Dragon Jagdpanther G2 in 1/35 scale

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat May 31, 2014 5:36 pm

This fine kit will be my entry:

It is a pretty new Dragon kit of a Jagdpanther G2 and as awesome as we expect it from Dragon

Here a little text from the Wikipedia entry about the Jagdpanther:

"The Jagdpanther (German: "hunting panther") was a tank destroyer built by Nazi Germany during World War II based on the chassis of the Panther tank. It entered service late in the war (1944) and saw service on the Eastern and Western fronts. The Jagdpanther combined the very powerful 8.8 cm PaK 43 cannon of the Tiger II and the characteristically excellent armor and suspension of the Panther chassis, although it suffered from the general poor state of German ordnance production, maintenance and training in the later part of the war, which resulted in small production numbers, shortage in spare parts and poor crew readiness.

Two main variants can be distinguished, the earlier (1944 model) G1 with a small internally bolted main gun mantlet and a modified Panther A engine deck, and the later (1945 model) G2 with a larger simplified, outside-bolted mantlet and a modified Panther G engine deck, though late G1s also had the larger mantlet. Early Jagdpanthers had two vision openings for the driver, whereas late versions had only one. The main gun originally had a monobloc gun barrel but later versions were equipped with the Pak 43/4 gun with a two-part barrel. The two part barrel was more economical as barrel wear was not even.
Early G1s (to September 1944) were given Zimmerit anti-magnetic mine coating in a distinctive "small-squared" pattern."

Here is a kit review video i made a while ago, just to give you an idea how complex the kit actually is:

[youtube]xfBVstSzyRQ[/youtube]

Post by **Jan01** » Sat May 31, 2014 5:47 pm

I almost brought this kit yesterday when I was in Liege (Belgium) and I thought no I will stick with my Panther D.

Have fun building it.

Post by **mannloon** » Sat May 31, 2014 7:40 pm

I really like the looks of that kit. After the money I put in to my old Tamiya kit I might as well have spent the money for this one. I'd really like to know if you're going to do those huge exhaust covers. I just can't take them seriously. So I haven't decided.

Post by **NAMBiohazard** » Sat May 31, 2014 8:49 pm

That is a great kit

And that camo pattern looks awsome

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Sat May 31, 2014 11:26 pm

Can't wait to see what you do with this! Great beginning of a topic!

Post by **warpedcrisis** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:40 pm

very nice
looking forward to the build up of it

Post by **Coen** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:34 pm

I've been wanting to build one of these beauties for a while now.. more so after I watched your review a while back.
So I'm certainly tuned in

Post by **wappynutter** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:43 pm

Good luck Michael, the kit looks excellent....

I will hang around and watch you create a masterpiece Sir...

" Munch....munch....munch..."
Mr Coen, you want some popcorn while we sit watching??

Post by **EasyEight96** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:53 am

Good luck Michael!! Love that jagdpanther its on my wish list for my B'day .

Andy got some popcorn here too don't mine sitting next to you and Coen

Post by **Coen** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 3:42 am

Don't mind of I do.

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 8:33 am

It should be good
I have the kit aswell after i had seen your review
Have you picked a camo scheme yet
The one from the boxart sure looks awesome
Cheers Mark

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Wed Jun 11, 2014 6:28 pm

MarkVerploeg wrote:It should be good
I have the kit aswell after i had seen your review
Have you picked a camo scheme yet
The one from the boxart sure looks awesome
Cheers Mark

I intend to go for the boxart camo, it looks very appealing to me and i never made such a camo before

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:16 pm

I finally got round to start this bad boy! Lack of time is a problem indeed, but this won´t be the case forever

Naturally you start with the assembly of the lower hull and suspension. The axles are workable, that is a nice touch.

The bearing surfaces of the wheels do not look pretty, but that is the only flaw on the kit so far.

Ultimate sanding sticks are very helpful to clean the wheels up a bit. That way you can give the rubber parts a worn out look aswell.

The assembly is coming along! The PE parts are very easy to use. They are extremely filigree with awesome detail.

Some gentle pressure is necessary to fit the lower and upper hull together.

Wheels and tracks are prepared.

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 8:16 pm

Great to see you start, look forward to more

**Felis Barcinonensis YouTube Channel** · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 10:00 pm

That's a nice beast!

Post by **chief5437** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 12:31 am

Yey!

good to see you start this! Looking forward to seeing the reveal. Good luck

Post by **mick** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:42 pm

great start

Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 8:56 pm

That seems to be a popular choice among the armor builders....I guess like the Spitfire and BF109E's are among the aircraft builders!

http://m.youtube.com/user/MrBobsBuilds · Post by **Rob** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 11:45 pm

Nice! Looks like a great kit

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:11 pm

Let´s move on with the model

I added the PE parts to the model by using instant glue. It works pretty nicely. The antenna is selfmade (stretched sprue), the kit does not supply one which is weird.

A crew figure is always a nice touch, but my spare box did not contain parts to build one. Instead i bought an Alpine figure. I might add headphones later.

Completely assembled model. Next we can paint the thing

Post by **mannloon** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:41 pm

Looks good as usual Michael.

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:28 pm

Really great build, lovely figure, you just can't top Alpine

**Felis Barcinonensis YouTube Channel** · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:37 pm

Nice work man!

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:48 am

I finally got round to start painting this bad boy!

After a coat of black acrylic paint (Revell Matt9) i sprayed on the dark green base colour (Revell Matt48). German tanks were usually delivered to the front units painted dark yellow, but this changed in the last months of the war. Due to the fact that the war had to be fought in central Europe again the sand yellow base colour became obsolete and green was the better choice. Of course the shortage of paint often led to all kinds of improvisation like delivering the tanks only painted with the reddish anti-rust primer.

After that i applied the red-brown camo stripes (Revell Matt37).

Finally i added the thin dark yellow lines (Revell Matt16).

This was not as easy as it might look, my airbrush is a very cheap one so making thin lines is pretty hard. I recommend to test the camo pattern first on a scrape model to avoid mess ups on the actual model.

Post by **mick** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:17 am

great camo work

Post by **mannloon** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:10 pm

Camo looks really good to me man.

Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:51 pm

Colorful Camo, but looks real good so far!

Post by **Tiger131** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:10 pm

this is the best camo of the war well in my opinion anyway..

Post by **Art17847** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:26 pm

one word.....awesome! cant wait to see it completed!

Post by **martin57** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 6:45 pm

nice choice of camo scheme thay look good together

Post by **NAMBiohazard** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 11:51 pm

That camo just looks awsome

Graet job done on it

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:06 pm

The project continues!

I started the detail painting process, starting with the wheels.

The rubber pads are painted with Revell Matt9 "anthracite". The wheels of the mid section got a rim of bare metal paint, because the theeth of the track would scrape away the paint and polish them. It is a pretty important detail you should keep in mind when building a Panther tank.

The visible interior got painted with a mix of Revell Matt37 and Matt36 to replicate the reddish anti rust coat. In the last months of the war the tanks did not receive a proper interior painting with white, instead they just left it as it was painted with the anti rust coat only.

Apart from that i painted the tools aswell (there are only few of them) and the optics.

Post by **mannloon** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:15 pm

I debated, or let's say am still slightly debating doing the shiny metal on the rim of those wheels on my Jagdpanther. After reading this thread I just went back and checked to make sure if had that and it does....now I have to go back and fix it.

Looking forward to the video of this one. As I've spent a bit of every day since June 1st converting my Tamiya kit in to this kit, I feel like I've already built it myself.

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 9:26 pm

That looking really nice, well done so far!

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 10:32 am

Cheers guys

I sprayed on a glossy varnish on the model. Usually i don´t do that, but the surface was very rough so i felt i should do that. It also helps to prevent the decals from silvering.

Some stowage on the back. The cans are from Tamiya, the sheels are left over pieces from a dragon Tiger II kit.

The model after i applied a dark wash consisting of white spirit and oil paints.

Wheels installed

Dull coat on the model, tracks painted and installed. As you can see it is a big fuss to position those DS tracks in a realistic way.
I painted the tracks this way: Black priming, light coat of dark brown and drybrushing with iron paint.

Post by **mannloon** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 12:52 pm

can't believe you clear coated. My jagdpanther for this build was my first time clear coating. Not sure if I like it yet.

Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:23 pm

She's coming together really nicely Hamilkar....looks like a frustrating job positioning those tracks?!

Post by **EasyEight96** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:44 pm

it's beautiful can't wait to watch the building video yay!

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Sat Aug 02, 2014 4:20 pm

The first part of the building review is available

It does not show the building process up to the point we have seen it here in this thread, but almost.

[youtube]tdZHnxhnobs[/youtube]

The figure is finished now, Alpine figs are not bad at all *yummi yummi*

Post by **AchtungPanzer** » Sat Aug 02, 2014 5:03 pm

Very good work, nice camo. Keep it up

**Felis Barcinonensis YouTube Channel** · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:50 pm

Perfectly painted. Thanks for the wheels tip!!!!!

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:25 pm

Thank you guys

I continued with the model, it received a chipping with a mixture of Matt91 "iron" and Matt9 "anthracite" mixed together and applied with a Q-tip, sponge and thin brush.
After that i used Ammo´s "rust streaking effects" for some streaks, which worked nicely after i figured out how to use it.

Unfortunately i don´t have pics of both steps, i was too busy to film the affair for my building review video. You will see it there

I felt like doing an oil filtering again, it´s been a while since i did it the last time. The tank looked a bit boring and uniform to me, so i wanted to add some interest to it.

I think it served its purpose.

Post by **mannloon** » Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:36 pm

Dude that oil filter is working to pull it together. I did the same thing on mine but quite over did it. well done.

Post by **PaulAyrey** » Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:17 pm

Wonderful stuff, can't wait for the end result!

Post by **NAMBiohazard** » Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:45 pm

love the effect of the dot filtering, I always stuff mine up

Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:18 pm

Progressing very nicely!

Post by **GIACOMER** » Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:20 pm

Lovely work!!! I like very much the effect of the dot-filter, I'm going to try it!!! (one day

)

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Wed Aug 13, 2014 5:21 pm

Thank you guys

Filtering is pretty effective, it may look like a childish technique but it works.

Here is the second part of my building review series on YouTube, enjoy

[youtube]87VAwaPaLuc[/youtube]

Post by **EasyEight96** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:03 am

Very nice Michael

thanks for the tip on making the camo it really work out very good

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:33 pm

Cheers

Here the final stages of the project:

It was time to dirt up the running gear! I did this in the usual manner:
First i thinned down some wood glue with water and applied it on the model. Into this glue i sprinkled some MIG pigments like Russian earth, dark mud and dry mud.
To simulate wet mud i mixed some dark mud pigments with the thinned down wood glue and smeared it on the model whereever it looked cool. Only a little bit of course.
The rest of the model got covered with some dry mud pigments applied with a thick brush. I simply brushed the pigments on, no fixer involved here.

Leaking oil and grease stains were made with AK oil streak effects and a thin brush.
Finally i drybrushed the tracks with Revell Matt 91 "iron".
The whole process will be shown in the third video of my building review series. I tend to do this in one session and i can not film and take pics at the same time

Finally i glued the figure in the hatch.

Thats it, here the finished tank model.

The third part of the building review series will follow soon, for now these pics have to stand alone

Thank you very much to every follower of this project and i hope you guys enjoyed it and maybe something new was learned.