Tamiya King Tiger Build Log Tank 204 Schwere.SS PzAbt 501

[jhgillette]

Tamiya King Tiger Build Log
Tank 204 of the Schwere.SS PzAbt. 501

So it begins!

I have built two Tiger 1's and they have both been Asiatam and HL combinations with El Mod Electronics so this is my first Tamiya Build and I'm pretty excited.

I'm choose to do King Tiger 204 because I haven't done a Light and Shadow "Ambush Camouflage" and a tank in the European Theater. The Camouflage would have been factory applied and be hard edged "Ambush". The King Tiger's produced at that time were not given a base coat of RAL 7028 Dunkelgelb (dark yellow) but the camouflage pattern was painted directly on the base coat of RAL 8012 Rotbraun (red primer). I have chosen LifeColor paints which I have used in the past and like the realism they have.

This tank was produced in during October-November 1944 time frame and took place in the Battle of Bulge and was captured in December of 1944 near La Gleize, Belgium.

I'm currently looking at different upgrade parts available for the Tamiya King Tiger and continuing my research on King Tiger production and the Schwere.SS PzAbt. 501....

More to follow

[DRAGONWAGON]

Hi,

Will follow this thread closely, I'm working on Tammie's M4 Sherman at this moment, and have both the Tiger I and King Tiger in stash waiting to be build....

Grtz and good luck with this project, John.

[tisaksen]

Checking in to keep track of this build

[jhgillette]

Well I've started...

Right now I have started building the lower hull which has pretty straight forward, so far the Tamiya kit has gone together very easily just as I would have expected.

For upgrade parts so far I have purchased metal road wheels and track, metal exhaust and smoker generator. I have also purchased metal tool set, full metal muzzle break, working headlight and photo etch kit for grill set. I'm getting some other items so please stay tuned....

I have finished ready "Tiger's in Combat II" about the history of s.SS PzAbt 501 and also New Vanguard's "Kingtiger Heavy Tank". Great resources on the unit and production history. I won't bore you with the details but these have been a great help, if you have any questions or information I've missed please let me know.

Please stay tuned.....

[maxmekker]

Nice kit, nice build place,and I see you got the 'mig's' ready and lined up You got one more follower on this build.

[Saxondog]

I'm in,nice work area,good lighting and very neat. Thanks for sharing. What about primer? I primer using Rustoleum Rusty metal primer.Even parts that will not be visible I tend to primer and paint like the underside of the hull and Turret interior,reverse side of the wheels. I mention this as it is much easier to accomplish from the start.

This is simply a suggestion,not a right or wrong to it really. Just ideas of different methods.

What type of smoke unit? Curious about that and how it fits into the hull,and the circuitry? Perhaps you could share that info?

Have you viewed the Camo section? Their are many King Tiger paint schemes posted,but generally their a side view line draft in color so the overhead and rear.front views have to be approximated.

I certainly wish you well with your build,it will be done in no time and driving around.

Cheers Blake

[jhgillette]

Hello all and thanks for following along.....

My plan at this point is to photograph work at the end of each session and give a explanation of how that went. I'll also explain any historical reason I'm doing something like (paint color, etc.). I'm trying to make this tank as historical accurate as possible and any information any one has I would appreciate. Also any techniques people use or know about would be if applicable would be appreciated.

One of my first big decision was how to install the "Battle System" in this Tamiya tank. The three options I have found are, 1. the standard way Tamiya has you do it, 2. Installing it in the cannon barrel (flash working also difficult if posssible) and 3. Drilling out the MG machine hole in the mallet larger to accommodate IR sender. I don't really like any of the options but have so far decided to install it the way Tamiya recommends. I don't like the look of it during battle but my tank mostly is on display and wanted to maintain the most accurate reproduction possible and we already add the receiver to the cupola for battle so I guess whats a little more.

Well I started working on the rear lower hull. The upgrade parts I'm going with are a set of full metal "C" clamps (waiting on), smoke unit and metal exhaust, metal mud flaps (waiting on), more detail metal jack rack and a working blue follow light. I'm getting ready to grid down and fill in all the holes not used on the rear hull. I still have to figure out how to wire in the front headlight and the rear follow light into the Tamiya system so any suggestion would be appreciated. The rear blue light is around 1.5 volts I think so I will have to reduce the voltage to that one.

I'm also went with metal road wheels and track. I finished priming the lower hull with Tamiya metal primer and primed the road wheels with Tamiya metal primer first and the there Tamiya Fine primer. Right now I'm sanding off the numbers that were left of on the metal tracks during production and getting them ready for paint. Next day I'm airbrushing I will paint them. I'lll let you know my paint choices then. I'm going after the wet muddy look you would expect Europe in the winer. I will also paint the lower hull and road wheels, drive gears and idlers with Lifecolor RAL8012 Rotbraun. The German order that King Tigers produced after 31 Oct. 1944 were no longer to be painted a base coat of dark yellow but the camouflage was to be added directly to the red primer. The photo's I've looked at its hard to see what colors the wheels are for tanks in PzAbt. 501 at this time so I plan leaving the lower hull and road wheels and gears finished in this color in response that the general order.

Hope this isn't to much for one time and I'll try to get it more concise next time. Just want to let you know everything I'm thinking with this build.

[Saxondog]

Possibly the emitter could mount in the Optics view port,it would still work and the visible aspect of Historical accuracy would be maintained?

I do not think it is to much,you have stated the process well,and the picture detail the result.

Well done.

[jhgillette]

Thanks for the input.

[jhgillette]

Upgrades, Upgrades, and more Upgrades

Sorry for no posts lately but with the holiday's approaching and figuring out what upgrades I wanted to do I haven't got much more work done on the model. I have just received a big order of parts from Germany so I have pretty much everything I need to build the model except for a few small items I'm still waiting on. I basically purchased the upgrade parts I thought would make the biggest impact in the appearance of the model. The only area I haven't decide to pursue in great depth is a lot of photo etch. I did get some for the engine exhaust because I feel it really adds a lot of detail for the engine, not that it doesn't add detail in other area but I had to draw the line somewhere.

So here are the additional upgrade parts I've added:

Metal Handholds
Metal Close Defense Weapon
Metal Sprocket Wheel Guides
Periscopes for all the hatches
Detailed Metal C-Hitch Set
Brass Lifting Arm for cannon
Resin Rear Panel Side Parts
Detailed MG34 Machine Gun and Anti Aircraft Mount
Reduction Gear Set for 3:1
Metal Antenna Base
Conical Steel Antenna
Working Commander Hatch
Metal Detail Set
Detailed Metal Tow Cable Holders
Coupler for Rear Panel Chassis Gap

Christmas came early, I excited to get working again and will probably be getting more serious about getting stuff done after Christmas.