Armortek King Tiger. Now Sold, thanks to all who viewed

[John Clarke]

Amortek King Tiger for sale. £5100.00







Depicts the King Tiger 008 of the 501st SS Division during the Battle of the Bulge. Includes correct amour improvements on this late Tiger B

Well built, using many detail parts, loaders hatch, turret rear hatch and deck fittings. Textured surface Armour plate.

Built in easy access, allowing easy maintenance. Turret lid fitted with hinges to allow easy access to switch gear, battery monitoring and blank firer.

All the electrical equipment is well protected and tidy.

Setup with 7 channel FASST Receiver at the moment, Can be upgraded to ten channels to control extras supplied equipment.(see below).

Drive control via 4QD. (ch 1 & 2)

Turret traverse and elevation Via electronise speed control. (ch 3 & 4)

Benidini quality sound unit with Benidini amplifier. (ch 5 Connected)

Cannon can be set up to use blank firer, or the super bright custom made Xenon Flash unit, triggered with Benidini Sound unit (Connected)

Excellent smoker via speed controller controlled by sound unit, (high volume smoke burst during acceleration) (Connected)

Bow machine gun has servo controlled traverse with triggered LED flash via Benidini sound unit. (ch 6 Connected)

Front lamp and rear convoy blue lamp, smoke on/off. (ch 7 Connected)

Full instructions and certificate.

Extras include:

Drivers moving periscope servo driven setup ready to connect.

Blank firer cleaned and lubricated, wiring loom fitted and comes with shot gun 12 bore blanks and 6x adapters to use the less dramatic 9mm blanks.

Animated loader and commander with computerized processor. Comes with downloaded software on disk.

Tracks serviced, greased and rebuilt using stainless steel split pins.

14 pieces of new spare track, track pins, rings and split pins. Plus spare track on turret.

Things buyer will required, 7 channel Fasst transmitter or your own radio system, 12 volt charger, 24 volt charger and ramps if you wish to transport.

I could deliver in England, to be discussed if required.

[andyquirot]

I wish
Regards Andy Q

[John Clarke]

I wish too Andy, I had space and time it deserves.

[Brian Ostlind]

It’s a beautiful build. Did you do everything yourself?

[John Clarke]

Thanks Brian

Sorry to say I did'nt build the original tank, like so many, at the time I did'nt have the funds to buy one new. Once I'd organised myself financially, I Looked for a good second hand built kit. At the time this one came with all the bells and whistles and dubious single shot blank firer. Which was ok. (but not really legal!)

Hence the Armortek Blank firer to replace the dubious one, which of course is a monster device. Electronic bangs and a wiff of baby oil smoke will never replace it. (just shame it's not allowed recoil).
I have added 9mm converters to tone it down, but if you want to scare the pants off your audience, 12 bore is the way to go. But a word of caution, 9mm rounds, fire as many a you like, 12 bore, total strip down after each six fired, that's what Armortek say and it's very good advice.

In my own opinion though the King Tiger was well built by the previous owner, but I did'nt quite like the paint livery she came with. There was a petrol drum on the rear deck and personnel items hanging here and there.

The Battle of the Bulge saw the Iconic Ambush paint scheme for autumn fighting which I was much more in favor. It did make a few changes to the Tank deck and turret armour details to be true to 008 and when she was built, armored hatches and netting guards, mainly scratch built.

I have tried to replicate the colour scheme, including the yellow numbering which there is much debate, again with red oxide against rotbraun, I was pleased to see that a modeler in the magazine Meng AFV modeler 104 had researched a similar scheme this model presented here.

But at the end of the day the model can be stripped down and presented any way the owner wants it to be with all the building work already done.

[Stephen White]

John, it's a handsome model, hope you get what you want for it. Fascinating to see your Chieftain beside it. The Chieftain makes it look significantly smaller.

Interesting comments on blank firers.

Electronic bangs and a wiff of baby oil smoke will never replace it.

Each to his own! To my mind, a 12 bore blank sounds like..... a 12 bore blank, which sounds absolutely nothing like a high velocity tank gun. It makes the model sound like a toy, which I suppose in the end is what it is. If realism is the object, then the real sounds, reproduced electronically, combined with barrel smoke, recoil and flash get you much closer to the real thing, I suggest.

but if you want to scare the pants off your audience,

I don't (and I've never remotely found a 12 bore anything other than boring)! I shouldn't take you literally but it would be more than a pity if a blank firer turned show organisers against our models. Sad but true. Now, if only the RAC Gunnery School at Lulworth still had a viewing area to see live firing .... (if the Army can still afford the bullets).

Sorry - it's a wet Sunday and I'm taking a break from weathering, which can be.....boring.

Stephen

[John Clarke]

Totally agree with you Stephen, no one is ever going to be able to emulate an 88mm tank gun blast and thankfully no one will in a model of 1/6 proportions.
The blank firer 12 bore does sound like 12 bore, the 9 mm sounds like a 9mm and the electronic 88mm sounds like a 88mm electronic sound.

I like to think the blank firer adds to the model, allowing some modelers go as safely close to a pyrotechnic display as possible. And what does the general public know of tanks? It's a big boys toy that goes bang!

" I love the smell over gunpowder in the morning"

I built a xenon flash unit to allow indoor use as a static display before Armortek supplied them, The flash can be seen outside clearly as the tube is quite large filling the muzzle break, working well with the sound module. Not always the case with some flash units, line of sight can obscure the flash.

The down side of an electronic flash you will never get the live flame leaving the barrel several inches as with the blank firer and you will never get lots and lots of smoke leaving the barrel after the flash, just like the real thing. Two out of three an't bad.

I guess very few have had the chance to stand at a live firing range, let alone sit inside a tank and fire off a few rounds, Exciting to me is being able to build something that safely shoots.........nothing. A bit mundane to some, but the best I can do without ending up in jail.

I have been present next to the original Tiger tanks and found that electronic emulators "try" but don't actually sound like the real thing. When 131 starts up at Bovington, an old 1950's Bedford lorry came to mind, not the super smooth raucous V12 Maybach one expects. What with the rattle of the track the wining gearbox, the real thing clunks a long. Even Thomas Benidini added track noise to some of his recordings (which I personally don't like) trying to make it real.

There are three firing options with this model all work well. oh ..and standing next to the blank firer firing shot gun blanks scares the pants off me

[John Clarke]

I'm adding a few more pictures taken at the weekend that hopefully show the detail and aftermarket parts fitted to the fantastic Armortek King Tiger tank.
The working features including lights, moving parts and a difficult picture to take of the electronic flash.
The electronic Xenon flash which is synchronized to the Benidini sound module as is the bright LED in the bow machine Gun.






Easy maintenance. Access can be gained in a few minutes without the use of tools.



Detailed working metal front lamp.



Detailed wooden gun cleaning rods.





New Mike Stannard antenna.





Detailed rear turret hatch with added hinge armor



Machine gun mount with metal bullets and cloth bag.



Moving drivers periscope



Startup smoke burst inside



Startup smoke burst outside



After market parts also include detailed working convoy lamp and reflector plate and the all metal 20 tonne Jack and detailed Jack block and tow hooks.



The cannon flash based on camera flash unit is very bright so the picture had to be taken from the rear of the muzzel break. Not only visual in low light but in bright day light too.