Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

This section is to 'show and tell' about any customizing or re-modeling you have done (or are doing) to a Heng Long tank.
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Jnewboy
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Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by Jnewboy »

Around 2 years ago I started this and then stopped and am now finishing it. The chassis is Henglong and the Turret is Tamiya. I removed all the guts from the Henglong turret and fit them into the Tamiya. Got the turret rotating and then started the paint process. I like the blue numbers and the tri-color pea dot camo. I was tempted to do Piepers red 204 but I did not like the red numbers on the camo. Models are a blend of history and art and they really must be balanced, you cant or at least shouldn't change history to make something look "better" but you can cherry pick history until you find something that is appealing to the eye. The last thing you want is to do a model that is not appealing to look at. Here is some inspiration:

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

Like the KV-1 under construction right now I never intended to do a build thread on this as most of the time I only do them so that the customer can see the progress of their model in real time. So please excuse the lack of pics in the beginning. Most of this thread will deal with this paint job.

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

This pic shows the start of the camo, base is RAL 7028 aus DGIII, now hard edge RAL 8012 (lightened with a little pink)

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

Next RAL 6011 (lightened with blue) is cut into the pattern but not randomly, it must look like its own camo pattern.

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

You will make errors, see above, you see my pattern made an "eye" or "island", don't allow these to exist, after your first mock up of the brown (8012) you should go back over it and fix your spacing and errors like this with the base color. I airbrushed the base but after that, the whole thing is painted by brush due to the pattern being hard edged.

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

Notice that the base color "island" has been fixed on the turret and the RAL 6011 is on, please remember that this camo is a slow methodical process of switching between the three colors, adding some here and there balancing the three colors and pattern.

Also some of you may think already that the green is too blue and it does look bizarre right now but this is done to fade the tank evenly before the Magic Grime goes on, it will filter and change the hue of the colors, if the colors were richer now, latter they would be to dark. A good thing to know is what shade fades to what shade, for example the Dark Yellow would fade to a lighted off white tan color, the brown goes rust color and the green goes blue. So mixing in these colors with little white will give you the right shade. I play with the pallet (styrene sheet below the tank) until I get three shades that compliment each other and none over power the other.

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

Next is the dots, less is more, the most important is the spacing, now I know that the Germans did not measure between dots and there are lots of examples of them looking sorta random - But - if you follow a rough pattern you will be happier with the end result. I start with three dots in a rough triangle, now I will try to copy this spacing through out the tank.

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

These dots will be shrunk in some cases as some are to big, I use a make-up applicator that is similar to a Que-tip and though it makes nice dots some are to big, some dots will be removed all together.

Lots more to come!
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Jimster
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by Jimster »

Wow! It’s already impressive. Definitely watching this build thread.
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PainlessWolf
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by PainlessWolf »

Jon,
Beautiful Stuff! Watching for tips for my current Build,
regards and following along,
Painless
...Here for the Dawn...
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Raminator
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by Raminator »

Really interesting to see the thought process behind the colour selections Jon, I think you've nailed that weather-faded palette. I'm interested to see how the Magic Grime filter will transform the look.
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General Jumbo01
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by General Jumbo01 »

Superb paintwork. It seems a shame to add grime! I will be watching and learning.

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EAO
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by EAO »

Jnewboy,

That camo scheme is impressive! I love the RAL 6011 lightened with blue, it has a great hue to it!
Carry on! :clap:

Cheers,
Eric.
"You can always tell a German, you just can't tell him much." Anonymous.

German cars, German girls, German beer, German firearms, German Shepherds, German motorcycles... Not necessarily in that order though!

UP THE IRONS!
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Jnewboy
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by Jnewboy »

Since I finished the KV-1 I have been busy with something very different...

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

I took afew pictures of it in case any of you are into aviation models.

1/18 He 219 Uhu

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr

Here is a good size comparison to the King Tiger

Here is the latest pic of the King Tiger, as Apone says in Aliens "watch your spacing" :haha:

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr
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Jnewboy
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by Jnewboy »

About half way done today, what do you think?

ImageUntitled by Jnewboy Customs, on Flickr
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jee
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by jee »

awesome, just one question, in the original camo scheme they didnt use dark brown spots at all? (I dont see them on your tank)
Regards,
Jaap :wave:
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Jnewboy
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Re: Ardennes King Tiger - Jnewboy Customs

Post by Jnewboy »

jee wrote:awesome, just one question, in the original camo scheme they didnt use dark brown spots at all? (I dont see them on your tank)
Thats a good question! so this is my best evidence, up close colorized film.

If you look at it carefully it looks like the light areas only have the green. Its hard to say but I was intending on going back over it with the brown and making a few spots brown, not many, right now I am trying to get the spacing right. I know on the real thing the Germans weren't measuring between spots but it just looks better on the model.

Image
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