Monster Truck Madness – Shermans and Tigers, Oh My!

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday and Happy Independence Day to my fellow American readers!

And what’s more American than a Sherman tank?

The shot above is of my Heng Long M4A3 1/16 Sherman Tank Professional Edition! I still need to paint my drive sprockets/idler wheels and treads, but I went ahead and added the scale accessories and most of the decals! The tank is a fully functioned unit, with lights, sound, and a working airsoft cannon. It has has an IR unit for battling other tanks. But what’s it going to battle?

Well, that’s the actual subject I want to talk about. My Heng Long 1/16 King Tiger Tank Professional Edition.

I picked one up a couple months ago, and I’ve been working on it since then.

The entire tank has been painted by yours truly in an “ambush” type of paint scheme, which was how many of the 1:1 monsters were painted in 1944/45 on the Western Front. I used Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow, XF-61 Dark Green, and XF-64 Red Brown. Most of this was airbrushed, but I did some standard brushing as well on it.

For the fully metal treads, I used AMMO Burnishing Fluid combined with warm water to soak them, turning the raw metal to a darker, blackish color to make them look more realistic to what a full sized King Tiger’s looked like (they used steel tracks).

I then loaded it up with scale accessories to finish it off.

I am ecstatic with how the big cat turned out. And it is big! Even at 1/16 scale, the King Tiger (which was the biggest tank of WW2) is freakin’ massive. I don’t know how much it weighs, but with the metal transmissions and running gear, it has to be around 12 lbs or so.

Both of the tanks are a total blast to drive, but the big Tiger II is so much fun to watch traverse terrain as I can just sit there and watch the suspension do it’s thing all day. Yes, I’m a big armor nerd.

Immediate plans are to finish up the Sherman, and then do some light oil wash weathering on both of them.

As my familiarity with the mechanics of these things grows, I’m also hoping to do a proper 1980’s monster tank truck eventually (on a new chassis).

Next week it’s back to monster trucks, but I thought some of you would enjoy hearing about my descent into r/c tank madness!

Until next time, keep it on all 4’s! Have a safe holiday weekend, everyone!