The King Krote was an instant hit with MaK fans when it appeared in Model Graphix. It's big, looks like a big Krote, has big missile tubs on the side, has a big engine, is pretty good size and towers above the suits. So, the take-away is, the KK is large. And damn cool looking. There have been two garage manufactures of the King Kote in 1/20 . Project M and Rainbow Egg. Having built a Rainbow Egg GrosserHund before, I knew the quality of the KK would be high and a fairly straightforward build.
It has taken me an aweful long time to finally process the images for this model but here it is.
Below are notes and images for my build log. The model was built as a commission piece and now resides in a happy home full of other glorious MaK models.
The castings on the RE kits are fantastic. I only found a few pin holes in some difficult to cast areas later on but these were taken care of with Mr. Surfacer. I started with the easy stuff first, assembling the larger sub assemblies like the head, torso, engine bits, and legs. Most of the clean up involved minor flash, so it wasn't that difficult to make quick progress.
More Mr. Surfacer and a shot of Tamiya Fine Gray Primer. It's starting to look like a KK.
Here's where my rapid progress starts slowing down. The leg struts weren't exactly round and weren't exactly worth cleaning up, so I replaced them with styrene and brass tubing only keeping the one stepped resin bit. I also had issue with the cast frames that supported the missile tubes. The recommended tube size didn't fit the frame, so I had to build them from scratch too. I cut little rings of 1/2" styrene tube and cleaned up the edges. These rings were secured to a board with double sided tape. I then sanded then down until all the black marker was gone. i then knew they were all the same thickness.
I decided to have a little fun with weathering the engine bit. Primer and sanding was getting a bit boring.
Sorry, no in progress images as it happened pretty quickly once I had paint applied. But here are the steps.
Grey Primer
Tamiya Flat Black
Alclad Matt Aluminum
HS on engine block.
Tamiya Flat White. No masking
Chipped with damp brush
Wash of MIG Rust Effects Standard Rust - blend around with thinner
Applied AK Engine Grime - blend around with thinner
Applied AK Dust effects - blend around with thinner
Rubbed with graphite stick and buffed with fingers
Applied AK Engine Oil in selected areas
Applied wash of MIG Gulf War Sand and Light Dust Pigments. When dried dusted off with brush
Applied MIG Dark Wash and worked in into darkest areas
Applied AK Engine Oil in selected areas
Buffed again with graphite stick
Applied selected wash of MIG Gulf War Sand and Light Dust Pigments. When dried dusted off with brush
And probably something else I'm forgetting.
The sides and front won't be seen once the engine cover is installed so I wasn't too worried about how rough the sides appear. The underside won't be easily visible and the upper portion will be mostly covered by the head. So totally worth all the effort... which wasn't much but a good practice using some new products and understanding other ones a little better.
Painted color study. Tamiya acrylics and HS technique. Needs a brown filter to tone down and unify.
A few more parts get the HS treatment.
The lower sub-assembly has been put together. Hip joints are pinned with 1/8 and 1/16 brass rod.
Head has been painted and given a few filters and some oil highlights.
My favorite part, weathering has begun. Filters, washes, all with a mix of AK and MIG stuff. A little more to go with pigments.
