Panther G Late - Colors of Daimler-Benz

 Had time today to bring the build into the home stretch. During this time, mistakes were made and brushes acted up.

I got the dark yellow base color added. What I forgot was to add the chipping fluid down first. I actually wrote down how it was to be sprayed.

So now i have to learn new techniques in order to weather the build. I will go with the oil wash like the last two builds. But the scratches and wear will need to be done in a different way.

I looked at a few photos and color plates to get an idea for the camo pattern. Got the paints ready, all still using the AK Interactive Real Colors I bought when I did the first tank. I started with the green first as I could overlap the Red Brown to get better blending.

This is where I started having issues. Though the paint was thinned well with Mr. Color Leveling thinner, PSI set to 8, the green felt like it was too thick. There were spots where it spattered. I added a bit more thinner and it got a bit better, but still ended up with some over spray.

I cleaned the gun and started with the red brown. Now the trigger was sticking down causing a steady stream of air flow. Tore the gun a part, fully cleaned it and tried again. Same thing, however the trigger did slowly release itself, allowing my to stop the spray.

Pulled it apart yet again and cleaned it and noticed that the trigger just felt stuck. Continued cleaning until it was spotless and finished up the brown, trying to be careful. Now I will have to pull the gun apart again and find out why the trigger is sticking.

I started on the tracks. I hate tracks. Despite being together and glued for about a week, they still fall apart when trying to handle them. So I got some of them painted black, but now need to see about getting them glued back together.

Now to add the contrasting dots and seal it. It's still in three separate pieces, so I can get the figures in there. The wheels are done as well, however, after looking at multiple Panther G's, some had all yellow steel wheels, some had the steel wheels with rubber around them. I ended up painting mine with the rubber around them, but i think I will go back and paint the rear and middle wheels all yellow, leaving the black rubber around them on the outside set. Still not sure.

The dots were applied with a toothpick. Looking at a few reference photos, they weren't all the same size, but close. So I decided to add a few thicker ones here and there. Trying to determine a pattern was difficult, especially since most of the reference photos are faded black and white.

I sealed it with the wrong clear. Though it was Tamiya, I accidentally grabbed the gloss clear. Oops! While it was drying, I tore the gun apart again. Cleaned it, swapped out a few pieces from the other gun I had and got it working again. 

Grabbed my Tamiya flat clear bottle, thinned the hell out of it with the Tamiya thinner and sprayed the build. I even decided to tone down the figures with a bit of the flat. After it had dried, I put the driver in, attached with blue tac. There's literally no pin points to glue it to. So I am hoping it holds over time! Did the same with the commander. There is one pin point, but not enough to hold. So blue tac it is. 

Then I spent about 20 minutes putting the parts together with a mixture of super glue and Tamiya Thin Cement. I really like how it's turning out. After I got it together, I realized I forgot to attach the steel cables. 

They're primed, so I will hand paint them. I will most likely use the Testors Flat Steel for the cables themselves. Will paint the hooks the dark yellow. Getting them to sit how I want is the hard part. So I will glue one hook down and work my way back.

Tomorrow, I'll start with the oil dot and grime wash.

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Panther G Late - Figures to Tank Base Color

 I've been dealing with a lot of work and health related issues these last few weeks, so progress has been slow. I read somewhere, that when your building a diorama or adding figures to a build, to paint the figures first. This way, by time you got to them, you didn't cut corners and lack on the details.

I've watched countless videos on painting figures. And I have yet to be able to minutely master any of the techniques. I majored in art in high school, however i learned early on that I couldn't paint. So i changed the art major to sculpture and jewelry. At least I could still make things from my warped mind.

I had painted the faces on these two five times. As soon as I start with the shading and highlighting, they start looking like oil vintage pieces from the 1700's. I use Vallejo paints. I have the thinner and retarder medium. Even bought a face painting kit of theirs with tutorial to follow.

Even with the multitude of brushes i have, I ran to HL this weekend in search for a very small and pointed brush for the fine details. After finding what i was looking for, I came back and started all over.

The faces this final time around were done with a base of 70.815 Basic Skin Tone. I tried the glazing technique but that is like me trying to win a noble prize! After it was dried,  I started some shading with 70.860 Medium Flesh Tone. The I started in with the highlights using 70.928 Light Flesh. 

After this was all dried, I did a light wash of 70.859 Black Red. I was trying to darken the recessed areas and give the skin tone a bit of red color to warm it up.

The jackets were done with a base of 70.872 Chocolate Brown. The camo patches were then done with 70.978 Dark Yellow and 70.916 Sand Yellow. The grey is made up of various combinations of 70.830 German Field Grey and 70.951 White. The silver is actually 70.865 Oily Steel. 

After everything was done, I decided to stop before I messed them up further. I sealed them with the 70.520 Matte Varnish. To me, the matte varnish has too much a shine to it. I would like to find something to tone down the shine and make it flatter.

I was able to watch some German footage from the Battle of Stoumont. Since the German forces were a combination of a few different Panzer Divisions, there was no actual winter camo pattern present in clothing or armor. The majority of the German soldiers were wearing the heavy outer grey winter jackets. However, the camo pattern I selected does match some of the late '44 patterns.

 

No pictures yet, but I was able to get the red oxide primer down on the tank. I ran into issues with the airbrush. Seems that I didn't take into consideration that reusing my paint bottles from my previous mixtures for armor would start to flake off inside. 

I ended up with some gunk inside the brush. Took it apart, cleaned it out, started to spray again and the issue came back. I was able to lay down a good coat of the base color. It's not 100% even, but I like that. So when I lay down the  yellow, it will go over and show variants within the color which should help with the final effects.  

This also means that I am going to have to remix my other colors to prevent this from happening again.

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Panther G Late - Rounding The Bend

 Other than typical Dragon instructions, the remainder of the assembly has gone fairly well. I did lose two of the small pins use in the spare track assembly. However, that really doesn't look like it will matter as this is being built as a tank that has seen action, so one would assume that pieces are broken or minor pieces missing.

Even looking at the instructions, as well as resources photo's,  I haven't been able to really determine how the spare tracks attach to the track rails, other than just adding some glue.

 

Based on everything I've seen, the track guides face outward. So the best I can think of, is finding a spot where the rails touch and add some glue.

As I finished up to the tool assemblies, it occurred to me that, Dragon loves torture. 

I feel the hardest part of the tool set is going to be painting them before attaching them and finishing the paint job. Everything will be primed using the Mr. Surfacer Black. Before the camo pattern is done, i'll start on the diorama. 

The cupola was a bit more difficult than what it looked. Mainly because the included clear parts don't want to fit how they should. In the end, you can't tell that they're not there, so I will just leave them off. 

Of the two options for the turret, I had to go look at photos of the original tank. Once I saw what I was looking at, i did make a few minor adjustments. I added the optional build to the commanders hatch. Everything else matches up to the original photos.

I also started searching to try and get some idea's for the rear vents. Since original photo's show four opened vent covers and only having two, I opted to put the two opened hatches on the right side and using just the PE parts on the left side. It actually looks decent and I think it will add to it once painted. It already has a battle worn look to it, i'm hoping the paint will add to it.

I finished the commander Ropeter figure and was hoping I wouldn't have issues getting him into the hatch opening. In the end, the figure fit fine. The hardest part were the binoculars.

All that's left is to do the tracks before I get into the spray booth and lay down the primer.

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Panther G Late - The Saga Continues

 Wasn't a good holiday with the wife getting out of the hospital on the day before Thanksgiving then returning to the hospital two days later. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I did get a little bit completed.

One thing I noticed as I started working is that the Dragon instructions have you building a few parts out of a hand full of smaller parts that they don't tell you where it goes later on, or it doesn't go on the kit at all. I'll have to look at more resources and determine if the parts are actually used and if so, which version of the tank they were used on.

Another thing I noticed, that I don't recall from the previous Dragon builds are missing "optional" signs for parts. Perfect example in this build is the optical cover on the driver side. 

Part C13 almost seems optional. Looking at a handful of resource image, the larger cover C36 is flush with the hull it's connected to. The part does fit into the pre-drilled holes, however, the cover doesn't fit over the C13 part as they are the same thickness and width. If they are glued together, then the cover doesn't sit over the optical lens under it and leaves a major gap that doesn't exist on the real tanks I saw in resource images.

As you can see from this angle, the cover is flush. I also blue tacked the driver figure into place to see how the door will fit. There's very little room by default to open it more the way the hinges are designed. 

 

The other thing that struck me as od, but again, i'm still new to building armor, was the inclusion of the internal fans.

Granted the way it was designed, the frame boxes are what the rear of the hull connected to, but when the rest of the kit is built, you have no way of seeing these. So my thought of having two different fan units based of resource images really don't matter at this point.

With the read of the hull glued into place, I noticed a nick that will need to have some putty work done to it before paint.

If it's not confusing enough, for me at least, with all the different versions, it's that each version seems to have it's own modifications. For example, a few image photos as well as some diagrams show two different versions of the Late G exhausts. One has just an exhaust cover the other the fire traps. 

Based on this diagram, the fire traps were the final model specs. The kit only included the the fire traps. However, it did include two separate muffler designs. One is a cast muffler the other is the welded muffler. I opted for the welded design, since that is what I see in most photos. Same with the fire traps, that's what I see most in all the resource images.

The other thing that kind of bugs me about the kit, and I will get over it, is the inclusion of  some extra parts that aren't used like the massive rear hull door. But lack of extra parts like having four opened vent covers instead of just two.

When looking at both actual tank images as well as diagrams, the four vent covers are all opened. However, the kit only included two open vent covers and two closed.  So now I need to decide which vents to use them on and if I want to use just the PE screen or go with closed vents on the other two.

The hatch door came in a set of two, but only one is needed. There are no mold changes between the two.

If I had a 3D printer, I would probably just printout two more open covers. Also, as mentioned earlier, once you get the hull into place with all the parts, you can't see the internal fans.

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Panther G Late - The Beginning

This kit seems a bit more detail oriented than the Panzer IV or the StugG that was built. I noticed this from the very get go with the internal axle housings (E1/E8) to the bolts (A26) that needed to be glued on. Why these weren't molded on, no idea. They can't be seen since they sit behind the wheels.

 The drive housing (G4/G5, G8/G9) came with two options. The only difference I can see between the two is that 4/5 have an axle mount where 8/9 do not. I ended up breaking out the Achtung Panzer book loaned to be by Eric's friend. Looking at the images, they all have the small support wheel. Since the support wheel has the hole in the back for mounting, this is the reason for selecting G4/G5 for the drive housing.

Also, the direction have part  D9 going under the left side fender in the front. However, in the blow up box for the rear, it also has D9 for the rear. Problem: there was only one D9 on the parts tree. Also, it has a nub that sits in a pre-drilled hole, that hole isn't on the rear side. I labeled it as "missing" on the instructions to go back and look at before paint and assembly.

The instructions show an optional piece (G24/G26) that looks like it attaches near the small support wheel. However, in the above images and others, I do not see this piece, so for that reason, I have left it off. 

The ventilation grills also offered optional pieces. Again, I turned to the book to see if there was a difference, actually there was. Though both both of the intake fans were identical sets of two, the book shows photos as well as technical drawing showing two different styles. One style on the left and one on the right. 

Do to this, i opted to use one of each with the one exhaust with the least amount of fins for the left side and the one with more on the right side.

With all of the wheels together and/or sanded, i attached them to see how it's going to sit. Since the wheels are offset, I also wanted to see how this was going to go together. Once I get to that part in time, I'll use the blue tack to mouth the wheels so the track can be built and adjusted.

Just the above took me a good portion of the day. Mainly due to all of the sanding required where parts were snipped from the trees.

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