¹⁄35

Panther Ausf.G

Painting

I have often seen experienced tankers say that 10 minutes in a dusty field will pretty much hide any camouflage pattern on a tank. I thought it would be fun to try and get this look, without any mud and little or no chipping.

I usually paint the wheels and tracks separately from the hull, and then add them during final construction. On Vinnies prompting I assembled the entire model and then sprayed it Nato Black. I then masked off the tracks and sprayed a base coat of Dunkelgelb. The result is very good, the initial black coat adds shadows and depth to the base colour that I would not have otherwise achieved. I will certainly be using this method from now on. Brown and green were then added in an oak-leaf type pattern.

A coat of Future sealed the tank which was then washed with burnt umber and Mig pigments added for effect.

I also tried a new approach to painting tools – I left them on the sprue and cut all injection points except one, then painted and weathered them in situ. This made them much easier to handle and paint, and once the last cut was made, touch up was easy.

the Base

This is a stunning item in plaster and styrene from Great North Roads for £10. I wanted this base to represent a heavily used area in a shunting yard, possibly where iron ore is loaded.

I masked off the rails and base coated it with a dark brown. The base was then masked and the rails sprayed with MRMetal Color Iron, and the top of the rail was polished. Rail ties were painted with a black-brown and then the whole base give a seal of Future. Everything was then washed with Burnt-Umber and left to dry. Various Mig pigments were used on the ground and rust added to the rail sides. Finally the rail bed and edges were given a dusting of Mig pure black to represent coal dust.

Things I have learned from this build

Magic Tracks can be fully assembled on the model prior to painting.
A base coat of Nato Black is also great as a colour for track links and rubber wheels.
Tamiya thinner works far better on Tamiya paints than an IPA mix.
Tools can be painted and weathered on a sprue, and attached last.

Conclusion

A fantastic kit to build OOB, whether you want the extra in the update kit is a personal choice. It may be that the problems I encountered on the two items above were of my own making, but I doubt it. I did spend a lot of time trying different ways to correct both of them and always ended up with the same result. Although this update is excellent in many respects, I think Cyberhobby need to look at the two items mentioned with a view to correcting the design.

My thanks to Vinnie for help on the project and to Cyberhobby for the update kit.