Fujimi/Nitto 1/76 King Tiger (Henschel Turret)

[ntrocket88]

Next up - a 1/76 Fujimi (ex-Nitto) King Tiger (Henschel Turret). These were always the ‘flagship’ models in my small scale collection growing up. This kit was the most detailed and challenging braille-scale armor kit I knew of in the 1980’s and I eventually built five of them, keeping two ‘in service’. They were the yardstick for my modeling abilities and I kept going back to try again as my knowledge and skills improved. So, time for another test… I made the last one more than twenty years ago before my ‘break’. I finished this a couple of months ago, in between the two Daimler Armoured Cars I posted recently. I do have a build history for this one, including more on the interior detail. Let me know if you are interested and I will add it to this thread.

This kit was originally produced by Nitto from around 1976. The moulds were taken over by Fujimi in around 1988, I believe. Strangely, Fujimi kept their own King Tiger kit in production as well, even though it is not as good. The overall dimensions are pretty good scale-wise and the exterior detailing is superb, even by today’s standards. The interior detailing is also pretty good, being about 70% complete (and about 80% accurate…). This one was a recently produced kit with L&L tracks – a vast improvement over the truly awful rubber band ones the kit used to come with. However, they were fiddly to install and at least 1 mm too narrow (enough to annoy me at least).

I added the Zimmerit finish, air-intake mesh and an aerial, modified the hull MG mount to close down the opening, sanded down the schurzen to thin them out and then cut them to leave some off. I also drilled out the various lifting loops and hatch handles. The interior I built mostly OOB, but added the coaxial MG and the angled driver’s instrument panel. One day I may go back to this and add some more of the missing interior details, especially the air handling units and fuel tanks around the engine.

The finish actually has a story. By early July 1944, the 1st Company of sSS PzAbt 101 had lost most of it’s Tiger 1 in Normandy. They handed the remainder over to the 2nd and 3rd Companies and left for Sennelager to pick up new mounts – 14 King Tiger with Henschel turrets. They returned to the Normandy front in early August, just after the front began collapsing. All but one of their King Tiger were lost by the time the unit reached Germany in September, mostly due to breakdowns. One of these 14 King Tiger, number ‘104’, was captured and is now on display at Bovington. They were airbrushed with large-patch, three-color camouflage over Zimmerit with prominent turret numbers. Henschel turrets produced in May/June 1944 did not have the spare track hooks, so I decided not to scratch them to emphasize the Zimmerit. However there is a wartime photo of ‘112’ and it did really have the hooks...


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret BLR


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret LF


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret Top


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret RF


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret LR


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret Interior


Fujimi Nitto King Tiger Henschel Turret Interior

[JohnRatzenberger]

Very well finished ! And I was quite surprised when I got to the interior shots -- it is all you say and you've very done well.

If I may, the photos seems to show the lead roadwheel on the left side is bent inward, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th on the same side may not be touching the track (sorry I'm an AMPS judge and can't help myself) -- test by sliding a piece of paper between the road wheel and the track.

The camo scheme, the prominent turret numbers, and the interior really pop !

[Dirkpitt289]

WOW, that is fantastic.

[Justin1980]

Simply stunning and the interior shots just brought the whole model to a new higher level!

Regards

Justin

[ShaunW]

Another great model Neil -great braille scale Zimmerit yet again! These kits were very much ahead of their time, I'm not certain how many other AFV kit manufacturers back in 1976 offered an interior to their 1/76th products. Back then, even in 1/35th, a gun breech was about the limit for most offerings and, indeed, it's not much better now. I would be very much interested to see your build history on this.

[ntrocket88]

Many thanks for the very kind comments, once again.

...If I may, the photos seems to show the lead roadwheel on the left side is bent inward, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th on the same side may not be touching the track (sorry I'm an AMPS judge and can't help myself) -- test by sliding a piece of paper between the road wheel and the track...

Well spotted and thanks for the constructive feedback. I genuinely appreciate it so I can learn and improve. I went back to the model and tried the paper test, but they are attached to the track. The problem I think, is that the mould halves for the wheels sprue must have been badly out of alignment and I did not do a good enough job of scraping down the rear part that was proud of the front part, if that makes any sense! If you look closely you can see it on the middle outer wheel on the RHS (as viewed by the crew). I remember that I was worried that too much clean-up would leave the wheels out of round. The 'bend' on the lead front wheel though is an optical illusion from the photo, perhaps caused by the light/dark contrast?

[JohnRatzenberger]

Good that you've checked it all out. One of the best ways to check your own work is by checking the photos, not the model itself.

I still love that finish !

[ntrocket88]

I will start the build description with some of the references I used and add photos and descriptions in installments as time allows and to avoid overwhelming.

Fort Knox King Tiger (dozens of images including the refurbished interior – invaluable) here

Individual Images:
Bovington King Tiger (Henschel Turret)
Image 1 here
Image 2 here
Image 3 here
Image 4 here

A selection of KT images, including one being painted by the crew:
Image 5 here

King Tigers Of sSS PzAbt 101 in August 1944
Image 6 here
Image 7 here
Image 8 here
Image 9 here

Images Specifically of ‘112’
Image 10 here

Book References
Panzers In Normandy Then And Now – Eric Lefevre
The Tiger Tanks Volume 1 – Nowarra, Feist & Maloney
AFV/Weapons Profile: Pzkpfw VI Tiger Ausf. H(E) and Tiger Ausf. B – Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis
New Vanguard: King Tiger Heavy Tank 1942-1945 – Thomas Jentz, Hilary Doyle, Peter Sarson
Encyclopedia Of German Tanks Of World War Two - Peter Chamberlain, Hilary Doyle, Thomas Jentz
Michael Wittmann and the Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte - Patrick Agte
Armor battles of the Waffen SS - Will Fey

[ntrocket88]

Fujimi sell three different King Tiger kit. This demo applies to the Porsche and Henschel turret versions that were originally produced by Nitto. The original Fujimi version is OK, but lacks external and internal detailing and has a weedy gun (Airfix StuG III syndrome...).

During production, Fujimi replaced the original rubber-band tracks with a new L&L sprue. Regardless of whether you like L&L, the rubber band versions were truly awful - lacking detail, too thick, too short and worse of all, they became brittle very quickly and disintegrated.

The current ex-Nitto versions with L&L tracks come in packaging like this:


Henk Of Holland has a full rundown of the very confusing serial numbers and packaging here

[ntrocket88]

To Zimmerit or not to Zimmerit, that is the question...

If you are making the Porsche Turret version, all 50 had Zimmerit to the the best of my knowledge (with the possible exception of a prototype). The Henschel turret versions were produced from May 1944 onwards, and had Zimmerit applied at the factory at least through September - possibly a little longer.

Since my version was intended to represent a vehicle in August 1944, I chose to apply this finish.

[ShaunW]

Very interesting Neil. How have you done the Zimmerit on this one - Squadron putty?

[ntrocket88]

Very interesting Neil. How have you done the Zimmerit on this one - Squadron putty?

No, tried that many times in the past and always failed in this scale. I used my trusty Dremel with a small engraving bit and just cut the grooves into the plastic. I proceed in columns and work my way from left to right. There is a lot of attached 'swarf' left, but a quick rub with the hobby knife gets it off.

[ShaunW]

Ah, yes the Dremel. I remember now that you used this on another of your models displayed on here. It looks very effective I must say.

[ntrocket88]

It would be nice to say that I plan every move ahead of time and that everything follows a logical progression through the build and finishing. It would be nice... but not true! The photos will bounce around from various levels of completion as I try to put them in a more logical order.

Next would probably be using micro-drill and a pointed Exacto-blade to open up all the various lifting loops and hatch handles. I used a fresh blade to put as little force on the loops as possible when 'squaring' the holes. The Nitto features are fairly beefy, so this works well and I only resorted to brass wire for the rear turret hatch, as you can see above.

On the turret, I opened up three lifting hooks (visible on the above photos, two front and one at the back) and the handles on the two hatches.




I made the Commander's hatch and the Driver/Radio Operator hatches on the hull so they can open. For the two hull hatches, the plastic posts are long enough that I could mush the ends with a hot screwdriver to keeps them loose but retained.


Note: The hull hatch openings are slightly too small and need to be opened up along the back edge to allow the hatches to sit flat.

The stem on the commanders hatch is too short to use the hot screwdriver method, so I cut it off, drilled a small hole in the hatch and glued in a length of brass wire with a bent end:


There is also a hatch handle to open up on the engine deck, on the engine cover:

[ntrocket88]

Next thing to address in this kit is the machine guns. Both need a little modification...

The hull MG comes mounted centrally through a curved plate. In reality, the MG was mounted to the right (as viewed from inside), with the monocular sight mounted to the left. To achieve this I trimmed the RHS of the plate back and glued it on the RHS of the hole in the glacis, then filled the gap on the left. A dot of black during detailing created the sight. The other problem with the hull MG is the glacis bulge for it. The opening is too high and needed to be filled and sanded to close it down to the correct size:


The coaxial MG comes as a protuberance on the RHS of the 'pot' mantlet. I could not find any photos showing this, only a hole in the pot. So I cut off the 'MG' barrel and drilled a hole instead. I also scratched the coaxial MG for the interior and mounted it with the 'barrel' extending to the back of the 'pot'.