Academy Tiger1 Early Version Full Interior

[OutbackModeller]

Here's my entry to the Coen Tiger Honour Build.
The Kit itself I had had in my stash for at least 15 years

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[wappynutter]

Yay Clem..... Thought you was Facebook and YouTube/Hangout only with the Tiger mate??
Good to see you sharing your masterpiece with the forum buddy..
Well done again on an excellent finish!..

[OutbackModeller]

To get the part I hate the most out the way...The Wheels.
Being an Academy kit the styrene is usually on the soft side which makes sanding and cutting easy, a Ultimate sander makes short work of this.

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Once the wheels and sprockets were all sanded I put them on BBQ sticks ready for primer.

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[OutbackModeller]

The only drama I ran into with this build was the torsion bars. The tags/tabs where they lock into the inner hull, the wide ends, the tabs were too big so I ended up cutting them off with the hobby knife...problem sorted, now the build could continue.

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[OutbackModeller]

The exhaust muffler had some very small parts to glue together and it had to be a quick set so the parts would not sag during the drying period, this is where the Tetra Plastic Solvent came into play.
this glue has a bond time quicker than Tamiya Extra Thin believe it or not.
To make thing easier, I have and old TET bottle where I keep it in as pictured.

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[OutbackModeller]

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[OutbackModeller]

To save time with painting and assembly the ammo bags were glued onto a piece of stock styrene.

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[OutbackModeller]

A mini F-clamp was used to hold the turret parts together to keep things flat and level while the detail pieces were being glued into place.

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[OutbackModeller]

Pictured below are the pieces for the interior of the turret layed out on the instuctions to make sure nothing is missed.

[OutbackModeller]

The turret in different stages of the build.

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[OutbackModeller]

The turn table for the turret was painted prior to assembly with a custom mix of my own German interior. Life Color German Interior was going to be the paint of choice but it wasn't the the colour I was looking for as it was too light for my liking. plus it is leaves a very chalky flat finish. So a 75/25 mix of Italeri paints were used, flat white (4769AP), flat dark earth (4303AP) and heavilly diluted with Valejo's airbrush thinner into a 30ml dropper bottle.
The dried paint now leaves a slight semi gloss finish.
This paint was used for the rest of the build wherever German Interior was called for.

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[OutbackModeller]

I forgot to mention that the primer I used for this entire build is a mix of the two Valejo bottles here black and white to get a nice dark grey shown in the 100ml bottle on the right.

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[OutbackModeller]

Because this is an interior build, all the parts couldn't just be glued in and painted as one. So 90% of the parts had to be painted separately before installation. This was very time consuming but totally worth the hard yards.

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[OutbackModeller]

The upper hull deck

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The white spots here is a styrene bog made from Tamiya extra thin and sprue off cuts mixed together.

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[OutbackModeller]

Slowly starting to look like a Tiger (early stage mock up)

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[OutbackModeller]

The transmission and instrument panel went together without a hitch. This was then given a light coat of light grey primer to detect any flaws during construction, once I was happy with the result the transmission it was primed with the dark grey and left to dry. Humbrol acrylic Gun Metal was airbrushed over as a base colour to work off.
Aluminium foil was wrapped around the transmission as a mask to protect it for the next stage of painting.
The custom German Interior was sprayed over the instrument panel in two light coats also as a base colour.

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[OutbackModeller]

And here it is mostly painted, highlighted and washed using Vallejo model washes seen on the front row.
Model Air Silver was drybrushed over to make the details pop.

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[OutbackModeller]

Another mock up earlier in the build

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[OutbackModeller]

To break up the build, tank crew figures were chosen. (notice the sprue extentions on his legs) this is so he can stand up on the seat inside the turret.

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[OutbackModeller]

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[OutbackModeller]

Every recess panel line on the side skirts were sawed out to enhance the detail and sanded back.

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[OutbackModeller]

Sawing complete

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[OutbackModeller]

Now it was time to prime the Tiger with the dark grey then base coated with hull red by Tamiya.
Notice the masking tape around the base of the turret and the turret ring to ensure no over spray got onto the interior details. Also scrap sponge was shoved into the hatch openings to also stop the over spray.

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[OutbackModeller]

Time for the base coat and camo.
I have put these three pictures together to show the progressive stages of weathering before adding the heavy rust stains and grime.
In the first picture three paints were used the first being the main base colour Italeri's Flat Panzer Dunkelgelb 1943 (4786AP).
The stripe pattern is Italeri Flat Panzer Olivgrun 1943 (4798AP) and Tamiya XF-79 Deck Brown

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This was left to dry overnight.
A coat of Pledge floor shine gloss coat was applied and after 5 minutes a coat of Vallejo gloss coat was sprayed straight over the Pledge, this caused the two different gloss coats to react with each other to give a texture to simulate the texture of the steel surface under the paint.
24 hours was given for the gloss coats to dry. A enamel wash consisting of Humbrols Dark Brown and thinners was applied over the surface of the entire model, then wiped back with off cuts of and old cotton rag. This was also left to dry for two days, then a heavy coat of Ultimate's Dark Dirt was applied over that, left to dry then removed with a damp paper towel.
Sorry about the beer in the picture, I was thirsty and it was a hot day

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Chipping effects was then given using the sponge technique with a 50/50 mix of chocolate brown and hull red.A fine paint brush was used to add the final metalic chips using Humbrol gun metal

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[OutbackModeller]

Before I continued further with the weathering, it was time to assemble the tracks. The kit tracks to me was sufficient enough to give me the detail I wanted for this build.

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[OutbackModeller]

The Alclad black primer was the base for the tracks, AK's True Metal dark iron was airbrushed on diluted heavily with enamel thinners.
This was left to dry for 24 hours before buffing could take place. I wanted to try something new, adding a 50/50 mix of Ultimate's dark dirt and rust together in a small tub and brushed /drowned on, 20 mins was only needed for this mix to dry completely being in the middle of an Australian Summer.
The True Metal was not sealed in prior to the wash because I wanted to buff the 2 stages together and the result was, well you can see the result in the next picture below.

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[OutbackModeller]

The rust streaking continued with Cromas Tranparent Red Oxide artist oils thinned down to a wash.

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[OutbackModeller]

And here is the Tiger weathered up

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[OutbackModeller]

The horse was painted from a picture of a friends horse

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[OutbackModeller]

The base for the diorama is a A4 photo frame.
For the mound under the white modelling clay are 3 layers of cardboard hot glued together to make up the bulk to save on weight and clay. Once the clay had dried 2 heavy coats of PVC wash brushed on to reinforce the structure of the clay and to also glue it down to the wooden backing board of the photo frame.
To make the road and the surrounding earth details the materials are plentiful as I work in a concrete plant.
manufactured sand or crusher dust was sprinkled on over a thick layer of PVA glue and clean sand also sprinkled down. Once this had time to cure, a thick coat of Vallejo Polyurethane matt coat was brushed over with a large brush to ensure the earth works were nicely sealed in before painting could be started. When it was all painted Games Workshop static grass was applied over carefully placed PVA then sealed in with a spray coat of matt varnish.

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[OutbackModeller]

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[OutbackModeller]

And here is the completed build

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[jbellos1]

Really great work Clem! Good to see it all in one place.

[Coen]

That's a magnificent build thread and fantastic final piece Clem.
She's a complete stunner. I love you're style of work bud.

But buddy.... Photo bucket! Dude you'll go silly in the head posting everything as attachments.
You have the patience of a saint building this thread... Respect dude.

Here's a link to the how to thread if you need it.

http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=22

[wappynutter]

Sorry about the beer in the picture, I was thirsty and it was a hot day

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No worries Clem, we all know you Aussies " wouldn't give a Castlemaine XXXX for any other Lager!".... Lol.... The advert tells us so!....lol... Well done with the thread build mate.... Patience of a Saint.... Must be all that 4X?...

[Donkeywalloper]

Outstanding work Clem outstanding job mate.
John

[Kingdan]

Really good thread to read through great job looks awesome

[OutbackModeller]

Mike would you believe I ended up re-copying my tiger build photos into a new folder on my hard drive and re-sized them. I gave up with photo bucket after an hour. It was eaiser to copy paste every thing.

On the bench- nothing but a huge mess after 3 months of building the Tiger but that will change this afternoon.

[Donkeywalloper]

Mike would you believe I ended up re-copying my tiger build photos into a new folder on my hard drive and re-sized them. I gave up with photo bucket after an hour. It was eaiser to copy paste every thing.

On the bench- nothing but a huge mess after 3 months of building the Tiger but that will change this afternoon.

I hate PB its awful.
Moved to Imgur.
Love the build mate.
John