Greetings far and wide. I have been building those flying things for decades, I have not built a tank since a was but a young buck so here goes....

First I would like to say that I am posting this to get feedback, that is to say critiques. Don't be afraid of hurting my feelings, I can't learn if I don't know what could be improved upon.

This is Dragon's 1/35 IR Panther Ausf G. I have not decided whether I am going to build it as an IR tank yet or not. What I am sure of is this will be an out of box venture due to an ever shrinking defense budget.

Still painting tracks.


My old school mud.


Mud applied.


Now after dirt. I used my own pigments made from pastels.




I ruined the stock fender trying to bend it so now I am building one.


Some figures I painted a few years ago.






Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

Looks promising and the crew look very well done. I shall continue to watch.

great start,nice work on the figures that running gear looks spot on and very nice work with the home made pigments looks great.

trackpads

Hi Dave
You haven't lost your touch on the armor bulding, looks very good, especially the mud on the roadwheels.

Jacob

Looks really good! the only thing I see wrong is there's no bare metal finish on the drive sprockets, guide teeth on the tracks, idler etc...! = high wear/worn areas that would be polish by the action of the tracks! even with a lot of mud these/some areas woud still be visible.

Sorry to have a little go! but your Panther is coming along nicely keep it coming!

Thank you all for the kind words. You make a fellow feel welcome.

When your right your right. I posted these pics on my other modeling sites I made mention that I still needed to do the bare metal parts yet. I guess I forgot to say it here. I got that done yesterday after I posted here.

At first I was trying to use graphite powder, in the spirit of pigments, but in the end I settled with good old fashion gun metal paint.

A quick update, I guess I should not have said “out of box”, I meant without after market.


I wasn’t happy with the color of the mud so I tweaked it with some new tones. I started with a base of grey this time and added some of the original brown shades to it. I think it looks much better now. I also dry brushed the guides and sprocket teeth gun metal. I think it is safe to call the tracks done now.




The stock fenders, being factory fresh, would never do. I first tried to bend them without heat and broke the right fender. I tried to heat the other fender to bend it but just melted the ends horribly. I took measurements from the kit fenders and built replacements out of plastic stock. The stock is much more flexible so it was easily “damaged”. I made dents by bending or folding and pressing a blunt end of a needle file into it.


The light fixture is from the kit, cut free of the stock fender. I will add the conduit after it is permanently attached. Both fenders still need the mud and dirt treatment. I made the hinges from foil and a piece of stretched sprue.


I really mangled the right fender, the logic being, that is the side furthest from the driver. Just a little misjudgment, “I didn’t see that tree there!”


I had this fine wire mesh stashed away for just such an occasion. I punched the circular ones with a big punch set. They ended up being just the right size.

More later,
Dave Shaw

Nice work Dave !

Fender, tracks, road wheels look really nice !!

Do the IR and bang up the machine 'good'

Looking forward to more !

Now this is a mangled IR Panther !! :

http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/dio/rwpanth/rwpanth.htm#building

Check it out - it has lots of pages and a good log

It's pretty much fantasy, but I think it's the same kit as yours ?

Cheers

Paul

What did we learn today kids?

Sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone. There is no need for self inflicted pain. I thought I’d give a try to beating up the sponson boxes. My attempt doesn’t look too bad in the photo but it looks fake fake fake when it is sitting right in front of you. I didn’t like how it was turning out so I built one out of the old trusty plastic stock. My idea was to give the thinner sheet plastic the same treatment as the fenders but after taking several hours to build, I didn’t want to screw it up and start all over again. If you want bent and dented sponsons, perhaps it might just be worth getting the after market ones.



I didn’t quite have the outside angle just right when I took this picture, I have since reworked it to a more acceptable angle. I have also added the bottom mounting brackets. It may not be perfect but I think it is passable.

This’ll be quick. Just a few more things like some more pioneer tools and hatches and I’m ready to paint!













Can anyone shed some light on tow cables for Panther G’s? There is no mention of them in the instructions. I think the rectangular indentions that I filled in, on the rearward top of the engine deck, is for tow cable brackets but I am not sure.

Coming along nicely Dave, got any ideas of a camo scheme yet?

hi dave,
your correct about the brackets. they're three sided sqaure brackets, with a hole at the end of each upright. hope this makes sense. good job on your panther. dave take a look at my panther in my photos and you might be able to see how they stowed the cables.
respectfuly yours,
nick morgan

looks good to me. Keep it up Dave.

Thanks fellows,

I thought so, about the tow cable brackets. I'll add those in a day or two.

I had an idea for paint. I used a profile I found on line. It was really for an Jagdpanther so I had to tweak it some.

CAUTION FRESH PAINT!

Still have a few touch ups, never the less, here she is.









After the touch ups, seal ‘er up, wash and weather… then I’ll be depressed.
I AIN”T GOT NO MORE ARMOR!!!!

I do like the 3 colour scheme's ... and this works well on your Panther your doing good mate!

This is going to look great, your figures look impressive,look forward to completion.

I like the color scheme. Don't be too depressed, there are plenty of armor kits out there.. waiting to be built.....

Colors looked a bit, for lack of a better word, bold. I toned them down by adding white to the base colors and hitting highlights and panels with the lighter shade. I don’t think it looks like such an avocado salad now.










I added the rear tow cable brackets and I am still working on the cable. I will only have one since that is all that the kit provides ends for. I am told that the cable is 8.2 meters long but that sure seems awful long.





I also added the commander’s MG mount. Most photos don’t show the MG mounted so I will leave that off.






Well if nobody can see anything else that needs to be done, I will paint tools, seal, and weather.
I welcome any and all comments…

Thanks for looking (again)
Dave

still looking great!

Coming along great Dave... are you going to batter her up a bit more to go with the walking wounded figures?

I am not sure if the figures will be used with this yet or not but one thing is sure, more weathering will follow.

BUT FIRST…

It would seem that I can’t build a model without some sort of disaster befalling me. Keeping true to my form I accidently grabbed the wrong bottle when I started my wash. What I grabbed was my xylene. Fortunately I noticed this before too much damage was done. It ate right through all the paint having a spider web effect. I immediately flooded the area with mineral spirits to try and remove and/or dilute the xylene. That worked fairly well. As the spider web dried it sucked back down leaving cracks in the finish. I have already used 2000 grit to sand it away and just need to touch it up. I just wish I would not have started on top of the turret, if I would have started on the lower hull this would have been easily covered with dirt and mud. I was lucky in that this disaster was minor and easily fixable if not just a pain in the...







The only other area that suffered damage was this lower corner on the turret.



By the way, opinions needed about the red number. I was thinking of doing them in white but I didn’t see that as being very tactical.

Dave

I wouldn't worry too much. While the corner of the turret will obviously need fixing, the cracks on the turret look quite realistic. It's the sort of cracking you get with very thick paint after long exposure to the elements. I'd leave it as it is.

I share Luke's point of view. The cracks on the turret looks good. In fact I looked on the pictures before reading the text and said myself "damn good job" LOL. Very good job till now. Keep it on man!

spit

I agree the cracking looks like paint would go with heavy boots and sun etc... on it!!!! leave it be I say!!!

I agree. i think it looks good with the cracked paint.