Tomcat's Meng 1/35 JagdPanther

[jmurphy18]

Looking good so far

[Tomcat64]

Ok so I made a start on the tracks - here's a reminder of the detailed instructions for this section


The track links themselves are in sets of 18 so that's how I'll be tackling them to try and retain what's left of my sanity - so just 10 of these to complete


The guide horns are in rows of 20 so that matches up neatly...


After removing from the sprues and cleaning up here's the first set ready to go - the pins are in a pot all together waiting to be knocked over


Following the instructions for a while resulted in this - actually not quite as I mounted the track pins in each link before offering it up to the next link and pushing them through to finish off the connection


Which looks like it'll work nicely


One down, Nine to go. Going forwards I think I'm going to mount the pins in each link before adding the guide horns as I ended up knocking a couple of the horns off while trying to locate the pins as it's a tight fit (anyone else humming "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" now?)

I'll keep plugging away at this over the next few days and see how it goes.

[ElCapitan]

Those tracks are going to look great!

I don't think I would have the patience for it though - I'm going with the rubber ones on mine.

[digger303]

I'v got a kit some where with tracks constructed in the same manner with all separate guide horns. Now That I look at yours i'm thinking "what possessed me "
Marvelous looking kit you have there. I love the rough casting on the mantlet . Can't wait till you have it all together

[Kevthemodeller]

Great looking tracks mate, but all those pins ans guide horns

[Tomcat64]

Those tracks are going to look great!

I don't think I would have the patience for it though - I'm going with the rubber ones on mine.

I'v got a kit some where with tracks constructed in the same manner with all separate guide horns. Now That I look at yours i'm thinking "what possessed me "
Marvelous looking kit you have there. I love the rough casting on the mantlet . Can't wait till you have it all together

Great looking tracks mate, but all those pins ans guide horns

Thanks guys

The biggest challenge over the past couple of evenings has been hay-fever - you really don't want a sneezing attack with this many small parts around!

Anyway here's a quick update as I tackled another length last night and as expected it worked easier if I push the pins in first - I'm also using a micro drill to make sure the locating hole is properly open


Flip them over and add the guide horns


And after leaving them to set a bit push the links together and push the pins home... 2 down 8 to go...


Hopefully I can get a couple more done over the weekend...

[Kevthemodeller]

They're great looking tracks Neil

[Tomcat64]

They're great looking tracks Neil

Thanks Kev

Slightly distracted by Le Mans and the cricket over the weekend but am now half-way there


Although there are spare pins (about 10 in the first pack) there are no spare guide horns. Since I managed to lose two to the carpet monster I had a momentary panic when I realised but then went back to the main kit sprue frames


And the parts are effectively the same... in fact you could articulate the track links from the main kit with a drill bit and some wire if you were that way inclined, but in this case they make useful spares


No sign of the replacement rear deck yet so I'll keep plugging away at these this week

[Kevthemodeller]

Good save for the track horns

[alextheblue]

Great work Neil. You'll have them tracks finished in no time!

[Tomcat64]

Good save for the track horns

Great work Neil. You'll have them tracks finished in no time!

Thanks for the encouragement guys - it's much appreciated

I ran off another length last night so still heading in the right direction but I also had an outbreak of curiosity and tried this...


That's the sprocket from the Tamiya kit and it fits really nicely so it looks like it'll be possible to use this track set on the Tamiya kit; even if you don't try and fiddle the active suspension into place this works out at about £22 compared to the £30 or so for fruils so I might give that a go...

Anyway - this battered looking box turned up this morning


But everything was bubblewrapped securely inside and here it is


So well done to Meng customer services - just over two weeks including shipping from China.

This means I can complete the main build and start throwing paint at it - oh... and finish the tracks!

[ElCapitan]

Think you'll get it finished in time?

[Kevthemodeller]

I'm really liking those tracks Neil Good news ref the decking

[Tomcat64]

Think you'll get it finished in time?

I'm really liking those tracks Neil Good news ref the decking

Thanks guys - sadly this isn't going to get finished before next week but it will be done sometime soon and I now have an idea for a dio base for it to occupy.

But anyway I've made more progress this week - first a quick comparison of the new flat rear plate with the warped one, this will never catch on! And actually there is a slight twist to the "flat" one as well but nothing that can't be coped with.


All installed with the various components and how much of the fan & vents can you see under the grilles? Precisely none... oh well...


And would you believe it... these are done as well; 900 parts in total including the pins. I lost one more pin and one more guide horn which promptly showed up the day after I installed a spare - how does that work???


So here's where we're at


Almost ready for primer although there's a couple of small gaps I need to fill first


We're going away for a few days this weekend so that's it for now but should be in primer sometime towards the end of next week.

Thanks for looking

[Tomcat64]

So after a few weeks when work has been mad and weekends have been packed I finally managed to give this neglected kitty some attention in the last week or so.

After a coat of Ultimate black primer the base colour is Vallejo model air dark yellow. This was then masked off with ropes of white tac and the camo was sprayed with Light Olive and Armour Brown. The spare track links were painted in a blended mix of Lifecolor's rust set.


The various pioneer tools were then added along with the decals


The decals were a little thick and silvered up in the clear spaces between the numbers; they seemed fairly resistant to any decal solutions so in the end this was cleared up by stabbing lightly with a scalpel - I think anything left over can be covered up with weathering


Wheels were sprayed in Nato black with the tyres masked before being sprayed with the base dark yellow


Tracks were sprayed dark brown, then dry brushed with scale colour black metal before being given a wash with AK Interactive track wash


Initial weathering then commenced with an oil dot filter using abt. 501 oils followed by a layer of AK Earth pigments - this came out a little lighter than I expected so will be working some darker tones into it for variation


As a result everything in the den is now coated in a fine layer of the bloody stuff!


But I've got some more "fixer" on the way so hopefully that'll help tie it to the kit after a bit more working it in


The wheels were given a thin wash with MIG deep brown panel liner to pick out the bolt heads and also had a little of the earth pigments added before being attached along with the track runs. Having referred back to the instructions I noticed that there should only be 87 links per side rather than the 90 that I'd built up so minor surgery was required to remove three links from each side.


As Stokesy mentioned in his build the fit of the wheels was a little too tight so the locating holes were reamed out with a 2.38mm drill after which they fit nicely onto the swing arms


So that's where we're up to - I'll continue with the weathering and now also have the parts I need for the base too so hopefully I'll get it finished up in another couple of weeks all being well


Thanks for checking in if anyone's still following along

[digger303]

I'm still here a following along watching great work.

[ElCapitan]

Looks fantastic! Really nice camo pattern and the tracks look great

[Tomcat64]

I'm still here a following along watching great work.

Looks fantastic! Really nice camo pattern and the tracks look great

Thanks guys - it's great to be back at the bench and in the right mood to get things done too

The bottle of AK Pigment Fixer turned up yesterday and having tried it out on the pigment on the underside of the hull it appears to have done exactly what it said on the label and has bound the pigment dust to the model. So I'm letting that dry out completely to make sure it doesn't damage anything and then I'll rework the pigments on the upper surfaces and mist some of this over to keep it in place.

In the meantime I've been thinking about the base and decided to do something inspired by this 1/76 Matchbox kit I built when I first returned to the hobby a few years back.


Here's the grown up version The wall sections are from DioDump and the roadway is from Reality in Scale - both based in the Netherlands and great service from both companies.


The road section will be cut off about where the plastic beam is and will then be put around the back to act as the base for some rough ground. The whole thing will then be rubbled up appropriately and I've got a set of 4 figures on their way which will hopefully finish the whole thing off.

With any luck I'll get some more time at the bench this weekend to move this along some more now that I've got some momentum back.

[Tomcat64]

Just a quick update from where I've been pottering along.

Following some more weathering I went to add the towing cables; the kit includes a length of wire for the cables which is a nice touch but the instructions say to cut each length at 108mm which I blindly did without actually checking. As a result they're a little short as they should reach the bracket indicated in the photo below - I've got some karaya cables on their way to replace these.


The box of figures turned up as well - I'd like to show you the front but amazon just stuck the delivery labels all over it...


So here's the back anyway


And with the base itself - the razor saw was deployed and cut it into three sections, the narrow one might be useful as a base for a single figure at some point


The remaining two parts were attached to a sheet of 0.75mm plasticard and then the rough section was given a couple of layers of Vallejo textured dark earth to get started. One of the wall sections was also shortened to allow the end section to be attached to finish it off more tidily. The walls aren't attached yet and will be kept separate until they're painted up.


That's all for now - weathering will continue

Thanks for looking

[digger303]

Just a quick update from where I've been pottering along.

Following some more weathering I went to add the towing cables; the kit includes a length of wire for the cables which is a nice touch but the instructions say to cut each length at 108mm which I blindly did without actually checking. As a result they're a little short as they should reach the bracket indicated in the photo below - I've got some karaya cables on their way to replace these.


The box of figures turned up as well - I'd like to show you the front but amazon just stuck the delivery labels all over it...


So here's the back anyway


And with the base itself - the razor saw was deployed and cut it into three sections, the narrow one might be useful as a base for a single figure at some point


The remaining two parts were attached to a sheet of 0.75mm plasticard and then the rough section was given a couple of layers of Vallejo textured dark earth to get started. One of the wall sections was also shortened to allow the end section to be attached to finish it off more tidily. The walls aren't attached yet and will be kept separate until they're painted up.


That's all for now - weathering will continue

Thanks for looking

[mick]

great camo work

[Tomcat64]

great camo work

Thanks guys!

The pottering has continued this week and I added some wire to the tie down loops using 0.08mm steel wire. I did try burnishing this but it just made the wire brittle. I found a couple of fuzzy photos from one of my JP reference books so there's been a bit of artistic license used.




Here's one side - foliage will be added soon


I've also started painting & weathering the dio base. Everything was given a coat of Ultimate black followed by random misting of Ultimate grey to provide some variation. The road section was then sprayed in a mix of Black/Brown & grey. The pathway given a coat of light stone followed by sand yellow and random paving slabs picked out with a variety of washes. Everything was then given a sludge wash with an unholy mix of grime, dark dirt, brown & light dirt applied randomly and then worked back. The gutter area has also been given a wash with Ultimate algae.


Hopefully I'll get some more time this weekend to keep this moving

[Quax]

This is all rather good Neil, obviously there are some benefits to being late to finish in your own Sig... Seriously you've weathered the JP really well and the dio (at least the base) is the dogs dangly bits!

Paul

[Kevthemodeller]

Superb work Neil, can't wait till the finish

I know what you mean about work and bench time, my work life balance is totally out of wack

[Tomcat64]

This is all rather good Neil, obviously there are some benefits to being late to finish in your own Sig... Seriously you've weathered the JP really well and the dio (at least the base) is the dogs dangly bits!

Superb work Neil, can't wait till the finish

I know what you mean about work and bench time, my work life balance is totally out of wack

Thanks guys! Yes it helps to be fashionably late to my own party - especially the way this summer's turned out!

Anyway I made some more decent progress on the base this weekend. First the walls - these were primed in Ultimate grey followed by a brush coat of Vallejo Model Colour Red Leather. Once this had dried random bricks were picked out in various washes (brown, sepia, flesh, green) before a final overall wash of black to dull everything down. This was then given a coat of Ultimate Concrete clay wash and wiped back to form the mortar. Here's a shot of one at this stage and one with the red leather base coat...


The mortar was still a bit bright for my liking, so it was wiped back several times before having two (or was it three) coats of very thinned AK Grime oil wash added to settle it all down. Here are the wall sections added to the base


The rough ground area was given another coat of Vallejo textured earth to blend the base of the wall in, and then had ground cover from Dio Dump (a mix of summer/autumn) white glued into place


And as you can see from the previous shot around the front I mixed up a mess of brick & rubble (Diodump again) with thickish white glue and spread that around. I've also added some MIG brick dust and given the whole thing another coat of thin white glue to settle it all in. This is still drying out in this shot and once done I'll try and dull down the overall colour of some of the debris to try and match the walls better before adding a fine layer of dust to finish it off.


Thanks as always for looking!

[ElCapitan]

I absolutely LOVE this!

[Kevthemodeller]

I absolutely LOVE this!

I'll second that

[Tomcat64]

I absolutely LOVE this!

I'll second that

Thanks guys

Just a quick update as the end is creeping closer; I washed down some of the debris to try and blend it in and then added another layer of dust to the base


On the JP itself I added some "foliage" using sea foam and then added debris & dust to the vehicle as well.


I've also added an aber aerial


The four figures are now built and will hopefully be painted up in the next week or so and I will then be able to add everything to the base and add some final scatter to tie it all together.

[Donkeywalloper]

Just awesome chap

[ElCapitan]

I'm liking the foliage. I still don't understand how you fix the dust to the base, or do you just sprinkle it on and leave it loose?

[Tomcat64]

Just awesome chap

Cheers DW - thanks for dropping in

I'm liking the foliage. I still don't understand how you fix the dust to the base, or do you just sprinkle it on and leave it loose?

Hi Rob, to be honest I'm still experimenting to try and find the best way of doing this... For this build I've used a couple of weapons

First I sprayed this over everything at about 10psi and it worked well to fix the dust & pigments especially on the AFV itself. It's enamel based so smells a bit.


The other thing I use regularly is thinned white glue, in this case I used a pipette to drip it onto the base. I also drifted some more dust down on top while the glue was damp and then left everything to dry out. This could also be sprayed as well but I've not tried that yet.


Then everything was given a coat of AK Ultra Matte to dull it all down - again sprayed on as low psi as I could get away with.

Hope that helps

[Tomcat64]

Final update - with the addition of these four dudes from the Masterbox set painted with Vallejo & Andrea colours I'm finally calling this one done





The final reveal is now up here

Thanks again to everyone that followed along and offered support & encouragement