Tiger 412 - s.pz.abt 506 - Ardennes Offensive

[tankmad]

Its looking good some amount of work involved in this but it looks worth it can't wait to see it finnished.
Stevie

[grim_marmazet]

I am proud to announce construction has finally finished! Painting is all thats left to do now. Its been a long road to get here, and its been fun!

Here's some pictures of the final bits to show you guys. Firstly we have the full worn and damaged road wheels. It took quite a few hours to wear all the tires down and add bullet holes and shell impacts. But they came out better than I thought, and will look good with mud and oil stains on them.




I also re-did the mantlet with some Mr.Surfacer on the cast parts, and added new casting numbers. Unfortunately my phone camera doesn't really show the texture well, but I did a fine texture, and it looks ok. I also did the snorkel cover, but forgot to take a picture.



The last to show is the shell impacts. I drilled in some craters and built up the sides with some milliput. It's a bit exagerrated, but it still needs a sanding and coat of Mr. Surfacer. I added quite a few hits on various places as the Tiger is ment to be near the end of the offensive and on the retreat. So its seen quite a few battles, and fought hard.





Thats it for construction, next week comes the painting! Not long till its finished guys.

Cheers,
Rik

[littletankman]

Hi Rik , Very good mate .

Andy

[Saxondog]

They shell impact marks look very accurate,can't wait to see the paint work finished. Blake

[septon]

looking good rik love the wheels and tyres

paul

[grim_marmazet]

Thanks for the comments guys. I've put one set of hooks for the glacis track links on tonight, i'll put the other on in the morning along with the final texturing of the lower hull. I've also stripped off the tools, jerry cans, turret rollers etc, to ready it for priming and painting. I'm going to prime, leave fore 24 hours, base coat, leave fore 24 hours, then add the camo. After that it's onto detailing and weathering! This is going to be one beat up tank!

I've just watched through the FAQ DVD's and found the section on using pigments on tracks quite interesting. I need to do some experiments on spare tracks, but I think I can work up some muddy, dusty, worn tracks, that'll still be good for running.

Cheers,
Rik

[Ad Lav]

Those bullet marks and shot deflections are really well done, kudos to you for beating this tank up

[grim_marmazet]

Hello everyone, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just become a little obssessed with Star Trek Online! Also with getting to grips with an airbrush and Vallejo Model Air Acrylics, which is a lot tougher than it sounds.

But back to the Tiger, and I have pictures. Apart from a few dabs of putty to fill areas the paint showed flaws, and some tiny butterfly nuts, there is no more construction on this tank, lol. It finally has its camo applied, and is a happy beastie!

This is the base coat;




I deliberately went very light with it as i'm going to use Sin Industries filters to add tone and depth to the flat surfaces, and these darken it quite a bit. I want the paint to look a little faded as well. The coat was done with a mixture of 10 parts Dark Yellow, 4 parts Sand Yellow, 3 parts Khaki Brown, 3 parts White, and 5 parts thinner, all Valejo paints.

Next I applied the camo paint. I went with a simple camo scheme, very remeniscant of a Normandy scheme. I found an example in a book of a Tiger in the Ardennes with a similar pattern, and went for it. It was all airbrushed freehand;




I left the sprockets and idlers in the base coat to look like they were replaced after the camo was applied. The colours are quite bright at the moment. I am going to go over it with a highly diluted coat of the base yellow to tone it all down, then a satin varnish to seal it all for the decals and filters/washes.

I need to make stencils for the turret numbers, does anyone have a good technique for making black with white outline numbers? I need a good font, and would prefer to not hand draw them.

Hope you all like the Tiger with its stripes! More tomorrow guys.

Cheers,
Rik

[BREL]

nice work Rik

[littletankman]

Hi Rik very nice mate , the designs simular to what Ive seen on late Stugs and what I plan to use.

Andy