1/16th scale Tiger 1 Ausf. E.

Looking pretty good there Terry.

Very cool stuff Terry! I've always liked Tiger tanks. I had a Tamiya 1/35 Tiger I tank when I was younger. It was motorised and had a wired remote control.

Thanks chaps !
Just about to start on the rest of the mods, and might have some pics later.
As for pics of the lack of moustache, I'm afraid I'm unable to hold the camera to take a pic of myself, so meanwhile, here's a pic of Britain's latest stealth aircraft, flying from left to right in the pic.

Surely you mean right to left.

A lame excuse, and an even lamer substitute!

Bah, Humbug !!

Almost ready for paint - just got to let the 'Milliput' harden, then tidy-up the edges, and mask a few vital areas, so all being well, I should get the base coat on some time tomorrow.
Since taking the pics, I've put a primer coat of Humbrol Dark Yellow on the metal parts, and also along all the joints where 'Milliput' has been used, as well as the engine vent hatches - the latter will be masked for spraying, to avoid any over spray getting in to the electrics inside the hull. These areas will be brush-painted, but the remainder will be sprayed, in Dark Yellow overall, (I'll be using MM Middle Stone, kindly supplied by Andy), with stripes of Red Brown and Dark Green. All unit an tactical markings will be hand-painted.
Here's how things look so far.

PIC 1. The gun mantlet has now had the zimmerit coating completed, and awaits a bit of a 'tidy-up' once set.
PIC 2. Likewise the zimmerit has been applied to the turret escape hatch hinge.
PIC 3. The mounting holes for the smoke dischargers (supplied with the tank, but deleted on mid and late production models) have been blanked-off using thin plastic card.
PIC 4. The joints around the rubber zimmerit on the hull front have been trimmed with 'Milliput' zimmerit, the circular pattern around the mg ball mount housing has also been treated, vertical grooves have been engraved into the driver's sliding, armoured visor cover, to simulate the joints of the sliding section, and two holes have been drilled above this, to represent the binocular viewing optics, used when the tank is 'closed up'.
The hull front plate will be almost totally covered by the spare tracks, so only the visible areas have had zimmerit applied. The rectangular and square 'cut outs' in the zimmerit coating on the glacis are where the unit badge and the heavy tank indicator emblem will be painted, once the model has been painted. I've decided that the model will be finished to represent a Tiger of 2nd Kompanie, s.Pz.Abt 101, Normandy, 1944.
PIC 5. An antenna mount has been fabricated from two gauges of plastic tube and square rod.
PIC 6. The antenna was made by shaving a length of plastic rod, to a tapered shape, and is temporarily fitted just for the photo.
PIC 7. Lever latches have been made and fitted to the turret stowage bin, using plastic channel, thin rod, and a slightly heavier rod, with the ends 'squashed' in a pair of pliers, and bent.
PIC 8. As the headlights actually work (and they're bl**dy bright, too !), I don't want to mess with them, so both will be left in place. However, they'll be masked for painting, and then 'black out' covers will be made and fitted later, with slits allowing a thin beam of light to show.

That must have been quite a flexible antenna, what with the turret rotation and all.

I'd guess it was on a flexible 'swan neck' Jim.
Hoping to get the paint on later today.

Looking good Terry. You said you were going to do the markings by hand, is there an aftermarket source for markings?

EDIT: Should have Googled first, looks like quite a few but I don't know how they would work over the zimmerit

To be honest, I hadn't looked for 'proper' decals in 1/16th scale, but as you've noted, getting them to lay down on the zimmerit would probably be impossible - even if they did settle, they'd probably be mis-shaped !
In this size, it shouldn't be a problem hand-painting the turret numbers and tactical markings, having done it in 1/35th scale before, although I'll probably cut masks just to get the basic shape right, then do the white outline to the red numbers by hand. I might have some decal numbers in a suitable size for the rear of the turret storage bin though.
The trickiest part is going to be the painting of the wheels and the hull behind them, something that would normally be done, on a kit, before the hull and other bits were assembled. Also, the top of the hull beneath the turret will be a bit of a pain, as the turret can only be traversed under power, so it'll mean moving a bit, painting a bit, moving a bit and so on, with the lights flashing, and the 'engine' sound running !
Just about to start the painting, beginning with those darned wheels - pics later.

It begins to look very good, the color will give a big change.

...y la fiesta continúa!!
Saludos !!

Lovely work so far Terry!

That looks great,,lol thought you were covering the tank with bratwurst at first..........

"

Airframes said:

here's a pic of Britain's latest stealth aircraft, flying from left to right in the pic.


View attachment 349013

Click to expand...

This makes me remember abut some guy that was looking for colors for a scale model he was going to build, if you know who am I talking about...

Thanks very much indeed chaps.
I've go the base colour on, and as if I didn't need reminding about the sheer size of this thing, it took me over six hours to paint it, and I used an entire bottle of Model Master paint, plus an extra two cups full on the airbrush, mixed to match from Humbrol paints !
Its' got more nooks and crannies than a Hippocroccofrog's arm pit, and after moving the thing about so often, my arms are still aching !

I was originally going to use Humbrol Dark Yellow, which in theory is the correct shade (used it on 1/48th and 1/35th scale vehicles before), but when I used it as a primer for the metal parts, it looked rather dark to me, with a slight orange cast to it. The fact that I only had half a tin left, and the LHS didn't have any, made me look at the batch of MM pants Andy generously gave me, when he was at Duxford last September, and the Middle Stone looked more like the shade I needed.
The wheels and inner hull were tackled first, with a thin coat brushed on, and I had doubts about the covering qualities at first. However, allowing for the fact that the brush I was using was a bit on the stiff side, and access was extremely restricted, I think that, when able to 'lay off' the paint properly, and with the correct type of brush, there wouldn't be a problem in future.
The rest of the model was sprayed, and the paint performed beautifully, going on smoothly, and drying fairly quickly, to a true matt finish, not the cr@ppy, patchy semi-gloss finish experienced with some Hiubrol paints.
So a big 'Thank You' to Andy, and I think i might be converting to MM paints !

Having run out of the MM paint, I mixed up a batch to match, adding a bit of white the to Humbrol Dark Yellow, and used this to spray the lower front plate, the rear plate and all the lumps and bumps on it, and part of the underside. The wheels also got another coat, sprayed this time, and any overspray on the 'tyres' will be tackled by re-painting them a more realistic colour, and at the same time painting the tracks.
Tomorrow, I'll tackle the camouflage stripes.
The pics show how the Tiger look so far, and note that the masking is still in place on the engine louvres, lamps, mg port on the mantlet and the one in the ball mount (which contains a flashing LED to simulate the mg fire), and also on the cupola episcopes and the gun muzzle


.

Brilliant Terry. I'm glad you've cracked open a bottle of that paint and that you like it.

You are really moving along on this! Great job!