GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank (new pics and vid)

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tankgirlfuzzy
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GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank (new pics and vid)

Post by tankgirlfuzzy »

Hi all,

First build thread here. I'll be honest: the only reason I got into these 1/16 scale tanks was because I wanted some tanks to complement that giant 1/12 scale Panzer IVDhttps://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/5 ... inals.html from Girls und Panzer, with which I planned to do some basic RC functions (drive only since it's already motorized but no turret functions) and a basic "play scale" interior for the really adorable GuP 1/12 action figures of Miho's Ankou team (those of you who know the show will know what I mean by that). So I bought a KT to "battle" with the Ankou team Pz IV, my reasoning being that the KT is the largest of the WW2 tanks and wouldn't look too out of scale next to the Piv. But, as it seems is common in this hobby, the gateway drug led to one thing after another, and now I have the KT with ElMod under construction, a Taigen Tiger I early awaiting mods and also with an ElMod, and a Taigen Panzer IVG kit (without electronics) winging its way over here from Germany which will largely supplant the 1/12 Piv for my Ankou team girls (oh, and I plan to use ElMod in that as well, although I may just swap one of the boards from the other two tanks in since I can't actually operate all three at once!). Sigh...

I'm basically a lazy modeler, despite my OCD tendencies when I focus on select details and spend inordinate amounts of time, effort, and money trying to get things as perfect as possible. I try to get the main things right, or at least the ones I notice most, and try to ignore as many faults or wrong details as I can get away with. My goal here is to try to model a "show accurate" Erika's King Tiger, but it will certainly not be perfect.

So disclaimer finished, here are my progress pics so far:
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Erika and Maho couldn't wait to get this project started!

The first thing I did was replace the crappy zinc gearboxes with the Mato 5:1 steel ones, and of course the ElMod for the stock 5.3 MFU:
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Along the way I did the magnets mod as well. Got rid of the smoke unit (hate those things) and realized I couldn't live with a plain old BB unit without recoil. So I found a metal recoil unit with servos sold by the Chinese ebay retailer who sold me the tank and bought it (not sure what brand: Heng Long, Mato?). Once received, I realized major mods would be needed to use it. To start, the unit requires a threaded barrel, but the nice metal barrel that came with the tank was untapped:
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It had other problems like untapped screw holes which I had to deal with, but the major problem was figuring out what the thread was in the recoil unit. I figured it was 9mm, but I tried various automotive bolts in that size and none fit. I finally realized through much searching that it was a specific type used for firearms, which is fitting! Unfortunately, hand turning a die is really hard to keep straight, so it's a bit off center and the barrel wouldn't screw down all the way, but ... good enough.
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Once that was done, I quickly realized the design of the barrel and mantlet precluded any recoil action, so I needed to thin down the barrel the correct length needed for recoil:
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15mm recoil is the max for the unit, which is fairly pitiful (should probably twice as much), but better than nothing.

Some shims were added to ensure a proper fit and smooth and even travel:
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I couldn't figure out a way to fit the elevation servo, so I kept the stock elevation motor unit, as the recoil unit has the tab that fits it on its "breech"
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Once the recoil unit was tested and working, I realized I could fit the entire figure body down the main hatch (not just the half body on the bb feeder), but it came dangerously close to the oily elevation motor, so I devised an "oil wall"
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You can see I finally added the Taigen flash unit wiring to the main gun. Had to cut and resolder because the recoil breech was too narrow for the LED to pass through. The plastic oil guard also helps to keep the wire from tangling into the gear teeth of the elevation motor when the gun recoils.

Thin styrene sheet is all that's needed. The plastic installed behind the gearboxes in the second pic from the top is also basically just an "oil wall" to prevent grease splatter from soiling the rear compartments, so I also only used thin (.5 mm) sheet--it's not structural at all, I didn't see the point of using anything thicker or heavier. I did the same type of thing on the upper hull right behind the magnet posts.
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Last edited by tankgirlfuzzy on Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:35 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by tankgirlfuzzy »

At this point it may be worth showing some video of the tank being put through its paces when I got to this point, which was a few months ago.
phpBB [video]


The voices are rips I made from the BDs of the series and movie (Der Film), which I own. They are almost all of the "wrong" characters (like Yukari and Erwin), but I have since ripped some appropriate ones from Kuromorimine (mostly Maho's voice, but at least one of Erika shouting "Ute!" (Fire! in Japanese). All the music is from the soundtracks (movie and series) as well, which of course I also own! B| :{

Of course, no actual "modeling" work had been done to this point, but more to come... :P
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by tankgirlfuzzy »

One thing I noticed about Erika's tank (and GuP depictions in general) is that although rendered quite accurately, they are missing many of the details that modelers usually fuss about. One of these is the flame cut edges on the interlocking hull plate dovetails--on the King Tigers they are totally smooth and not shown:
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Instead of going the simple but tedious route of filling the poorly rendered Henglong flame cut edges with putty and sanding, I opted for the complicated and even more tedious method of sanding the random cross hatches, then trying to cut thin sheet to fit the spaces as well as possible, gluing those in, and then filling with putty. :/ The process took over a week of steady work, and that was just for the upper front sections. I haven't even started on the lower hull and I gave up and just puttied the rear section under the tow cable. I won't even know how it really looks until I prime everything for the first time, but I suspect there will be gaps and undulations that will need rework. And, I missed the small section at the rear of the turret sides, which I may or may not do, we'll see... :-<
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Along the way I added/modded a few details, such as a more accurate Bosch headlight shroud, and replaced the molded hatch handles with wire. Also basic modeling things like scraping mold lines and flash, something the factory never does for us. And for once wouldn't it be nice if they could make clean cuts to the parts (or at least scrape the burr a few times) from the sprues before gluing them on? Also, holes needed to filled with plastic or putty or both. Along the way, I broke off the commander's hatch handle simply by pulling, discovering it's held in by about 1mm of CA'd brass handle. Rather than regluing, I fabricated a new one with longer ends, drilled the holes through and bent the wire underneath and CA'd so no amount of pulling will yank it out.
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I hadn't finished puttying and sanding the flame cut edges yet on the above pics. Also, if you're wondering why I filled the lower pin brackets for the spare tracks, it's because those are missing from the King Tigers in the show. The lower half of the two piece track section is not there, so I'm not sure what they would do in the case of actual track replacement!
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Last edited by tankgirlfuzzy on Tue Dec 10, 2019 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

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So finally it was time to tackle my most difficult thing so far: the track tensioner cable brackets. In the show, neither the King Tigers nor Maho's Tiger I have the cable attached. At least the KTs have their tow cables--the Tiger I doesn't even have those, and is missing the brackets for those as well. And, the show does not render all the brackets and are missing some. That's great for a lazy modeler like me--less work! :clap:
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I considered getting some nice PE sets and gluing them on per the usual route, but quickly realized they would pop off or deform easily with any real handling. So, I took the opportunity to work on my brass fabrication skills and make my own, and figure out a way to secure them so they wouldn't come off. I borrowed a technique I saw from armourguy (is that his handle here?), AKA John from East Coast Armory, who is one of the true masters of large scale armor modeling and who I've been watching with wonder and envy for years. On his 1/6 scale armortek KT, he soldered on some bolts to the back of customized brackets he built himself, and bolted them on through the predrilled holes. Working in 1/16 is a bit harder, approximately 5-6 times smaller from a 2D area standpoint, though the scale is technically a third smaller. So, I had to take brass sheet, hand cut slightly narrower than 2mm strips, and bend six brackets as identically as I could. Then, I used the smallest flat head counter sunk screws I could find (Hob-bits 00-90 1/8") and solder them on to the back of each as neatly as possible. I also had to fabricate the front tensioner post bracket, as that one was shown. And of course, measure and mark the placements and drill holes as accurately as possible, and then countersink them so the screws would sit flush. Yikes! :crazy:
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You can really get a sense of how tiny those screws/nuts are from the last few pics. Just threading the nuts on at the end was an hour long chore, never mind the hours it took to get the soldering right! And yes, I practiced on some "larger" pieces (0-80, not much!). This really pushed my soldering skills, and let me tell you, I hate soldering. But I now have some high quality tools (an actual station [trakpower] with variable heat up to 900 degrees) and materials and finally am starting to get the hang of what I need to do to successfully solder things. On such tiny pieces you don't need much solder and it's hard to keep things neat, but any excess is filed off with needle files and of course flux must be cleaned off with solvent (I use lacquer thinner). Turns out I may have taken too much off or not had a successful joint on the tensioner post bracket, because the bond broke as I was tightening the nut from behind, so I had to resolder that (easier the second time of course). All the brackets are now permanently attached with gap filling CA and the nuts, except for the front one which sits on the reworked flame cut edge dovetail. I don't want to glue that on until I'm sure that area is flat and gapless after priming.

Final note on the brackets: the quality of the screws were horrible. I have had luck in the past with those Hob-bits screws in the smallest sizes (both 0-80 and 00-90), but this time nine of ten screws (two packs of five) were not properly threaded. I had extra nuts and some hex bolts in the same size so I know it was the screws. I think the short length makes it extremely difficult for them to be properly cut or molded or however they're made. Anyway, I had to sacrifice several nuts to use as dies to force the threads to conform as best as they could, but I didn't need the whole length so it didn't matter too much.

Still have to fabricate the angled engine vent screens (I'm going Aber on these, as the Taigen ones are useless), and probably I'll succumb to fixing the bow machine gun mount as the gaps and placement of the inner ball are atrocious. Rear plate needs some work, and the lower hull needs that puttying done.

That's it for now. I'll update more as I progress!
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by jarndice »

My knowledge of "GuP" was zero until he who must not be named (The General) joined the Forum and thrust it upon us,
And so kicking and screaming we were taught the songs and the wonderfully original way in which weapons of war could have a "Slanted" and more colourful side :haha:
So you are not in a desert of the uninitiated I shall in concert with many other members of the Forum be following on :thumbup:
What came to mind when you spoke of smoothing panels was "Mr Primer Surfacer 500/1000" it does to model tank bodywork what filler does to automobile bodywork, Anyway in the words of a filmic robot "More Input". :clap:
For all my small Nuts Bolts and Washers and the essential Nutspinners I go to
www.prime-miniatures.co.uk
Brilliant service.
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

Yes, the 'General' was a real rarity- and also made in excess of 11,000 posts (how's that for OTT energy? :crazy: ), and many were related to GuP and- well, even pink painted Panzers. 8O His animated Gifs annoyed some, but I was always entertained by them :D
Your work is gratifyingly accomplished, and ultra neat (wish I could be that neat ). I get the impression that whatever you set your mind to, project-wise, will be realised in an impressive form. :thumbup:. There will also be more tips and tricks; that's for sure.
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by tankgirlfuzzy »

Thanks for the tips and kind words jarndice and 43rdRR. This project is taking way longer than I expected, as I thought I'd be primed and painted by now! Anyway, still several things to fix before I get to that, and I'll try to keep this thread updated.
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by tankgirlfuzzy »

post deleted...

Let's get back on track with my build thread, no more talk of the [...] time to move on...
Last edited by tankgirlfuzzy on Sat Dec 14, 2019 6:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by jarndice »

Alpha (The General) was a member of the Forum but he was officially banished after a number of transgressions,
I should say that the punishment was not unanimous.
He was a true original and a brilliant builder who apart from introducing the Forum to GuP managed to get Painless and me to compose Heiku :lolno:
He specialised in Panzer 111s and 4s in GuP colours and markings with hand crafted exquisite female figures dressed in the GuP fashion,
Not bad for a man who had spent some years serving in the US Marine Corp.
An enigma who I still miss. :thumbup:
I should add that ALPHA was warned countless times about his behaviour before he was suspended for three months before finally the management had to let him go :thumbdown:
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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Re: GuP mods for HL King Tiger: Erika's tank

Post by Max-U52 »

Now we just have to get you hooked on 1/6 scale. This is my 1/6 Hetzer, temporarily dressed up for the amusement of the departed two-star. The barrel does not recoil, however it does shoot .50 caliber paintballs. @)

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