Having just finished a stug iv, i’m am plannning on tackling a panther ausf a from tamiya. The reason i picked it was cost. I am wondering if anybody has tips on building and painting this. Since i don’t have an airbrush, what type of paint should i choose i.e modelmaster, humbrol, etc. and what color also. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you.
Laxman,
If the Panther kit is a #35065, that was one of Tamiyas first Panther releases and is pretty poor on accuracy… I have built 3 Panthers of that same kit that I use for practice… It is in my opinion, a good starter kit to dive into, but the later Tamiya Panther kits look and go together much better.
I painted my Tamiya panthers with Tamiya spray paint before I had an airbrush… The Tamiya spray paint goes on very smooth and relatively thin. Just don’t make the first mistake I did on my first Panther and paint it grey. The right base color for a Panther is TS-03 which is a dark yellow…
Good luck, and when you get done with that kit, you’ll be hungry to try the better quality ones.
Thanks Panther18, the advice was helpful, but what about camo scheme, since the ausf a was the second version of the tank to come out, should i paint it in the camo scheme used in the italian campaign or what?One more question how do i paint that scheme. Thanks.
There are many, many Panther paint schemes, and probably none are incorrect except for the previously mentioned “gray”…
I looked for Panther pics and sites for referrence materials to determine what schemes I wanted to paint and since Panther A’s were used throughout the entire later half of WWII there is a wide variety to choose from. The only real definite color was the “dunkelgreb” or dark yellow base… Later G models were sometimes painted with a Dark Green base…
I painted one in a winter whitewash and one in a “ambush camo” scheme…
Even though the ambush scheme is a late version, my Panther A was repainted when it was sent back to be repaired…
I hope this helps…
The most beautiful Panther released is not Tamiya’s Panther G or Panther G Steel Wheel version, but it’s Dragon’s Panther A Early Type released in 2002.
Have a look at this page, it contains such Panther A which won Best Model of the Month Award (hrmodeler.com) in November 2002 :
thanks for all the help, but would it be ok if i used modelmaster’s Afrika mustard spray for the base color? And after applying the base color, what other colors should i use for a panther that took part in the italian campaign? Thanks.
I don’t know about the color because I don’t do modelling myself (anymore), but
normally my modeler mixed the color himself and painted 3 levels of similar
color (in this case, sand color) but different tones (whiter & whiter). Weathering
comes afterwards. For a Panther in Italian campaign, I think it should be in a
3-color camouflag scheme (Dark Green, Dark Brown and Light Brown). On my
Web site there are several Panthers on show, in several color schemes. Some
are used in dioramas. Here’s the list :