Here’s the panther I’ve been working on. I’ve laid down paint and only have to paint the wheels and track, decal it, and then weather it, so I’m about 70% done. Couple of firsts here…First tank ever, first model in about 12 years (since I was 13), first time using an airbrush. After spraying the dunkelgelb and dark green, I thinned some Tamiya buff down considerably and sprayed it over top of the whole model. I sprayed the camo pattern free hand and there’s some overspray, but I liked the way it turned out. Any constructive criticism that you guys have would be gratefully appreciated.
Actually, I really like most of what you have done…is that old-school zimm?—it is very well done…Nice paintjob, but I just don’t care for the chipping and exposed primer…the big flakes of missing zimmm don’t look natural to me…
It’s Dragon’s Panther D with pre-molded zim. I was trying to go for a slightly damaged look, but it may be overdone. It was a bit difficult to sand the pre-molded plastic into a believable pattern. This is my first go-round with a plastic model in a long time, and this is also the first tank I’ve ever built, so I’ve got a lot of learning to do.
Do you have any ideas on how to make the chipped zim look more realistic?
Oleander, probably the most important wany to model convincing chipped zimm is to think WHERE to model it–where would a tank get dinged-up? The edges, the corners, etc–not usually smack-dab in the middle of the glacis plate. Little chips are better than large.
You don’t want the chipped zimm to jump out at the observer, ypou want it to be noticed secondarily. Chip it, erode it, whatver you have to do to show the degreadation, and then paint the edges a light tan-gray (the color of real zimm) and wash it with a light Burnt Umber; then if it’s a deep chip, paint the primer underneath; if it’s a shallow chip, the tan-gray color will siffice.
But remember in the end, it’s WHERE you put it that’s going to look covincing or not. YOu might want to simulate a glancing shell hit in the big chip you have up front there; that might give some plauibility to that size of a chip in the glacis there?
A perfect shade of Dark Yellow you have here, in my opinion! Looking good!
I may go back and add some of the zim back in with putty or just paint it the grey-tan color you mentioned. I was trying to simulate a glancing blow on the front panel, but in retrospect it’s a bit too big.
Actually I have a photo of a Panther that had taken a hit dead on the glacias plate, I believe from an M-10 Tank destroyer, This hit was fatal but according to the book very hard to do at any range, none the less it just shows that damage to the zim could occur like that. As far as how frequent this would occur or what color would be exposed I’m not the expert. But it shows the damage is plausible. I like the paint job your skills are much better than mine. Can’t wait to see the final results. Nice job
Hang in there. For your first armor you’re doing a credible job. So far constuction and paint look nicely done. Taking Doogs advice will only improve your build. Hey, I’ve been building off and on for over 35 years and I still have a ton to learn.
