I'm doing up one of the Dragon Panther D premium kits, one of the best plastic models I have ever seen. If you want to see it built up from the box, here it is There's a ton of etch and goodies, other then being careful getting the essential hull together(this should be done before adding any detail) cleanly, its simply wonderful. With great details and aluminum skirts, this would cost a ton of dough to add everything to a standard all-plastic kit.

Just need to add the skirt hangers and a couple touch ups(I find close-up pics help you find flaws better then anything else), a 'smidge of filler for the front joint, and a wire for the headlight and its off to paint! A few of the tools can slip out from under the hangers so a couple are missing in the pics. Essential road wheels were tack-glued in place with tiny amounts of CA, Magic tracks were setup(also wonderful pieces), and broken back down for priming. Really nice kit for under $40! I really like the travel lock chain but its sure a PITA to get it right, don't cut off the plastic part until you're sure you get it together

A note is the rear quarter inserts can be tricky to get to line up. I looked this over quite a bit and did it in this order
-make sure all major parts are perfectly free of flash and any obstructions from sprue tabs
-install the front glacis plate
-install the sponsoons to the upper hull
-install the rear quarter panels between the upper hull and sponsoons
-put the upper and lower hull together, then the rear plate

It takes a bit of fiddling and heavy handedness, so this way is MUCH easier then doing it with detail attached. There's plenty of room to do the tracks with the upper hull mounted.

As has been said, the photographic instructions are pretty lame, and a few things like the rear jack mounts don't even come close to showing you where they go. The smoke candle launchers take a bit of trial-and error as well. Its also very easy to miss something, so check it a couple times over from start to finish. Only error per se that I found is the rear grilles are labeled backwards. You figure it out in two seconds though when it doesn't fit....

I plan to hit all the nooks like inside the muzzle and in corners and under tools with some thin black with the ab, base coat with a red-oxide hue, and then start painting. We'll see how it goes. I think this one is going to be a bit of a 'museum' build with very little damage or weathering, I bought a couple more to beat up the skirts and tool boxes later. The panther premium kit is right along with the Tiger and PIV superkits in goodies so I wanted to make sure they don't become scarce if I want to build one next month or two years from now. There's a decent selection of spares to add to other kits, and some builds don't have the smoke candles so those are great to keep around(versus a $15 aftermarket version). Sorry about the bad lighting, have to get around to building my box for softer white light.

Beautiful build, Kevin, very clean and nicely done. Looking to see some paint on it, even though it looks great just the way it is! Top notch PE work, do you use thick or thin CA? Keep up the great work.

Medium CA, and liquid cement to re-enforce critical joints. I rarely take pictures of the models before I prime them, I kinda like them 'naked'. For most corner joints I actually use CA for filler as I think its much better then putty. If the gap is tiny I put a smear of med CA on the joint and then quickly hit it with a 400 sanding stick and the dust fills the gap. Two piece barrels and the like I use a lot of med ca, let it ooze out and dry, then sand it. The cleaning rod tube was done like that-there is a seam right at the top of it(I hit it with a shot of primer to check it before putting it on). I've done entire ship hulls with nothing but CA as a filler. I have noticed that the close up pics are great for finding errors so I took a few and decided what the heck, may as well post em

I've also changed up doing magic tracks by just putting glue in the female tab areas rather then like I used to putting them on the joints later, so absolutely 0 glue is visable. I just cup up a piece of masking tape, put some liquid cement in it, and then put liberal drops in the joints with a toothpick, then put them together. Bigger tracks like these you can do it right from the bottle's tip(mm liquid cement) if you're careful. If I was not weathering the tracks heavily I could actually see the little bit of glue in each joint the old way.

Hard to believe it is really OOB. Looks like a very clean build so far. Looking forward to more.

Looks great,

I can't wait to see this one finished. All that PE looks like it was a nightmare!

Thanks,
Phil

That is a swell job Kevin
Great work especially the PE.
I am working on an old Panther A myself from Dragon.
This makes me want to build another one.
Might I add have the Panther G also Rubber tired one.
But looks like a D is coming in for Christmas.
Tracks are you going to use the Magic ones?
I agree on the upper and lower hull was a bear to get together especially with zim on.
Can't wait to see the Painted Job.

I think the new panther A premium has all the same goodies on it, I want to pick one of those up. The magic tracks in this kit have the hollowed guide teeth, really beautiful stuff. They give you 16 with seperate guide horns for the sprocket, but they worked ok for me, I'm putting the seperate ones on the storage racks. Funny thing is, using all magic tracks, I ended up using every single one. Hopefully I can actually get through this in a reasonable period of time, sometimes my building just dies out for other projects(most of the time actually)...

Really nice clean build and I am looking forward to seeing it painted as the Panther is one of my favourite tanks.

Darryl

Great looking build Kevin! I too am looking forward to the painting stage now, as the Panther's one of my favorites (and associated variants) to model as well!

Cheers!

Tim

Kevin

Clean build on the panther D keep up the great work!

AlexanderK

I like this kit so much I picked up the A premium. I want to beat that one up a bit and do some waffle zim. I was almost tempted to start another D.. I hope I don't do something like I normally do, like spray a base coat on this and start the other one The cavalier zim kit is out of stock so at least I can't start the other one yet(cripes I got 5 builds on the bench now, not to mention 4 other completely stalled builds all started this year...). I have the attention span of a ferret sometimes. I'm off Wednesday so it may be time for some paint, I had the aluminum skirts on it and it looks fantastic. Hopefully I wont screw it up

Got a little time so I'm priming it now. One of my favorite colors ever is MM Rust, doesn't look like rust, but sure as heck looks like primer Just messing with this wants me to pull out the CH Ferdinand, I can't wait to do that one...I'll let this dry for a few days and get back on the Hetzer, I finally remembered to pick up some poster putty for the hard-edged camo...




The obligatory panzer pincushion:

Hey Kevin, bet it feels good to get some paint on, looking real sharp. Hopefully we'll see your on the bench list shrink a little bit! Thank you for posting the tips above, greatly appreciate it.

Yea, I definitely need to finish SOMETHING The MM rust with some yellow British armor sand mixed in will look killer on the 'naked' Ferdinand. I've got to move on because wanting to do that kit and a Panther A in Russian green are really on my mind, which usually results in more projects getting started and left unfinished. I think the Stuart and Jagdpanzer is going to get bumped and I need to finish the other 4.

this is getting a little ridiculous. I don't even have the LAV/M1 or ships on the list

well, I did the base coat. The model depicted has a dark yellow/ light green two tone(who knows how accurate that is??) so I tried to do a faded wispy green, but I think it's too light. Color is a bit different, I will need to get some pics in daylight, but I may go over the green again with a touch darker shade. I personally kinda like though. It's going to get filters, washes, and normal stuff like streaking so it may darken a smidge anyway. Terrible photo, but closest I could get with my lighting-I need to get a light box...Wheels are just loose in place to check it out. I painted the skirts too but I don't like them as much as i thought I would, I may just leave a few on.

That is looking sweet Kevin.
Here is my color that I *cough* made up .
What do you think?



I have to get that MM paint you are right a Real killer Primer Steel color deal.

I see you have a bunch of Kits on the Build great job on the Merk and Israeli Sherman.

What color are you painting the Tracks I need some ideas if you don't mind me asking??

I usually use Friul but at LHS prices of $40.00 I am using magic tracks on this one and Friul on the G which are more open to inspection.

I did pick up a D like this one

What Merk kit is that ?

Thanks Kevin

Cheers
Jeff

Kevin,

The work so far is great! The detail on everything is fantastic!

Haven't been around much with other obligations but I've been tinkering Here's the basic pin washes. I did some chipping but kept it 'realistic' to where I think it would take the most abuse and where it would get peppered in the running gear and lower hull with gravel, and I need to hit the sprocket teeth. After a couple filters and some light streaking I will do a few more light yellow chips and rub through marks in the camo, and a touch of rust and bare metal here and there, obviously I need to get the tools and spare tracks too. Its been dulled, so the attrition wear on the inner road wheels and idlers will get a fresh thin touch up of metallic paint at the very end. I'm trying to do a lot of smaller chips that you really don't see when looking more then 1' away from the model as I don't want it to 'take over' the look of the paint. I wish I had more time right now to play with this stuff :

Looking Killer Kevin.

A real Nice chipping effect.

Ever Try Floquil Red Oxide a great color for primer Color also.

Great job on the PE.

Can't wait to see it done up.

Thanks for sharing.

Kevin

The Panther is looking beautiful ... cant wait to see it complete.

AlexanderK

Kevin -

Fantastic Panther! Looks great, very much like how you've done the two tone came and weathering so far. Very nice. Thanks for sharing your pics!

Cheers!
Tim

Fantastic.

Thanks guys! I haven't had much time but I've been pokin along. Got some more of the washes done with some faint streaking and rust and the running gear done on the one side(should have the other side done tonight). I sprayed the tracks with metalizer spray(can) gunmetal, the coverage is incredible with just the lightest coats. After just giving it a sludgy sloppy wash with good ol burnt umber(and drybrush steel on the working tracks), I was surprised how good it looked with very little effort. I was kinda stalled for a few weeks from any modelling and after farting around with the tracks(which I kind of hate to weather) I got a bit of steam going again

I brightened it up a bit to show the tracks, sorry if I blinded ya

She is looking great. The tracks look great also.I'll give your method a try. thanks.