Well run lady comes home for re fit!

[Paul Morris]

Hi fellas.

Thought this may be of some interest, back in 2010 I was thrilled to be asked to build and paint a King Tiger for Bovington that Gill and Mark had kindly donated to them, which as an aside is why I chose to put "museum quality" at the bottom of my posts not for any reason other than that I was so pleased to have model of mine in a museum .

Now you cant help but notice this King Tiger looks nothing like the others Vinnie and I have done, a bit stark and no detail or weathering! and that's the reason I never really liked it, but now I have a second chance to paint her and fix a few bits that all those curious little fingers have broken and borrowed if you see what I mean.
Now the interesting bit! the model is in good nick the tracks are worn but the basic build is still as we did it! and this on a model that has run more or less every day since we dropped her off.
So say for ease 3 years at 365 days = 1,095 days, lets say we are really keen and run our tanks once every fortnight, so 26 days a year? so 1,095 / 26 = 42.11 YEARS ? to get to the same level of wear and tear and this model is still fine .. .. .. and just to think that when all this started some of us myself included, were worried about how long tracks and sprockets would last us good news eh..
Cheers for now more to follow.
Paul.

[John Fitzsimons]

Will you post some pictures of progress? If you get a chance.

[Paul Morris]

Hello John.

I will post what I have mate got a bit carried away though you know how it is.
Cheers Paul.

[Paul Wills]

Hi Paul,

She's looking good. I remember on the way back from Bovington in Roy's van she nearly got kidnapped and held to ransom Lucky for you Roy didn't think we would get away with it and wouldn't let me

Paul.

[Paul Morris]

Hi Paul.
In that picture she looks the same as she did in 2010 mate that's when she left lol.

[Paul Morris]

Hi fellas.

So here we go with the re paint on the King Tiger, the paint was actually still good just chipped and knocked so this was simply cleaned up and left as the base coat for the new paintwork.

Here we have the tank as she was back on the bench, more or less as she was just a bit tired.

Wheels off ready for clean up to start. Checked over the whole tank and after all that running only one of the suspension arms needed to be adjusted, pretty good that really.
Painting started here with dark washes under the pannier floors and wheels back on, first wash complete.

Cheers Paul.

[Paul Morris]

Hi fellas.
Last little bit then.

Side on shot hopefully showing a little bit better colour and depth in the model.

Close up picture of the turret roof with some weathering now
I was asked not to do any weathering first time round but I think this time its more I line with what's been done before.

Thought I would mention this one, if like me you can at times get a little ratty putting the tracks back on? too impatient to wait for an extra pair of hands etc, well yesterday I made this track link puller dead simple took ten mins made up using a kitchen worktop bolt with a wing nut replacing the normal nut clip the hooks into the holes in the track and wind it in tidy ha well it made me smile anyway.
So here we go final shot before she leaves the shed, now with her shoes back on

Hope you like it, I do.
Next up a rather famous Jagdpanther yes "H" its your model that's on the bench now.
Cheers Paul.