Diorama with Revell Panther Ausf. D 1:35 scale

[localjedi]

I've spent every free minute in the last months on the Revell Panther Ausf. D kit. As you probably know it's a reboxing of the ICM kit and is a bit problematic due to fitting issues. See here:

Word of interest...........AVOID THIS KIT
Its has allot of fit issues, almost through mine in the bin


The engine deck did not fit on the hull, too big and also the deck where the two hatches are for the driver and radio operator had to be re sized to fit and all the bolt detail redone.

I have to say I had the same problems when building this kit and I can't quite recommend it. However, I somehow fought my way through it and have finally finished the model. The idea now is to add figures and a few props and build a nice little dio for it. I'd like to share my building progress with you in this thread. Feel free to comment!

[localjedi]

Alright, here we go: Let me show you a quick walkaround of the protagonist...

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[localjedi]

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[localjedi]

And here are some crew members. I had some difficulties with the headphones of the commander (Dragon). You can find the thread on this topic in the modelling chat section here on ISM.

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Painting the figures (Lifecolor flesh paint set and Revell acrylic paint) was a lot of fun.

[localjedi]

...and here are some props that I want to use in the dio. This is an unpainted and a base colored oil drum.

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I then used the Maskol chipping method Hamilkar Barkas presents in one of his tutorial videos. The green barrel was painted with Revell silk matt olive green acrylic paint (361) and then treated with different brown washes and grey/white drybrushing. The grey barrel was painted with Revell dust grey acrylic paint (77) and then given the same weathering.

The hand crank and fuel tube comes from the academy tank supply set 1. I placed a piece of wire inside the tube to give it a better shape and "weight". Now I can bend the tube and it will stay in shape. I also added some short bits of sewing thread to simulate some makeshift fieldrepairs and to give the tube a worn out look.

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[localjedi]

Some ammo boxes. I'm pretty happy with the wooden look of the crates. I colored them with several layers of different Revell acrylics. Unfortunately, I can't quite remember which ones I used and in which order...

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So much for now. I'll post updates on the progress of the figures and the dio soon. Feel free to reply if you have any suggestions or feedback for me. It will be much appreciated.

[MikeyKb]

lovely job! I love the weathering on the tank - looks like it could tell a few good stories!!
Can't wait to see more!

[localjedi]

Thanks, Mikey! I tried to go a little easy on the chipping and weathering on the tank model because I want to show a scene some time around July 1943. At that time the Panther didn't have much time to weather that much.

[localjedi]

Quick update for the weekend. Unfortunately, my wife had the camera, so I had to take these pictures with my smartphone... Not the best choice.
Anyway, here we go: I placed everything on a cheap IKEA picture frame as a test run.

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Before I started working on the terrain I taped the frame (see the brown tape in the photo) to get a clean edge. Then I glued on the tree with hot-glue. I also added some pieces of wood to make the terrain more uneven.

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I tried something new this time: I mixed modelling clay with acrylic color, some pigments and a bit of water and used it to sculpt the terrain.

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[localjedi]

This is what it looked like. It worked, but it's a pretty messy job...

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In the next step I mixed sand, earth, white glue and water and coated the terrain with it.

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The idea behind this was that the next layer of pigments, grass flock and other foliage would stick to the sand/white glue mix... Well, it didn't... At least not the way I wanted it.
So I sprayed acrylic matte finish on the dio and then sprinkled some grass flock, earth and some pigments onto that layer. The spray is a bit like spray-on glue - it worked!

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The longer blades of grass are airbrushed bristles from an old broom. I also used some tufts of grass from a company called Fredericus Rex.

[localjedi]

I then let everything dry for one day. When I came back to the dio, the terrain looked way too clean to me. It was almost like an English garden or a park, but didn't look like the Kursk area to me at all... Ok, I have to admit that I have never been to Kursk in real life but I had a picture in my head of what the dio was supposed to look like and my result didn't match. So I roughed everything up a bit and sprinkled the content of a camomile tea-bag over the dio. That really helped, and if you haven't tried it already, I can very much recommend it. So here's how the dio looks now:

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The next step will of course be to glue all the crew members and accessories in place. I'll keep you updated. Cheers!

[garywintin]

Superb works... I stand in envy sir ... I love your chippings... and that groud work is beautiful

[localjedi]

Thanks, Gary! I'm glad you like it. I plan to have the whole thing done by Sunday and will then upload some pics of the finished diorama.

[localjedi]

Alright. It's finally done: I finished the diorama!

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You can see more pictures and find the video link in my thread in the land gallery section here on ISM. Have fun! And if you have any questions about it whatsoever, feel free to ask. Again, for me it has been a great build. I love this hobby.