Takom Tiger II

[reserve]

This is a long term project I've been on and offing for 15 months now. An excellent kit with a full, and I mean full interior, it has a plethora of teeny well molded parts that swiftly grow obnoxious while working on it. Therefore, when it gets to be too much off the bench it goes 'till I feel an urge to work on it again.

I've completed the hull interior and closed it up, still have to finish the engine deck and rear plate. Currently I'm assembling the turret interior. Fit is not the best but it's acceptable if one takes time with a sharp knife and the needle files








Right now this is acting as a filler for DAK Tiger I drying time, and I have no idea when it will be completed. The kit walks a very fine line between satstfying and infuriating but in small doses it's OK

Regards,
Mark

[JED]

Very nice

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

I can see, you've already spent much time doing the detailed interior. I find it very daunting, but educational on the workings of these machines.

[reserve]

I'm weary of looking at an open box with a bunch of junk in it. Therefore, CONTINUED...

Turret walls and roof done


Turret floor and basket


I had to remove the traverse gear in the hull so the turret basket would drop in place. Disappointing.


In the end, the basket was cockeyed and did not want to fit correctly to the ring. I solved this by gluing the rear hanger to the ring in the right place. Once dry, I jammed the whole works in the hole and pushed the basket floor around with a file until it dropped into place, then glued the other three attachment points as this treatment made them line up just fine


I'll likely push this thru to the end this time

[reserve]

Painting and finishing the hull exterior







Sure am glad to have the interior build over with.

Since what you'll see is thru the hatches I'm not gonna waste time and effort going overboard on finish painting the interior, it'll be dark in there, done that before won't do it again. The kit gives you indy link on sprue tracks, not gonna do that either I got some Fruils for it. Right now I'm waffling over whether to finish it in three tone or winter whitewash, got appropriate figures for either...geez what problems modeling presents

[JCON]

Yeah you need to cut big gaping holes like Fightnjoe does if you want to see in there all the detail!

[reserve]

Well I did not plan this one over well that's for sure

Turret interior complete



The barrel stub is too long, therefore



Before and after





Takom, it seems, could not be bothered to machine their turret molds completely so they give you this to fit the spare track links



There are many things about this kit that are very nice, there are others that do not impress me favorably such as the example above and the fact that the main gun cannot be positioned other than what you see it in the pictures. A curious blend indeed

[reserve]

Assembly complete, primered and base coated







Now the real pain starts



Ah not really Fruils are not so bad. I could not live with the attitude of the main gun so I reached in the basket with a set of forceps and broke off what was holding in in place, something that was buried way deep and you could not see anyway. Reference on these Porsche Tigers is slim and somewhat contradictory and due to my poor planning I really can't model a specific vehicle so it's fiction time blokes.

Only trouble is I have to figure out what to do with it

[ARMORGUY]

What a great looking kit this is Mark!!! Your turret works are awesome!

[reserve]

Thank you AG

Current status

Fading coat may do more later


Semi gloss coat 


Polished edges of steel roadwheels picked out. These will be deepened later


Decals. A green camo pattern was a possibility but I really did not feel like it


Acrylic mud drying on the hull




Pinwash and mud on running gear


And the start of the fool tracks.

[JCON]

Nice work once more!!!

[ARMORGUY]

Those tracks look good fella.

[JED]

Nice work Mark, how easy was it to get the decals to sit on the zimmerit?

[ogrejohn]

Looking good Mark! Hard to beat those Fruil tracks.

[reserve]

Thanks gents

Jed it took a few applications of Micro Sol and a few soaked in Micro Sol Q-Tip pressing operations to get them down all the way, the Balkan crosses were much more resistant than the numbers

AG and OJ no question about it, Fruils rule. Got some AK burnishing fluid I'll use on these it'll be better than paint

Pinwash done and flatcoat applied 










Not over sure where I'll take it from here. I will, however, have time to stare at it and consider while I'm completing the tracks. 90 links a side I think

[mustang1989]

The details man....the DETAILS!! I can't get over how much of it is in that interior. What gets me thrown off is when something that is designed to fit......doesn't. Case in point being the turret going into the hull on this kit. You had to completely take the traversing mechanism out to get it in there and even then, it gave you fits. You're really doing some VERY good work on this build despite the issues that you're having with it Mark.

[JED]

Coming along very nicely

[reserve]

Thanks gents

M I sort of expected this, Takom may mold crisp and detailed parts but I've not yet touched one of their kits that does not have fit and interference problems


Tracks done at last. 92 links per side

















The AK track goo is great stuff. I had to do two applications of it but this was probably my fault as I did not pay much attention to cleaning the links.
Detail painting next

[reserve]

Detail painting done. I'll need to finalize a base before I do dirt/dust.










What one can see of the interior. It's a bit better to the eye than the camera





Base and figures next

[ARMORGUY]

What.a.beauty.this dark yellow Tiger II is! It looks like the really big brother of my dark yellow Panther D.
What issues did you have to encounter Mark? You did a tremendous job I tell ya.