Königstiger

The Tiger II (or as was informally known to the Germans who fought in it, Königstiger), was a 70 tonne heavy tank. It was first used in combat with s.H.Pz.Abt. 503 during the Normandy campaign on 11 July 1944.

This Tiger II was at Bovington.

The Museum’s Tiger II was built in July 1944 by Henschel and given Fahrgestell Nummer (chassis number) 280093. It was abandoned on the 29th or 30th August, most likely at Aux Marais, a community on the outskirts of Beauvais around 15 miles further North-East. It has also long been believed that this tank was fired on, possibly after it was abandoned, by the Sherman commanded by Sergeant Roberts of 4 Troop, A Squadron, 23rd Hussars. It came to The Tank Museum from the Royal Military College at Shrivenham in 2006.

I have an old 15mm SDD King Tiger on my workbench.

The view of the Königstiger next to the Luchs light tank.

Photographs of the pre-production Tiger II at Bovington.

Repainting the King Tiger

I started to paint the camouflage on my old SDD German Königstiger. I used Chocolate Brown (872) from the Flames of War German Armour Paint Set.

Though following the painting guidelines from the German Armour paint set, I think the brown is too brown and needs to be more red. I think I am going to recover the dark brown and then use Cavalry Brown (995) which is redder and will I hope look better.

In the first instance though I painted over the brown and will start again.

One of the advantages of using an older model such as this, it allows you to make mistakes and not worry about ruining a model. In the end I will probably use this more as scenery, maybe a knocked out King Tiger, rather than as an actual gaming model.

Camouflaging the 15mm German Tiger II – Königstiger

After painting the basecoat on my old SDD 15mm German Tiger II (Königstiger) I started to paint the camouflage.

I used Chocolate Brown (872) from the Flames of War German Armour Paint Set.

Though following the painting guidelines from the German Armour paint set, I think the brown is too brown and needs to be more red.

15mm German Tiger II – Königstiger

The Tiger II (or as was informally known to the Germans who fought in it, Königstiger), was a 70 tonne heavy tank. It was first used in combat with s.H.Pz.Abt. 503 during the Normandy campaign on 11 July 1944.

In the process of sorting some old gaming stuff out I found a bundle of old SDD models. These are 15mm metal castings that I bought back in the 1990s. It makes me think that the other metal models that I have been painting are also SDD.

This box was mainly late war stuff and included a King Tiger. Having put the model together and given it a white undercoat, I gave it a basecoat of Middlestone using a brush.

I usually spray my 15mm models, but this time used a brush.

I am intending after finishing painting this model, to use it as a test bed for foliage camouflage.

15mm German Königstiger

In the process of sorting some old gaming stuff out I found a bundle of old SDD models. These are 15mm metal castings that I bought back in the 1990s. It makes me think that the other metal models that I have been painting are also SDD.

This box was mainly late war stuff and included a King Tiger. Having constructed the model, I gave it a white undercoat.

The undercoat has shown that the quite severe casting lines, something you don’t always get with a resin casting.

Constructed King Tiger

In the process of sorting some old gaming stuff out I found a bundle of old SDD models. These are 15mm metal castings that I bought back in the 1990s. It makes me think that the other metal models that I have been painting are also SDD.

This box was mainly late war stuff and included a King Tiger. The model consists of four parts: a pair of tracks, the hull and a turret. This is a very nice clean casting, but is quite a heavy model as a result.

It went together very easily, but doesn’t quite sit flat.

Certainly not as detailed as the Flames of War model, the next stage will be a white undercoat.

King Tiger

In the process of sorting some old gaming stuff out I found a bundle of old SDD models. These are 15mm metal castings that I bought back in the 1990s. It makes me think that the other metal models that I have been painting are also SDD.

This box was mainly late war stuff and included a King Tiger.

The model consists of four parts: a pair of tracks, the hull and a turret. This is a very nice clean casting, but is quite a heavy model as a result.

Flames of War – Battle of the Bulge, coming soon…

Back in February 2011 in a blog post I discussed what we might see if Battlefront released a Battle of the Bulge supplement for Flames of War.
In the July issue of Wargames Illustrated we shall see news of “Devil’s Charge” the Flames of War supplement covering the Battle of the Bulge. No news yet on possible model releases but just from the cover I suspect we might see a Schwimmwagen and a King Tiger.

Will we see allied forces? Don’t know, but I would like to see a Comet and the M24 Chaffee.

Airfix King Tiger – Airfix Preview 2012

So there I was looking through the Airfix preview for 2012 when I saw that they are going to release a new model, the German King Tiger from World War Two.

Goes with the Cromwell that they have just released, and they will be releasing a doubles box with both the King Tiger and the Cromwell within it.