1/35th Scale Königstiger

On my 30th birthday, my good friend bought me a Dragon 1/35th King Tiger (Porsche Turret). I have just completed the kit. I am now thirty eight. That gives you an idea of how long it has taken me to get this thing built...

I actually had the kit pretty much built a good few years ago, but it was painted pretty badly and time just ran away from me to do anything with it, so a few months ago I dug it out and did some repainting and adding the bits that needed building. I am not the world's best painter when it comes to large scale models and really have very few skills that are required for these bigger scales. I generally use my usual techniques for painting smaller stuff and hope for the best.

This first picture is immediately after I had repainted the entire tank in Vallejo Middlestone to cover the original paint job. I then added Vallejo Chocolate Brown camo stripes.


The brown stripes were then overlaid with Vallejo Reflective Green stripes, the whole tank was then washed in black ink and drybrushed with a lighter Middlestone, to reflect the wearing of the paint and to pick out the highlights.


The tracks were painted in black, with a heavy coat of rust and finally some gun metal brushed over the top. Next job was adding the side skirts, on which you can see the original paint job on the middle section. All this had to be covered up with Middlestone again... I have also added most of the tools and hull extras, which also have to be painted.


Side skirts painted and ink washed along with the spare tracks on the turret side.I had cut out a section of the side skirt to reflect battle damage or just general wear and tear, it was inspired by this famous picture of a King Tiger in Budapest.


Finally the decals were added and the tools and other details all painted: 





And the final weathering stage, a liberal addition of mud made with PVA glue and sand:





This is the final version, mounted on a brick pavement from MiniArt. I gave it the title 'Back from the fields':






As I said, I am not the world's best model painter, but I enjoy building and painting them, so I hope to improve my skills over time!

Comments