 'grow'

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Peter,

Porsche had 50 turrets built with Krupp 8.8 cm Kw.K 43 L/71 guns mounted in them. The first 3 turrets were mounted on prototypes V1, V2 and V3. These prototypes had no Zimmerit. Production began with Vehicle # 280001 to 2800047. These were produced and fielded before June 1944, when the Henschel turret took over. Zimmerit was discontinued in Sept. 1944, so the Porsche turret Tiger II's would have had it applied. Unless you attempt to build a prototype V1, V2 or V3, Zimmerit was on them all. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Sir.

I will follow along and if you do decide to forgo the Zimmerit and build a prototype, I can help you with line drawings and some photos of them. I also believe you can get aftermarket Zimmerit for the kit, but not from Meng at this time. They only offer Zimmerit for their Tiger II with Henschel turret….

Prost
Allen