Well I was supposed to have started this blog back on Fathers Day(UK), when I opened the box to the gift to myself, not like the kids would have bought me anything!
Anyways I treated myself to 1/35th scale Tiger tank (Mid Prod) from Tamiya,
Instruction booklet and sprue shots.
I was just going to build the kit as is, then I discovered that in the 1/35th world there is a plethora of after market detailing add-ons to be had. Over the last few weeks I've added to the base kit various turned metal, photo etch parts, and add on kit parts(extra figures and Tamiya's engine bay kit).
The instruction booklet seems for the first half the is nothing but wheels, which is odd as it's a Tank and they run on tracks! There are 2 identical sprues of wheels and other bits that eventually gets you an A4 cutting mat chock full or round things!
At this point I fancied a break from all things round and built the lower hull, suspension arms/axles and the transmission housings. The prototype I'm aiming for is Zimmerit coated version with Normandy '44 3 colour squiggle & blotch camo pattern. The lower hull is 2 bits, the the main tub and the rear bulkhead. I baulked at doing the hot screwdriver or masses of plastic putty and a special comb to make the Zimmerit, instead I opted for Tamiya's own special sticker/decal sheet. You just need to cut around the the printed outlines on the sheet and apply to the kit. These sticky shapes give you just one shot at getting them in the right place, like the proverbial sh*t to a blanket, you'll destroy them before they budge it seems. You can the see here therear bulkheads had it's Zim applied.
Whilst I had all the bits on the bench I thought it might be a good idea to dry fit the parts just to get an idea of how it will all go together.
With the lower hull and the wheels complete it's time to break out the primer and paint. I was torn whether do the primer in white or grey, settled on the Tamiya grey.
Once the undercoat/primer is complete its time to break out the colours, Dark Yellow(xf60){Dunkelgelb}, Dark Green(xf61){Dunkelgrun} and Red Brown(xf64){Rotbraun}. Everything constructed so far got a base coat or 2 of the Dark Yellow with the airbrush {scored a very local bargain on ebay at this point, AS196 compressor and air tank, the seller turned out to be just 2 streets away}, now I'm still trying to master the basics of the airbrush, blotches and squiggles would be easy... yeah right!!! Brush painting the black tyres on the wheels was a real chore, I can see the attraction of the wheel masks now.
I wasn't sure if regular poly cement would stick the painted parts together, so had the thick cyano on standby, but all was ok (nothings snapped off yet!, give it time!!).
According to the instruction once you've got the wheels glued on, you make the tracks up by gluing individual plastic treads together, and before the glue sets hard your wrap them around the wheels and sprockets... F**k that, time to open the wallet and spend some dosh on metal tracks. 220 individual links of track and brass link pin wire from Friulmodel, the treads are smashing just need to ream the track pin holes with a .5mm drill.
Well I managed to snap my .5 and .55 drills, white metal is a sod to drill with a hand pin drill, ended using a .6mm for most of the holes.
Now in the box you get 2 packets of treads and the wire, so naturally I thought it was one packet of 110 treads per side, wrong both packets are the same tread and you only need about 106 treads a side for good aesthetic looking track.
Well thats 2 tracks made up, just need to sand/grind off some of the protruding pins in some places, wash, prime and paint them. Well I'll leave that till next time...
Going to leave one pin in each track as removable so I can pose the tank as having shed a track.
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