Abarne, thanks, actually I was looking at your thread of the Finished Panther A and that is where I drew some of my inspiration, you did a great job on that kit. thanks for the tips, I might just give it a try sometime
Steve, thanks for the offer, but seeing as how it’s a practice kit, I dont’ think I’ll put too much into it, of course I will put myself to it but not my money so to speak 
I’ll give those techniques a try, i’m definitely getting sucked more and more into the Armour world.
not sure if anyone cares anymore but there are a few updates,
here are some new pics of what i’ve done so far… I’ve done everything i could with what materials I have… I still haven’t been to the store to grab the paints… there are 2 or 3 places in the area but I’d like to find one with a good selection and also kits to purchase, the first one i went to was way too expensive. thanks to Manstein’s Revenge the theme of this Panther Ausf. A is probably going to be a tank in the Western front, with the 9th SS Panzer ‘Hohenstaufen’. I figure I’d have plenty of chances to make tanks of Das Reich, Liebestandarte and Wiking, so might as well knock one off for Hohenstaufen… there wont’ be too much weathering… this will be the form the tank is in before the divison gets battered at the Falaise pocket
I primed the hull and deck/turrent with a spray primer, then put on some of the pieces i would colour later. the priming worked out ok, the zimm appears more defined now so it looks a bit better. I’ve been taking care to make everything fit well but there was an issue with the slide in part where the front o fthe hull meets the front of the deck, so there is a small gap in some of the pictures, I also need to get putty to fix some of these gaps. that gap is easily remediable though, with some jockeying around. I painted the wheels with a mix of brown and tan, and some green, the front sprocket and rear guide turned out in a close to dunkelgreb colour but the rest… i got the mixture wrong so they turned out a bit brown. I’ll be painting the rims of the wheels tomorrow – black. Didn’t put in the rubber road wheel plugs yet, as I’ll be removing them soon enough. Now I just have to get my lazy butt to the store and pick up those paints, putty, and playdough…
Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated
ps. anyone that’s build this kit before… how did you get the commander through the cupola? I tried today and he’s not fitting in, neither feet first nor head first?
pss. don’t mind Otto, he loves being in the photos lol
Herr Koenig,
Of course we care…and those pics are very interesting. You are on your way to a really cool build. I would offer a suggestion. After seeing this zimmerit after priming, I would think about “knocking it back” some. I am speaking from experience here…DON’T USE SANDPAPER! It will “flatten” the ridges and ruin the whole deal.
What works the best on hot iron zimmerit is an every day kitchen scouring pad. I’m talking about the ones with the sponge on one side and the green rough stuff on the other. Use one of these pads and stroke in one direction (with the grain) and it really works wonders. This method will take down the out of scale ridges gradually and will leave the ridged shape in tact. Remember, on the hull sides you will have to attach pioneer tools and spare track etc., you need to take that surface down a bit:
It is tough to build on a budget nowadays, the expectation is very high since the internet, you are doing very well.
Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for taking your time and replying. I am having a blast building this thing, and I think that’s what keeps us all coming back for more armour. The curves on this tank are quite alluring, even if it is the old Tamiya kit, being an armour newb I wouldn’t really be able to distinguish between an A, F or D. The zimm on the flanks do look a little overdone in the pictures, I will try the kitchen scouring pad trick to bring the flanks down a bit. the pictures define the ridges really well but in reality I’ve tried on parts of the pioneer gear and they all fit, the surface is not as deep as the macro pictures may suggest. Regardless I will ‘knock it back’, it’s hard to use b&w pictures as reference because you never really can tell the details you need most. It definitely is hard, I am in uni still so money is tight, need to start saving up for books and course material. I’m just glad that the internet have people like you and the other guys on this forum helping out, it makes us all want to get better, together.
some updated pictures. handpainting the wheels and other small accessories was a major pain in the butt. i put the tracks on stretching purposes, they’re not quite done yet. camo’s also not done I haven’t had the time to arrange the playdough. spent a few hours last night working on painting the smaller parts that I’ll put on after the camo is applied… watched battle of the bulge during that time… what a terriblely inaccurate movie. trying to get this finished so i can start my Kursk GB PzIV!
also, some of the blotchy wheel painting was fixed after the photos were taken… I also need to figure out how to sag my tracks a bit
You’re making nice progress. A typical technique for track sag is to glue the track to the tops of the road wheels. When I did my Panther A, I couldn’t do that because my CA glue wouldn’t stick to Tamiya’s early vinyl tracks.
Another common technique is to use thin brass rods drilled transversly through the hull to hold down and sag the tracks. With painting and dirt/mud, they oftentimes become practically invisible. I’ve successfully used that technique before, and tried it on my Panther, but I found that most of the rods were just a bit too noticable, probably because of the rather large clearance that a Panther has between the tops of the tracks and the bottom of the sponsons. So I yanked all but the first rod, which was right behind the sprocket. That first rod was not noticable, no doubt because the track is close to the sponson at that point, and was necessary to get the track to really wrap down around the spocket and at least get the tracks to start their sag.
To handle the sag along the rest of the track run, I used brown sewing thread, looped through the sprocket holes. For each tie down point, I started by threading from underneath through the inner sprocket hole of the lower track upper between the middle and inner roadwheels. Then threaded through the inner sprocket hole of the upper track and over to outer sprocket hole of the upper track. Then threaded down through the sprocket hole betwee the outer and middle roadwheels. Finally, threaded out through the outer sprocket hole of the lower track. At that point, I could then tie off the thread to itself, pulling down the track as much as needed. I did one of those above described loops at the position of each of the outer/inner roadwheels, i.e. number 2, 4, 6, 8.
It sounds like a royal pain in the neck to do, but was actually not all that difficult or tedious, and the track sag ended up perfect. Interestingly, I can’t even see the thread, even though I know exactly where I put it. The wheels hide the thread the goes between the upper and lower track runs, and the cleats hide the thread that goes between the spocket holes on the top of the track.
Whatever you do, good luck and keep us posted.
Andy
Andy has shared some solid tips . It is a little late now, but I use a proven “old school” technique that is both effective, almost invisible and reliable. Here is the technique I used it on the Tamiya Marder IIIM:
First, obtain a box of dress maker pins ( I use the same ones to assemble Fruil tracks) and drill some pilot holes in the hull sides in the appropriate spots:
Before:
Drill operation: Use the actual drill as a locator by depressing the track with it:
Push the pins thru the holes:
After:
Finally:
As you can see, the trick is hardly detectible once paint and weathering is applied:
Since you have apparently already sealed the hull, you will probably have to go with Andy’s tie down method for this build.
regards,
Steve
thanks for the tips Andy and Steve!
Actually i haven’t sealed the hull and deck yet, I’m going to make sure to keep the options open so I can modify something if there’s an issue. I don’t really have a drill for this sort of work so I’m going to try the sewing method, it doesn’t seem to hard and I remember enough about sewing from my boyscouts days. We’lll see how it goes, I’m really enjoying this build, thanks for looking!
some updated pics. i fudged up the camo scheme a bit it looked good after the red brown but the my playdough set up for the grun was just bad and ended up messing up a lot of the earlier good work. i tried to fix it up with a brush, but results were mediocre… any insight would be greatly appreciated.
the tracks and barrel haven’t been glued yet, same with the hull and deck. i’m hoping weathering will blend the colours a bit so the flaws are not so apparent.
You are being way to hard on yourself. I think its coming on fine. The camo looks very presentable. Keep it up.
…Guy
Herr Koenig,
Wow…this really looks quite good. I don’t see any “flaws” in the cammo? I really like it. Once a mist coat is applied, this should blend quite nicely. You’ve really done a good job on this Panther IMHO. Well done, the zimm looks cool too.
regards,
Steve
Guy, thanks for the encouragement… it gets harder to finish it as we get closer and closer to the end… i guess i just don’t want to mess it up, and since it’s my first time i’m stumbling around with weathering.
Steve, thanks, i can only hope that when i am done it will be something to be proud of given all the time i have put into it. looking at it again, i am starting to like how it has turned out except for some scrappy touch ups i had to apply, i think it is better than i hoped for when i started out. thanks for your guidance… i’m going to try to get the decals on, and seal it, then maybe give it a wash and weather and mist it.
i concur. bare plastic always look bad; glue stains, fingerprints, seams open or filled. after some paint and some weathering it eill look great.
and now that my previous post is OBE (Overtaken By Events) it looks really good. i used to sag my tiger and panther tracks by cutting a section od speaker wire, peeling off the insulation and using 2-4 strands wrapped together.
Hey KT…i just saw this post and took a look at your work here and I have to say that you did a really nice job on the hot-knife zimm there–ya got bigger cajones than I do to attempt it! (I will…SOMEDAY!)
And the paint looks pretty good too–surprising for not having an airbrush!
OK, the bad news: You gotta do something about the color of them wheels, dude! They jump out at you like they’re orange! Why didn’t you paint them the hull color?! That seems to be a nice, faded dunklegelb color!
Hate to say it but you really should do the wheels that color; they just ruin what could otherwise be a really impressive model!
hey the doog,
thanks for the crits, i really appreciate it. i don’t like the wheel colours either… they are the result of my being lazy and tryign to mix a red brown colour with the model paints i have… obviously i got too much flat brown in there. its getting a little too late for repainting them dunkelgelb but i will try to fix it so it is more yellow than currently… i’ve already sagged the tracks with string and silvered the tracks a bit… so it’s going to be a pain fixing it but i’ll find a way to yellow them up and weather it. i’ve been consulting your weathering guide and i’m wondering what kinda oils i need to do that wash? do watercolour paints work? i’m sorta on a budget so i’d like to keep the cost down and work with what i have. i’ll give it a shot and post the results. i need to also start constructing the PzIV i have signed up for the Kursk GB… i haven’t even opened it yet!
hey waynec
thanks, if you use sewing string like Abarne said, it also works great. I tried it because it seems easy enough and i don’t have a dremel for the pin method. it can take a bit of time the first try but after u get it its a breeze.
some new pics… criticism on the tracks, sag, and silvering would be appreciated
i went a little overboard with the steel colour so it will be toned down later.
i’m glad the road wheels are one color. i seem to recall it’s bad to paint roadwheels multicolors as it creates a kaleidoscope affects and really stands out when the vehicle is moving. plus, with limited paint, the road wheels mud up real fast.
what i did on kv-1 is painted steel, plack wash, dark rust powders and bright rust in corners and no rust on the ridge taht touches the ground. i think the next time i will use a bright rust wash, very liquid and let it pool as regular liquid would. then fill in with dark rust.
i really like weathering with powders except for liquid spill areas.
i remember building a panther in the late '50s and they said the canister on the left side for the cleaning rods was an aux fuel tank.
Hi KT…I use Windsor & Newton oils, they’re a bit expensive but they seem to work the best for me…
I really doubt if watercolors would work; it seems to me that they’d be a bit weak, but hey, might as well experiment?
I’d do whatever it takes to paint them wheels; they really are just so out-of-the-ballpark in terms of color that they ruin the overall model, IMHO.[:-^] Not trying to be super-critical but they really jump out, ya know?
yeah, i think i’ll have to playdough it up and spray dunkelgelb on them… hopefully it works.