A friend gave it to me some time ago...I've heard horror stories about the treads, LOL...my paint/wash technique will be using spray paint for the 1st time...yikes!

Hi Jesper,
Exactly, no pain no gain . Additionally, they are excellent kits to learn new skills and/or practice the basics. Nowadays, we modelers complain if we use a little bit of putty or remove a few seamlines.

I have finally started my build. It looks to be a simple build with not a lot of parts. The details are very soft or nonexistent. The weapons sprue looks very American with cluster bombs and maverick missiles. Totally useless for this aircraft. A real dog.

This campaign forum gives new meaning to the term "kit-bashing", lol...

Almost done assembling the Hummel, at least. Not quite ready to handle those figures; they are so bad. Side plates were both a bit warped so I'll be doing one at a time with lots of Tamiya thin and spring clamps. Right now everything is just sitting in place while I clean my area. Dropped my X-acto into my ankle the night before while working on this turd. Wondering if I should tack that onto my bill...

The dog bites back

The kit does look decent from the pictures. Looking forward to see what you get from it.

Oh, speaking of Hummels, check this out:






Bit of post-war porcelain I found in a small town antique store in Florida. This was the only military item they made; most of the other pieces are animals, flowers, busts of celebrities, normal vases, the usual retail store pottery.

that's kind of cool. should put a red or orange colored plant in it to make it look like an explosion caused by an ammo rack hit

Hummel porcelain - that is a whole new kind of weird.

After some research and the total lack of underwing stores I have decided to go for an anniversary scheme. I have the decals for this in my stash.

More to follow soon.

I have a 1/35 kit of the single turret version. The kit is Polish and the tracks look pretty bad on it as well. I bought a set of Fruils for the Soviet T-26 and an initial trial fit showed that the might fit the 7TP sprockets just fine. If not, I have several of the T-26s in the pile of kits that can use them.

On my kit the tools are molded onto the running boards and a new set from something else might make a worthwhile upgrade.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with your project!

Thanks, this one is the early twin turret version and I'll be starting it next week...I'll call this the Orthrus Project after the two-headed Dog in Greek Mythology, lol!

I've just realised I've not posted any photos of my completed Panther. I was rebuilding an old wreck for the Unfinished Business campaign at the same time as building a new Panther here as well so here are the pics.









I've done a bit of basic paint chipping on it but not full weathering as it's going in a dio with it's sister and as yet I've not decided where it is, what time of year it is or what is happening yet. Alternatives are it's being refuelled and ammo stowed away in a farmyard, carrying troops on the engine decks either in Normandy in July 1944 or carrying troops in Winter garb in snowy conditions in the Ardennes. I don't do Eastern Front very often so at least that simplifies it a bit. Here she is with her sister



I'd got some quite excellent decals from one of the Dragon half tracks so numbered them from the same platoon etc for continuity. It doesn't look like many units applied divisional markings to Panthers so at the moment they're unattached although once I stick commanders in the turret I'll have to make a choice between SS or Wehrmacht. While some may consider it a dog of kit because it's basic compared to the DML ones with torsion bars and hundreds of bits and it's innacuracies that you don't notice until you get a tape measure out I enjoyed building it. When I was looking for something for Unfinished Business I found two exceedingly knackered Panthers I'd built about 16 years ago so decided to cannibalise them to make one good one then once I started thought why not a pair to go with one I'd already got hence buying this one. I enjoyed building it that much I bought two Italeri Panther G's cheaply and they're not bad either. Thanks for an enjoyable and entertaining campaign as I still can't believe how bad some manufacturers kits were lol.

They look great except for one small thing: Those two smaller pipes on either side of the left exhaust are intake pipes to pull cool air into the left side of the engine compartment.

They don't suffer heat oxidation rust like the exhaust pipes, so should not be weathered the same.

Beautiful work there. I'll have my hands full trying to get close to most of you guys! ;-)

Nice work on the Panthers, Karl.

Thanks for the info on the air pipes, Shell. That was a new fact for me.

Jesper, thanks for the kind words. I enjoyed building the Panther and a big plus is I didn't have to attempt the zimmerit as the one and only occasion I tried doing my own it was an umitigated disaster. The zim was about 6 inches thick scalewise lol. Unfortunately my preferred period is when the Germans slapped zimmerit all over everything, late 43 to the Ardennes offensive. Just typical really. I built two of their late Tigers earlier in the year which had moulded Zim sheets which once again made things easier. Well I say built. One was new and the other a reclamation as I'd built it about 18 years ago and it looked crap. Now I have two reasonable Tigers to find a dio for lol. When I bought the new one it was exactly the same kit but with PE grilles and side skirts which was a bonus as it saved me buying them. I've noticed Italeri seem to be supplying PE more often these days so not quite as doggy as they once were.

Shell, I had absolutely no idea about that. Thanks for letting me know. Now I know which weathering to do on them for future builds. I always wondered why there were three pipes on one side. Now I know. That's one of the many things I love about this place, the bits of information you just pick up along the way from just reading threads and the fact that if you have a specific question about something it gets answered in a few hours.

I think I learned that here myself when I built mine years ago.

OK, Project Orithrus, The Two Headed-Dog Mirage T7 has begun...

Instructions and Box Art (everything is in Polish):

I am in no way an expert, or even an accomplished modeler...but If I can get this Mirage T7 built I'll feel like Modeler Of The Year! Each step has been an ever more excruciating misadventure....the wheels and bogies seem designed to go cockeyed no matter what you do...

The hull plates seem straightforward...guess again...all just slightly out of square...

Tracks were another fun time, joining them with a hot screwdriver blade wasn't bad, but stretching them over the wheels? They don't really fit the sprockets and they seem to be about 1/4 too short overall, so they are tugging at the bogeys...

DOG is right...it's sad when you are glueing everything in sight as fast as you can so the thing won't uncoil into 50 pieces! I tried to fit the turrets to the hull...not even close, it's going to take some major surgery ;-(...I have another one of these Mirage Kits masquerading as a T-26 I was thinking of building for the Poland 1939 Campaign, but I doubt I'll ever want to revisit this critter again! LOL!

You're a brave man Clayton, hang in there! I have uncompleted Mirage kits as well, makes me want to try and do one for this campaign as well. Cheers, Tat