Dragon 1/35 Strumpanther II Conversion

Post by **Darklen** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:15 pm

Finally got around to working on a project I've planned for years. I'm converting Dragons Panther II into a Sturmpanther II. Going all out and doing an up-armored version. Almost done the turret. Added stand off armor from evergreen sheet with some 1.5mm rod for spacer mounts and MENG conical bolts. I "painted" Testors liquid cement on the sheet before putting the bolts on to simulate a rolled steel plate. I roughed up the mantlet with a Dremel and some Gunze Mr. Surfacer 500 to simulate a rough cast texture. The grab handles were replaced with copper wire as the kit plastic was brittle and they snapped cutting them off the sprue. The main gun if right off an ancient Tamiya Sturmpanzer IV. It slid right in after removing the key inside the mantlet for the kit barrel. Periscopes are resin ones from an CMD Schmalturm resin turret I'm using for another Panther II. A few more details and it'll be done. Figuring out what to do with the hull. Might do a similar stand off armor set up but not sure about where to put the tools or even if they should go on.

Post by **Darklen** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:25 pm

Finished the side armor and fenders. not sure if I'll keep the original skirt hangers or replace them with something more substantial and pul on heavier, bolt on skirts.

Also used the Aber set to make the bow gunners hatch and lifter details. Needed to supply my own wire for the shafts and coil spring plus some Grandt Line nuts & bolts for some additional detail.

Post by **Darklen** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:45 pm

Finished the AA armor on the engine deck. Didn't feel like waiting for a PE set. Next will be the armored box around the outside of the deck.

I plan on using the Spade Ace KT/JT/PII transport track set on this one. Drive sprocket teeth don't mesh up properly, so I;ll have to do some modding. The tracks come with a very stiff steel wire. While much stiffer then the brass wire Fruil provide, I find the steel difficult to handle and cut, even after annealing it. It makes it even more difficult as the links are bored all the way through unlike Fruil. I had some sewing pins (use them for door knobs) and they fit perfectly. After annealing the heads and shafts, they slid in great. Though hard to cut, I found using a flush cut nipper could cut a crimp in the pin, then I just snap it off. Results are quite good.

Post by **Darklen** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:46 pm

Heavily armored side skirts. Approx 2" thick (1.5mm to scale), secured with the same MENG conical bolt heads. Wheels are not the ones to be installed on this kit. They are for a Panther II Late I'm also working on. This kit will be in RAL 6003 (German OD)

Armored box to come.

Post by **Darklen** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:46 pm

Got the box done. Pretty fiddly considering how simple it is. Just some Evergreen sheet, Plastruct angle and Grandt Line bolts.The right side is splayed out slightly on purpose to help get it around the AA armor stands. It'll be glued straight once the painting is done on the rear deck. Battle damage was done with my trusty Trimaster scribe, tapping it on the sheet styrene on a piece of wood.

Post by **Darklen** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:47 pm

Got the side tool racks done. I'm pretty much stuck here until the rear tool bin PE arrives.

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Sun May 01, 2016 1:54 am

Really amazing work Darklen, this is why I love models, I get to watch artists bring kits to life.

Post by **gustavlekstal** » Sun May 01, 2016 7:16 am

Some outstanding skills. Keep up the posting.

Post by **OneSmallStep1966** » Sun May 01, 2016 7:42 am

This is great and I look forward to following the build.

Post by **mick** » Sun May 01, 2016 8:28 am

great work

Post by **Darklen** » Tue May 10, 2016 5:09 am

A quick video update. Finally got all the PE and metal barrels I needed to go forward with my three Panther II builds.

[youtube]VQJWQ9zxoPY[/youtube]

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Tue May 10, 2016 4:13 pm

Great video I have barrels around here that I have no idea who made them, but I'll make them work. Again Very cool,

Post by **Darklen** » Fri May 20, 2016 7:11 pm

Working on the PE stowage boxes. Mostly soldered but some small parts are GA glued. I hope to have a video up this weekend where I'll show how I solder larger parts. I'm still quite the hack at it but learning.

Post by **Icemannique** » Fri May 20, 2016 7:15 pm

Very cool conversion.

Post by **Darklen** » Fri May 20, 2016 7:21 pm

Thanks. It's been fun so far, when I have time. I forgot to mention, I had annealed the brass to make it easier to work with and damage. I used a blow torch with a low flame and kept it on just long enough to heat the brass wit a dull red. Too much heat will melt or vaproize it.

STASH · Post by **Cymru** » Fri May 20, 2016 7:29 pm

Masterful stuff

Post by **Darklen** » Sun Jun 05, 2016 7:24 am

Working on a different muffler for the Sturmpanther II. Liking the looks of it. Needs some "damage" though.

Post by **Darklen** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 1:25 am

Some better pics of the completed and as yet undamaged Sturmpanther II muffler. Made it by squishing an aluminum tube in a vise until it ovaled just right. End caps are some sheet styrene cut and sanded to shape and glued in with a health dose of Tamiya super thin. Brass tubing was used for inlet and exhaust with the exhaust ends bent in a tubing bender before trimming to shape and glueing in with CA. Exhaust ends were reamed with a conical reamer to thin the edges appropriately. Still have to make hanger brackets as well.

Finished it last night. Went to the hobby shop today for something and found they have preovaled brass tubing in this size about a foot long for like $4.00. Oh well. The thin brass would have been much easier to damage than this thicker aluminum but it's done. Know for next time.

Post by **mannloon** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 2:56 am

So cool. Your work is seriously some of my favorite.

Post by **Darklen** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 12:12 pm

Tried out a different method of texturing a muffler. Muriatic acid. Etches the aluminum quite quickly but stinky. I had windows open and fans blowing. Added on some Mr. Surfacer 500 on the piping and started the painting/weathering process. Still have a little ways to go with weathering.

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 1:53 pm

Wow just an AMAZING build Darklen.

Post by **Darklen** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 2:46 am

Thanks. It's been a drag on my modelling mojo doing three of the same kit but different variants all at the same time. Turns out the two Panther II's will have to wait for accessories until I can move forward while the Sturmpanther II has to wait now until I get the groundwork done so I can mount the suspension and road wheels to be articulated with it.

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 3:06 am

Yikes! man your in one of those busy build, those are the ones where I run my head into the wall, just to start thinking again. You know like, eat, drink, restroom breaks, Lol.

Post by **Darklen** » Wed Jun 29, 2016 10:16 pm

A short video update for my Sturmpanther II and Panther II (Early) builds.

[youtube]zmdiy-u3af0[/youtube]

Post by **Darklen** » Tue Sep 27, 2016 6:25 am

Experimenting with a mottled rust effect I saw on a channel earlier. Using multiple layers of different toned red/browns airbrushed through a thinned scotch bright pad. Hull is in just Tamiya XF-10 flat brown. Turret has successive shades of lighter reddish browns with a final coat ofXF-68 NATO brown with some red, yellow and white added to it. This will dry for a few days, then I'll seal it, use the salt chip method and over spray with a custom mix of RAL 8012 (red primer).

Post by **Augustus** » Mon Oct 10, 2016 12:14 am

Beautiful work mate.

Post by **chalkyw** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:18 pm

Very nice, looking forward to seeing the rust effects

Post by **Darklen** » Tue Dec 13, 2016 5:41 pm

Paint is on. 60/30 mix of Tamiya NATO Green and Buff. Once the paint dried for a few hours, I painted on some water, waited it to soak through the paint to the hair spray, then scrubbed with a toothbrush. Lower hull took maybe three minutes of scrubbing to get to this point.

Post by **privatepete** » Tue Dec 13, 2016 6:48 pm

Some really top skills,love the scratch building,well the muffler brilliant idea.
Pete

Post by **Darklen** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:18 pm

Got the rest of the tank scrubbed. Guess I didn't layer the Dull coat on well enough in some spots as the over, base and primer coats all came off. The armoured shield on the back will just be bare, rusted metal.

YouTube · Post by **Liamcraven666** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 9:18 pm

Looking amazing so far. A very nice conversion job, keep it up.

Post by **digger303** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 10:41 pm

The heavy worn effect has come out well. Not a brush wear mark to be seen. Very realistic.

Post by **Davethepitch** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 7:40 pm

I like the battle damage.

Post by **Darklen** » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:52 am

Finally got some time to work on the articulated suspension and groundwork started. Because of the articulated suspension and the fixed heavy armored skirts, the groundwork has to be done first to make sure the suspension matches it. Once that's done, the tracks can be fitted, then the upper hull attached to the lower. The sidewalk side of the suspension was done first. The swing arms lock in to the lower hull with a pin to keep them all level. Turns out, placing the swing arms on top of the pins makes them the right height to be level on the sidewalk. Once those were set. I figured out where I wanted the debris pile the other side was to be on to go and cut the pins off the affected swing arm points completely and leveled them to the pile while leaving the front and some of the rear swing arms in the stock, pinned position.

The groundwork is a "clay" made by Crayola called "Model Magic". It's a soft, non sticky (not so much) modelling clay like substance that is supposed to air dry in 72 hours but it was still soft after a week. Some of the bricks were made with this stuff while others were from a batch I got off eBay from Russia. Those turned out to be some type of pressed paper. The wood is just snapped up bits of balsa that'll get painted when done and the little chunks of debris is cat litter glued down with watered down white glue. The broken brick panel was made from a bit of Styrofoam. I saw the technique on a YouTube terrain makers channel. The two piles without the cat litter were just set up. Once they're dry, they'll get the litter treatment as will the rest of the road and sidewalk. The litter is still a bit damp in the picture but I also mixed a little Tamiya Buff in the glue mix to see how the color would look when dry.

Post by **Bissyboat** » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:51 pm

The chipping and the rubble. Fantastic!

Post by **Darklen** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:44 am

Moving on, Did dot filtering on the hull sides using white, yellow, blue and green artist oils and a wide flat brush dampened with paint thinner. Just drag it down and off until I got the effect I wanted. When dry, I'll seal and then do the same with a rust dot filter.

Going to the Miniart ruin. I scratch built a floor from balsa wood and Popsicle sticks. Painted with an array of Vallejo Environmental Effects. Then figured it was missing something. A ceiling! Added old school lathe & plaster starting with some Evergreen 0.10 x 0.40 strip for the lathe, glued on with CA. Once done, I painted quickly with Tamiya XF-57 Buff. Once that was dry, I put a thin coat of drywall mud, let that dry and put on a second coat. Once all that had set up over night, I lightly sanded the dried mud, "damaged" the exposed sections with tweezers, pliers, fingers, etc., to get the effect I wanted. Finally, staining it with various concentrations of tea and coffee.

And, finally some additional shots of the finished suspension with the upper hull and tracks fitted. Still ots of ground work to do.

Post by **Bissyboat** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 12:08 pm

This looks incredible! Nice tip on the weathering. btw.

Post by **Darklen** » Tue Feb 21, 2017 8:05 pm

Just an FYI, I'm still alive, just been really ill. All better now so I've been working on the figures and hope to have a update later this week. Thanks for your patience.

Post by **aur0ra145** » Wed Feb 22, 2017 5:40 am

Glad you're not dead. Great looking build, your work is amazing! Which artist oils did you use? Like just any that are lacquer based? I've been trying to figure out the best way to do a dot filter.

Post by **Darklen** » Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:18 pm

The oils were just regular Windsor & Newton and Grumbacher artist oil paint in a tube I just bought them at a local artist store. nothing special or expensive. I thin with odorless paint thinner, never lacquer/cellulose thinner.

I did try some cheap oils I got from Walmart a few months ago just to see how they were (12 or so different colors for $10) and they were junk. They had a lot of trouble sticking to anything and wouldn't blend at all. Tried using them for dot filters, washes, figures, etc. They didn't' work for anything. they'd just peel off and the blending was always streaky. Ended up just tossing the whole works.