Small Scale Military Headquarters

Hi all, I found this in my local Target a King Tiger tank. Now it says its action series but it has some good weathering. So I though maybe its a enthusiast edition. I have a Tiger 1 that has the same paint scheme, and weathering and I didn't buy it from a target. It was from a local hobby shop and they don't sell action series.

Here is a pic.

It looks like you caught one of those rare Enthusiast Edition models accidentally dropped into an Action Series box in the factory. My King Tiger (France 1944) looks exactly like that. I'll have to post a picture for comparison, but it really looks like you got a bargain there! I paid about $50 CDN for mine including shipping.

I only bought it because I had lost an auction for another King Tiger... but I ended up winning an auction for the same item a week later So I ended up with two of 'em... not that I'm complaining about that.

Yeah I saw this FOV KT at Target the other day. There were two actually, both with nice weathering. I'm not really crazy about the KT and I have the 21st model so I put it back down. Now if the M3 Lee they had the enthusiast type weathering, I would have snatched it up.

ChairmanMilo wrote:It looks like you caught one of those rare Enthusiast Edition models accidentally dropped into an Action Series box in the factory. My King Tiger (France 1944) looks exactly like that. I'll have to post a picture for comparison, but it really looks like you got a bargain there! I paid about $50 CDN for mine including shipping.

I only bought it because I had lost an auction for another King Tiger... but I ended up winning an auction for the same item a week later So I ended up with two of 'em... not that I'm complaining about that.

Yes I thought it was one they put in by mistake, I only payed $25.00 for it so wasn't a bad deal.

Here's a picture for comparison:



Looks about the same. Camo on the running gear of yours is different - your wheels have pretty garish colour on 'em, while mine are all weathered dunkelgelb.

Actually, i don't want to burst any bubbles here but this is in fact an action grade KT Normandy. The difference between the action and Enthusiast series is the weathering. The colors are much more bright then on the enthusiast series which is much more dull, or "dirtyfied". Still looks great though.

The Kingtiger above is the one I have. I would contest and say that it is an Enthusiast version - afterall, it came with all the same accessories and is heavily weathered.

Yeah, it was hard to tell even with a photo comparison until I saw the different paint jobs on the wheels. As much as I love to have the King Tiger and all, I have to say that the paint scheme isn't the prettiest amongst all of the tanks that I have. It's almost.... pink in places.

Lol, I forgot about the glow in the dark painted roadwheels. I think that was what really convinced me to put it back on the shelf.

Here is something I noticed. I was at at my LHS and saw a FOV tank I owned (Jagdpanther) but is was the paint was off. The one I had was more tan and this was well...a diff shade of tan. It was VERY noticable. I took a picture with my cell phone and when I got home I checked it out vs. mine. Same number 80012. So I guess when they crank out another batch of these puppies the paint mix isn't always the exact same as the last batch so you can very well see color variants, if only slight tints and shades.

Hope it helps, if not sorry 'bout eating up 2 min of your life. In that case write some wierd reply and waste 2 min of mine!

-H

Here are a few shots of my Enthusiast grade King Tiger Normandy. Maybe a visual aid can help clearify this despite my poor photographic skills...







It's a tough call but maybe a side by side comparison will help solve this. In any case, the action grade series of this model looks nice indeed.

Ok now i am pretty sure what you have there is an action grade KT in an action grade box. Again, it looks great so it does not really matter.

Mikes-tanks have pics of the Action and Enthusiast version


http://www.mikes-tanks.com/FOV.htm


Action


Enthusiast

Here's a picture of mine - the figure is a 21c figure put into the driver's hatch:



It may very well be an action-grade tank, but it sure has a lot of weathering for the standard action-grade vehicle, especially when compared to the tank in the first picture on demonclaw's post. Also, among other parts, the roadwheels have been heavily weathered. The turret has that blackened appearance, but the numbers stand out quite well. My tank also came with all the accessories in the box: wall section, beach barricades, tank equipment, etc. that are not in Jagdpanther's tank box. Either way, enthusiast or not, the FOV Kingtiger wins over the 21c version in terms of detail and overall "heft"

tmanthegreat wrote:Here's a picture of mine - the figure is a 21c figure put into the driver's hatch:



It may very well be an action-grade tank, but it sure has a lot of weathering for the standard action-grade vehicle, especially when compared to the tank in the first picture on demonclaw's post. Also, among other parts, the roadwheels have been heavily weathered. The turret has that blackened appearance, but the numbers stand out quite well. My tank also came with all the accessories in the box: wall section, beach barricades, tank equipment, etc. that are not in Jagdpanther's tank box. Either way, enthusiast or not, the FOV Kingtiger wins over the 21c version in terms of detail and overall "heft"

Yes thats what I thought, it does have alot of weathering then normal action series tanks that I have seen. So thats what got me to think it was maybe a rare enthusiast edition. But any way I am happy with it and it will go great along with my enthusiast ones.

TMan's KT looks exactly like the two KTs I saw in Target. Lot's of weathering, not just they typical action grade black wash and thick black panel lines that look like they used a Sharpie marker to apply.

I think I actually prefer the action grade in this case, and it represents a great value too.

Each to his own. For me, the Enthusiast edition of this particular color scheme was way over weathered. I am one of those that prefer to weather them myself.