Global Scale Modeller

Howdy 'n greetings and all of that, whichever phrase you prefer.

Today, I'm starting work on my Panzerkampfwagen V - more commonly known as the Panther - Ausführung G, with Zimmerit. Made by Dragon, 1:35 scale.
It seems to be a great kit which has good reputation, and with well-justified reason for that.


We're starting off with an image of the kit, so as to ensure that you'll be completely aware as to the specific kit written about here. Its identification number is 6384.


The construction is quite conventional, starting off with wheels - drive sprockets, road-wheels and return rollers. As it's a static model, there are no poly-caps, thus making the construction that little bit quicker. Rear fans are also assembled in the first construction step.


Here is another image of the fans. The modeller has a choice of two different fan types to use, each one with different amounts of blades.


Instructions. Typical Dragon paraphernalia. One can see my hand-written notes in them as well.


The machine-gun, excellently detailed! Quite a fiddly little puzzle, it'll be.


And here we have the lower hull, which has beautiful details with maintenance hatches and what-not.


Last off, we find the main part of the turret, which has molded-in Zimmerit. This is what I love so much about this kit; I don't have to do the pattern with a screwdriver or tape, as it is readily-made.

For now, I beg my leave! Cheerio!

Good choice, the cast zimmerit looks really good

I will wait for your next posts

Yes, the Zimmerit is what motivated my choice of this kit. Painting it will be interesting, as with any Zimmerit-coated tank, but it is a relief to have Zimmerit ready and applied immediately.

Great looking kit and you have made a good start. Looking forward to seeing your progress on this kitty

Thats a tasty lookin` kit. Ill be watching

been on my wish list for a while

Great looking Kit, I'll be following this one.

good start

Nice looking kit! And it seems there's a lot of interest in it. Good luck

Thank you for all of your replies! The sheer amount of them seems to have quite an invigorating effect on my senses. Anyways, here's an update.


I assembled the suspension and other things on the lower hull. Having this part of the build cleared away, is always a relief. So many nagging little parts, ugh!


Detail shot of the lower hull.


Ditto.


Yet another picture of it.


Here is the rear panel, with most of its equipment attached, save the jack. A particularly interesting aspect of this model kit, is the inclusion of alternative storage boxes for the back of the vehicle...


... as they are made of a peculiar material, quite soft. It seems to be some sort of vinyl, the "DS" material which is also used for the tracks. These parts have simulated battle damage, which saves me a bit of effort in recreating that myself. Thumbs up to you again, Dragon!


And here we have the panel attached to the back of the model.

That's all for now lads n' lasses, 'til then!

Cool tank my friend! I was wondering as to if you will be making a diorama with foliage and such but if not it is a mean looking beast and my second favourite tank ever!

DoubleDigit12 wrote:Cool tank my friend! I was wondering as to if you will be making a diorama with foliage and such but if not it is a mean looking beast and my second favourite tank ever!

I have some ideas for a diorama, such as the crew repairing separated track links or something of the sort. At the very least I'll place the tank on a model stand with grass and a title sign, but hopefully something more I'll make.

I say it's time for another update! I've begun work on the upper hull:


The front hatches have been attached. I plan on leaving one open and one closed, the open one from which one of the crewmen shall climb out.


I've built up the machine-gun, which was one of the most fiddly models I've ever built. It has about ten pieces and is difficult to put together, but does look great!


Here's a picture of the instructions, to give you an inkling as to my approximate whereabouts in them. I've only encountered one minor discrepancy so far, and I do mean minor indeed. I can withstand a mere incorrectly named part in the instructions once or twice when there are hundreds of parts in them. Also, you can see that I'm taking notes throughout the build - not that you can read them, as my handwriting is frivolous (and of course, they are in Swedish, an alien language spoken by few). Heh.

Wow nice job That mg looks great but all those parts Great work!

Swedish is a quite nice language to speak and spell. Might want to write them in english so more can understand. For me it doesent matter as im nearly as fluent in english as i am in swedish.

good progress

DoubleDigit12 wrote:Wow nice job That mg looks great but all those parts Great work!

I doubt it will be much visible on the finished model, but I'm leaving the hatch open above the gun just to be sure.

Linushg wrote:Swedish is a quite nice language to speak and spell. Might want to write them in english so more can understand. For me it doesent matter as im nearly as fluent in english as i am in swedish.

Yes, it's not as if no one cares about my notes. Pushing the sarcasm aside though, I find taking notes extremely helpful, but maybe that's because the model glue corrupts my memory or something. Although in that case, the same would be with most modellers, so I'd still recommend it!

mick wrote:good progress

Thank you!

Lots of quotes and replies indeed, now I think it's high time that we see an update here.

Voilá!


I've built up the hatches on the front upper hull. The hull pieces aren't attached to each other just yet, I'm going to keep them apart for as long as possible in the build, as it is easier to access certain spots when they are loose. Also, I've drilled out holes in the sides - for attaching equipment and stowage (the instructions do tell the modeller to do so, and the spots are marked), which cannot be seen much too well on this photo. Speaking of photography, I was a bit lazy in this update and only used my iPhone camera (aka. "the potato") rather than my DSLR. Don't blame me, it was in the middle of the night and I was fatigued!


On the back I've added some more odds and ends. As I'm going to put photo-etched grille parts here, I had to paint the vents on which they are to be placed. But why is the entire area painted? For this I had another reason: I wanted to play around a bit with yellow tones to find a good Dunkelgelb, and thus I expanded the painted area a bit. It looks slightly too dark, but it's brighter in real life! (I blame the iPhone camera, as the god damn thing adjusts light levels deliberately!)


Today I took a trip to my local hobby store and acquired these figures. Once again, I do apologize for the awful photo - or did I apologize earlier? my phone deserves no excuses as its camera is so poor - but if you can see, after all, the figures on it, I'm going to use the two lads to the furthermost right, standing at the pole. These will be put in a diorama with the tank, for which I have an idea already. I'm explaining it further below.


Here is some progress on one of the Feldgendarmerie men. The terrible photo does not justify him, hence his going to chop the camera with an axe (not that you can see that, either).

Quite a lot of self-deprecating in this post, but I guess that's what happens when I use my iPhone camera. From now on, I'll put more effort into the photography in this thread!

Now for my diorama idea:
I have figures that fit into a French-themed late-war scene, a Normandie paint scheme on the tank, and guards that can be used with them. What I imagine, is a street scene with the Panther in focus, and a Zündapp motorcycle behind it. To the side, the two Feldgendarmerie men are attaching their direction signs to a wooden pole. The street itself is a paved one, and on its end is a French café, which I'll scratch-build. I'm going to do a sketch and schematics for it once I've done some measurements on the objects to be used in the scene, as well as acquire a motorcyle. I'm thinking of Italeri's 1:35 kit of the Zündapp KS750 with a sidecar - this fits well into the scene I'm imagining.

That's all for today, take care lads and lasses!

Looks great, are you hand brushing mate?

Great build so far I am now watching the progress keep it up and "tanks" for sharing!

Kevthemodeller wrote:Looks great, are you hand brushing mate?

Thanks for your comment! And yes, I am. Judging by certain pictures of mine, it looks quite obvious, but I merely did one layer of paint there. One or two additional ones will give a nice, filled surface.

Plukenstein wrote:Great build so far I am now watching the progress keep it up and "tanks" for sharing!

I couldn't come up with anything better in terms of puns, so "Tank" you! Oh! Wait! I hope you enjoy my "Pun-ther" tank!


I've initialized work on the tank crew. Three out of five figures from the tank crew kit will be used. I replaced the commander's (lad to the right) hand with a spare one from a figure from ICM, as I didn't want to use the flare gun - which was molded into his original hand. He's rather pointing at something in the air, perhaps an airplane. Or maybe he just waves his hand, who knows?


Some battle damage on the front mudguards. For this, I used reference photos of actual Panthers from a book, "An Illustrated Guide to German Panzers 1935-1945 ", by Wolfgang Fleischer. It's a rather good book, although it has a lot of typos and inconsistent vehicle naming, such as that it sometimes says the Panzerkampfwagen II, III and IV, and in the next page calls them the Mark II, III and IV. The Soviet KW (KV-2) tank was referred to as the WK at one point, and it shifts a lot between using centimetres and millimetres for gun calibres. Gah! It can be confusing to those not well-read in military history, so I'd only recommend it if you have at least basic knowledge of Panzers prior to reading it. Anyways, this is a thread about my modelling project, and not a book review, so I'd best get moving.


The shell of the turret. The hatch was interesting to put together, as its hinge has five (!) parts, quite typical of Dragon kits. There is a handle on the back of the hatch, which I however managed to lose to the carpet monster prior to taking this photo. Found and attached it afterwards, but due to laziness I did not deign to take another picture of the same area.


Here is an overview of what I've done thus far. I assembled the gun mantlet, as you can see to the left. The barrel was excellent! One-piece mold, and only a tiny seam line. The breach on its end (I think that's what it's called?) consists of three parts, which gives it a good amount of detail. I doubt one can find a much better barrel on a tank model, lest one should buy one out of aluminum. I don't plan on using any aftermarket parts on this kit as I don't find it much neccessary. Had I built a Tamiya tank, the barrel (spits out the word) would most likely have had to be replaced. WARNING, small rant approaching! Why can't all producers do one-piece-molded barrels? They are SO much more convenient! No filling, no fit issues, only a barrel that actually looks like a BARREL! Rant over.


Also, finally, I think I'm going to add this kit into the diorama for which I have plans to make and in which I'll incorporate the Panther, as per the description of which I wrote in an earlier post. Motorcycles are always neat little additions to dioramas! I do not own this kit yet, but I found it for a good price in my local hobby store; most likely I'll buy it some day soon.

Nice update!
Cant agree more on the barrels as i have messed up some myself.
Looking forward to seeing it painted and the figures are missing something quite improtant but they look really good, kinda like they are hurrying to mount up into the tank and get ready for battle. Looking forward to the next update!

I hail you, esteemed reader!

This time I supply no pictures: although I've made some more progress since the last update, I won't upload any right now as I haven't taken any photos recently. Tomorrow, I'll get some pictures uploaded.
Though, that's not my main reason for writing here this evening. As I buried my nose deep in research of the Panther subject, I suddenly came to a halt. Something struck me! Upon further examination of my tank model, I realized that, the colour is all wrong! It's too dark and, hardly yellow.

Tomorrow, I'll acquire Tamiya's XF-60 Dunkelgelb, as I've been recommended to use that. At present, I'm using Vallejo something-something; though I regret to say that I'm too lazy to pick out the number of my paint for you right now, that's something I'll do tomorrow.

Would I spoil the surprise if I write about the modelling process already, before posting pictures? Nay, for I shall work more on my project tomorrow prior to taking pictures, which makes this a good middle-ground, as it were.

I'm leaving most of the side-stowage unattached for now, that I might paint the tank before attaching them. The same goes for all wheels. On the tank itself, I attached merely its headlight, the rest of the exterior parts I will leave for now. I've proceeded work on the crewmen's uniforms, painting their camoflague pattern, although it is a very challenging one to finish. So many colours and tiny dots...
All I wished to share with you tonight is written, so for now, I beg my leave!

Cheerio, take care!

I say it's high time for an update!


I'll start off with this photo, taken yesterday. The colour (color for you Americans) is too bright and not yellow enough. But fret not! I painted the 171 in this bright tone to begin with, that I could proceed with a more Dunkelgelb-ish tone. The result is below:


See for yourself! I missed a few spots with the second layer, but them I filled later. The idea of this was that I would create a multi-toned surface, creating the illusion of it having become matte due to being outside. That worked alright for this paint scheme, as it has a lot of Dunkelgelb. BUT!


- I realized that the dotted paint scheme looks revolting in my eyes, and I wanted to do something a bit more forest-ish; something that wouldn't look like a clown car. Also, I used a green tone that was far too dark in the previous scheme. This is what I ended up with.


Here is some pigments application. Don't mind its colour, I did this with MIG Pigments named "North Africa Dust" - not quite accurate in France, eh? - but it was merely a method of acheiving a rough, muddy surface. Later on, I painted this with some different shades of brown.


The hull halves have been joined together, and a wash has been applied. Shiny!


And the wash is now dry. I used some red oxide - Rotbraun - for heavy drybrushing on certain surfaces. The idea is that some of the paint has been worn off, exposing the red primer paint. Notice the opened hatches! Although, I'm rather daft: they are supposed to be white/grey, not Rotbraun! Silly me, I'll rectify the mistake.


The mud is now more varied. Some of the North African dust is still there in its original colour, although with so many other tones, one won't consider it North African. Also, I decided to try my hand in painting the cross on the sides, which I think actually looks rather good, although it's too rough. I'm scared of applying the kit decals on the Zimmerited surfaces, but with Micro-Sol, I think I can manage it. The hand-painted cross will be painted over, its place being taken by an actual decal.



How silly of me! I only assembled and painted half of the wheels from the beginning, and forgot about these sixteen (!) parts - most likely because these are individual parts and aren't in any way assembled in pairs before being put on the tank.



So, I painted them at last!



Last off, we have the wheels in their places. Next up, we have the tracks - I am curious as to how well they go together, as I've never done DS tracks before - as well as a lot of stowage and tools for the sides, and a few small details. This, of course, excludes the figures, which will be coming right up too! You can see their uniforms half-finished (I must add more colours to their camoflauge pattern) in the photo on the top of this update. Also, I realized after looking at these pictures, that I've forgotten to paint the camo on the barrel. That'll happen too!


I'm out for now, take care!

good work on the camo

Really great looking panther Naedrux, DS tracks are challenging to say the least, the newer ones are just to light, and squishy, I stopped using them on German tanks, just say-n, Again cool panther.

Looking good!
Will you set a diorama up for it? It deserves it!

mick wrote:good work on the camo

Thanks, it took a lot of effort to paint. I'm unfortunately not using an airbrush as I don't have one, but at least that saves me the effort of masking the model.

InitialProduction1 wrote:Really great looking panther Naedrux, DS tracks are challenging to say the least, the newer ones are just to light, and squishy, I stopped using them on German tanks, just say-n, Again cool panther.

I'm a fan of individual links, either fancy Fruil ones in metal, or Dragon's own Magic Tracks. I entitle myself to this opinion as I've had a lot of bad experiences with rubber (Tamiya-style) tracks, such as them being too short to fit round the vehicle or that not even super glue seems to work. Having individual links is far better as one has more control over them, including individual deciding of track sag. But Dragon is Dragon, and if this kit is anything like its good reputation claims it to be (I've enjoyed the tank build so far, but the tracks could be a whole different story), I'm certain that the tracks will go together nicely.

Linushg wrote:Looking good!
Will you set a diorama up for it? It deserves it!

Indeed, I've already described an idea for a diorama (hence my planning to buy a Zündapp kit and also procuring of the Feldgendarmerie men) in an earlier post.

Nice work! I have this kit and it has been sitting unopened for a while. You are inspiring me to open it up. I have some Alpine figures that would look great with it!

Dturc wrote:Nice work! I have this kit and it has been sitting unopened for a while. You are inspiring me to open it up. I have some Alpine figures that would look great with it!

Indeed this is a great kit, I highly recommend you to start on it.

Now is a good time for an update!


I've attached the photo-etched grille parts. The perceptive viewer can also spot some progress on the two Feldgendarmerie men standing to the left, one of whom I've now completed.


The barrel has received a burned, worn-down effect, suggesting that the main gun has been fired extensively. I'm afraid the photo doesn't show too well my work, so I'll have to grab a better one.


I also found this DKW motorcycle from Tamiya, it had already been built, a long time ago. I'm not at all satisfied with how it looks, but no fear! I can recycle it! Now that's what I call a disturbing pair of eyes!


Here we go! I'm re-painting the entire thing. As luck would have it, I never used the kit decals, and I found them untouched. Everything seems to be in order, so after a small restoration process including some gap-filling, repainting and adding a few details, I can use the motorcycle in the diorama with the Panther! That saves me some money, as I won't have to buy a Zündapp or similar. I might replace the figure for this kit though.


Here's the Feldgendarmerie (dear God, I'm getting tired of typing that word) man. He himself is finished, although I will add a Sturmgewehr 1944 as well as ammunition pouches to him, not to mention the addition of a gas mask canister; these will be painted separately, hence my labelling of him as "finished". Kind of. Eh.

That's all for n... Well, you already know what phrase I'll use.
Goodbye, cheerio and all of that!

I apologize for the lack of updates, but I've just been through the last week of school for this season. With national exams and final grades coming up, it's been quite a tedious time recently. But you came here to read about my modelling progress, not my ranting about my own life!


I procured a diorama base today. It's an excellent product from Miniart; everything they do seems to be superb, but the flash on their molds - oh, GOD! This was a cheap alternative to fancy resin buildings, and I'm quite satisfied with what I got for the money spent (which approximates to 28-30€). Some well-detailed walls, a few accessories such as a sign and shutters, and a brilliant ground, with cast track trails, pebbles, mud, and everything else. A good wash should pick out all that detail perfectly once I've painted it! The kit saves me the effort of sculpting a base myself, but on the other hand it limits me to its size and layout. It doesn't look exactly like what I initially had in mind, but whatever! It's still a scene set in late-war France and I think it will work well, despite there not being a charmingly ruined café.


Here is a picture of a first example of how all the components of the diorama will be distributed. No, the Feldgendarmerie man has not chopped of the head of his comrade, there will be a wooden pole with signs on it where the temporary adhesive (I'm actually not certain what it is called in English; the white sticky ball thing) is located. Remember that there will be a building, about twenty-five to thirty centimetres tall, covering the L-shape beside the DKW motorcycle.


Close-up of the DKW. I need to attach some of the parts such as the saddle bags and seat, as well as paint the engine and exhaust. Actually, I might completely replace the vehicle after all, but that depends upon whether or not I can execute its restoration properly. Thus, it's a long way to go (It's a long way to Tipperary, to the sweetest girl I know! - Well, we are in France, aren't we?)


I would like to apologize also for the poor photos, but I'm afraid I used my iPhone camera again. Most likely, it was due to laziness. I'm going to take better photos later on, but for now I just want to show off what I've managed to make in the last few days as it's been quite a while now since my last post.


Another picture of the tank. Looking at it, I realize now that there's a nasty gap on the back. Luckily, I plan to cover the tank in camoflauge, using moss among other things, which will mask that disrepancy a bit, enough for one not to notice it too well. Also, note that I've scratch-built additional armour plates on the sides, as well as started on the tracks - these still need more work on the paint.

Next up is the applying of decals and finishing of the tracks! After that, aside from the unconventional camo, I think the tank will be finished! Might do more weathering on the wheels too, but that will wait until the diorama has been painted. Following that, I think I will finish the figures and then begin work on my diorama.

Looking brilliant soo far

I'm in the process of building a MiniArt diorama as part of my Barkas Build SiG entry.
I don't know if this is your first MiniArt diorama but I will share a method I find very useful when joining the seams of the walls together along the rubble joint.
I use a hot soldering iron to melt and weld the seams together. Using this method you can also rescultp the seam into rubble so no filler is necessary.

Hello again! I appreciate your cheerful comments, as always. This post I'm writing from a laptop outside in the sunny weather, unlike all of my previous ones , which were made from my dark chamber of modelling. Spring is here to stay, before being succeeded by summer. Needless to say, the weather is brilliant (even up here in otherwise rainy Sweden) and I jubilantly feel the wish for spending modelling time outside in the open.

Although I haven't made any progress on the tank since the last post (currently working on the figures and initiating thus on the diorama), I've taken some photos outside with my DSLR camera.


Playing on the lawn.


The sunlight is invigorating, especially for a modelling fanatic such as myself!




Commander figure. Some details are still unfinished, such as the markings on his hat and the iron cross on his uniform. Taking these pictures, I realize now that there are some disrepancies about which I've forgotten. For instance, there is a mold seam on his arm, which I didn't see before now. These photos reveal to me excellently the level of detail of my models, better than with my eyesight. Considering that I've nearly finished the camo pattern (one colour still missing), I find that it is too late to sand down this seam as I don't want to re-do all of my work on the uniform. On future projects, I shall take photos of this kind more often, that I might spot this sort of issues before progressing far beyond and missing them.









Wishing you all a great continued weekend, and hopefully your weather is also nice!

Looking forward to the diorama phase, I'm thinking of going up that route for my next build.

Naedrux, Hope everything went well with exams, and you didn't pull all your hair out, Lol. Very cool panther and diorama idea, I've built miniart buildings, and I feel your pain, wow they could have cleaned up those edges a little, just say-n, I was thinking one of you figures had gone psycho and turned into a head hunter, lol. Great looking weather where your at, hope you continue to have a great weekend, and your weather stays just like your photos. Again awesome builds,

Nice one!

Thank you for your comments, as always!

I've made rather little progress since the last post, as I got a Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. A (Dragon, 1:35 scale - will make a thread for it at a later point) for a bargain the other day and started working on it for a bit, but now that I'm waiting for the glue on it to dry, I'm looking back at the Panther.

Some quick late-night photos from my mobile phone:

Decals are applied, and I've started to work on the diorama base. The decals should've really been applied prior to weathering, though I haven't gone heavy on that yet. Once the diorama is finished, I'll give the tank a more thorough weathering, which will include the decals. Some more variation will be put on the road, as well as the grass. The building and certain other objects, and figures, will also be added in due time.


One such "other object", is this sign-post, which took me about an hour to make. The MiniArt set of figures has a rather convenient solution, that of printing an amount of signs as well as giving the modeller some plastic bases for them, on which the paper signs can be put in whatever order one pleases. Though I must say that at this point, I'm not fully satisfied with it, but a bit more work on the wooden texture as well as a bit of trimming on the edges should make me consider it completed. Now there is a bit more coherence in this project, as I can finally put the Feldgendarmerie figures with it in front of my eyes, rather than just looking at the box-art.

Well, "some" means "a handful of", or just "two" for me right now. Definitions and quantities vary depending on how fatigued you are, right?
Next up will be finishing touches on the figures, and a start on the stonework on the diorama base.

Hello there, I've a little update again. Long time no see, but I've been quite busy with some matters aside from modelling recently. Anyways, ahem...

Oh, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and apologize once again for the poor quality of the photos. I was in a rush taking them, per se.


The spare track links have been attached to the tank, and my next step is to add their teeth and paint them. Also, notice the Schmeisser SMG hanging there, I just thought it'd be a nice touch.



All the tools and various other Panzer paraphernalia have been added as well. I'm quite satisfied with the wood effect on the spade and hatchet, but then again, maybe I should work more on it.



These small components are now glued in place. Now that I think of it, I should repaint the stock of the Sturmgewehr.



I decided against using the armour plates on the sides, as I realised how crude my scratch-built ones looked, hence my removal of them. Didn't want to bother getting a PE set for them or anything, and the kit itself does not include any sideskirts, so I won't have any whatsoever.



A bit of paint on the house. Still a long way to go there.

I need to do more painting on the tracks, that is really the most noticeable flaw of my model at present, aside from the unpainted spare links. Something... rusty and muddy perhaps?

If its got Zim, I love it

great work

NorthernModeller wrote:If its got Zim, I love it

Who doesn't? I'm really in love with the cast Zimmerit on this kit, one has by no doubt heard stories of those poor builders who have to make their own Zimmerit with putty or Tamiya's tape, which can also give nice results if one knows just what they're doing, but which are also more tedious. Dragon's is beautifully molded and not at all out of scale, which is not seldom untrue about hand-made Zimmerit. Not that I want to bash on anyone who's done their own Zimmerit, because I know that it can be done properly as well, but it's just that it takes a lot more effort and time.

mick wrote:great work

Thanks!

Now for the update itself, as per my usual "procedure" of posting.

I decided to retaliate my old YouTube beast, which I've now completely re-shaped. My channel is now completely dedicated to scale modelling, and I will post video updates about this and my other projects quite frequently as a complement to the forum posts I make. This time, I'm showing off my latest work in a video, rather than a written post. Enjoy!
[youtube]Rnn-4aqFqtM[/youtube]
Also, as I am new to the YouTube scene in terms of modelling-related videos, I would really appreciate if anyone here who has experience in the matter could give me some feedback. I'm trying my best, but I can always improve! Just don't mind my foul Scandinävian äccent, will ye?

Fantastic details.