Martin's King Tiger

[Martin Hofmann]

Hello all King Tiger builders,
i have start a new project after my first Tiger 1, i bought a ready King Tiger from Rolf Möhnke here in Hamburg - thank you Rolf for this beautiful model.
My dream was to dismantle it complete still to the last screw and build it up from blank aluminium to a new one.
Here some photos from this process.

[Martin Hofmann]

here some more photos from the process.

[Martin Hofmann]

it is more work to dismantle a ready built King Tiger that i thought.
But it's worth to do it.

[Gerhard Michel]

Hello Martin,

wow, YOU are the one who bought Rolf's model with the steel track links and the humps for the range finder! Congratulations!

[Martin Hofmann]

Hello Gerhard,

yes, i am the happy man with a King Tiger with steel track links. They are absolutely great.

[Gerhard Michel]

Hello Martin,

yes, these track links ar great! I use them too, on my 2 King Tigers and on the Jagdtiger. Some time ago I bought the last track link sets from Olaf. I also have some of his special sprockets for these track links, which fit Armortek King Tigers. For my BT-models I had to build completely new sprockets, but the NH - King Tiger can use them.

But may you tell me why you dismantle this nice model?

[Martin Hofmann]

Hello Gerhard,
i dismantle the model for building again in a more detailed way with zimmerit and also for building, because the building of a model is the inspiration for us model maker.

Here are some more photos of the dismantling process:

[Martin Hofmann]

that is the result of the dismantling:

[Mark Heaps]

But may you tell me why you dismantle this nice model?

Maybe he is looking at applying for a job with Haynes producing their workshop manuals

[Martin Hofmann]

After dismantling i had clean all plates and parts from all the color and dirt.
It takes very much time to sand blast all the parts. but i am very happy with the result - it's like a new one.

[Martin Hofmann]

there are many parts to sand blast..........
but also the first welds are coming

[Phil Woollard]

Hi Martin, you can put your own mark on that KT now, tell me ...does the sand blasting produce a nice old steel finish as it looks pretty good to me looking at the front fenders regards phil

[Martin Hofmann]

Hello Phil,
the sand blasting produce a very soft surface on the aluminium if you come with 4 to 6 bar pressure and sand with a diameter of approx. 90 mikrometer. The steel parts ( fenders )of the KT are steel ball blasting and this surface comes from.

[Phil Woollard]

Maybe try to keep some or all of that texture when you apply the paint, it would be a shame to lose it as many builders strive to achieve a similar effect, the results will be interesting indeed regards Phil.

[Peter Silcock]

Media blasting is a very quick and efficient way to strip paint, rust etc from a model and costs less than buying litres of thinners or paint stripper. Can't use sand in the UK though cos it apparently destroys the planet so other media is used. My local contractor turns stuff round the same day and for example charged me £50 to strip 95% of a Tiger which would have taken hours and hours to do with chemicals and would not have achieved the same results. Need to use someone who knows what they are doing though and mask off bearing seats and such. Comes out nice as well as Martin's piccies show.