Well fellas…the Ta-152 is behind me now I’ve had to rethink my next build in que which was going to be the Testors 1/24 scale Pantera. I’m going to push that build back by one slot in the que just because our son is going to leave for the military in the next few months so I thought I would build something military while he’s still around to check out the progress on my work. (did I mention that I build in multiple genres?? )
This is my first ever armor build and I’ve been pretty stoked to get started with this new to me genre of modeling anyways so…here it is. I’ve been watching plenty of videos and seeing all of you fine armor builders here turn out some pretty fancy work so I’m going to give this a go.
Without further ado…I’ll be going with the Tamiya kit for this and already have all of the materials to make this all happen.
Wow Joe, it’s almost like you and I are sharing the same wavelengths or something. I just picked up a different boxing of this Panther kit at the IPMS show in Stafford last Saturday for the same reasons you cite. While I have built some armor in the past, I’ve had an itch to give that genre another try.
I’ll be following your build to see what you do with the Panther.
This’ll be a fun one, for you and us! Guessing by those Tamiya pots that you’ll be painting it in the box art colors? Dare we hope for the crew figures too?
@Aggieman : That is funny. Looking forward to seeing your builds when you get to it.
@Toimi_Tom : Sort of in regard to the paint scheme. I’ll cover that a little later. I don’t think it’ll be 100% accurate but I’m going for effects here. Crew figures…maaaaaaaaaaybe?
Managed to stiple on the texture on all sides of the tank body and turret over the last couple of days. Just gotta hit it with some 1000 grit sandpaper to blend it all in a tad bit.
It’s actually a pretty stiff brush Steven and yessir…you’re actually stipling/ pressing the bristles into the surface. After it all dries up you just hit it with the sandpaper to bring out a more uniform appearance to it all.
I’ve been on this one pretty much every day since the last update and am making some decent progress in the construction phase. Sanded the texture a little with 1200 grit sandpaper and have added some things to the hull. I did discover/ experience what a lot of you armor guys have been talking about with all the road wheels on German armor. Pretty tedious stuff but we’re getting through it. So far so good.
Finally broke the jig that I got from a good friend of mine on another forum out this morning and mounted the Panther on top. This is going to be VERY useful.
Sorry for the late reply fellas. Had some electrical issues at home this weekend (I’ll explain later) and got them all sorted out. That and the list of “honey do’s” never ends. lol
This particular jig required me to drill a 1/4" hole in the bottom of the hull. There’s a stud on the jig that goes up through the bottom of the hull and it’s secured into place by installing a nut on the stud from inside the hull.
I did manage to get everything in primer on Friday as I had an extra hour or so that I hadn’t planned on available to me for benchtime.
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