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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'70 Ford Galaxie Complete

 After attempting to fix the issues on this build, I opted to keep it as is. It's my tribute to the working class car, hence not a show model. I really like the the way the AK Interactive Extreme Chrome turned out on this.

The instructions weren't really clear on the placements of the CB and shotgun and I wasn't able to get a clear picture with a image search. In the end, there was some touch ups to be done after fixing the issues and I even added a spare coffee cup.

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Recreating History - Panther G, Stoumont 1944

 This will be the final build for 2024. Though I built far, far less this year than last year, each build presented their own challenges. But real life also took precedence over building. I do have to thank Eric for starting me on the armor. There is something different about than the automotive builds. I am starting to enjoy building the armor over the automotive builds.

For this build, I decided that I wanted to try to actually recreate a moment in history that was more than building a car or truck that rolled off the assembly line. The idea came up as I was researching the first tank.

During the research, I came across a few articles and some photo's of the Battle of Stoumont in 1944 while i was researching what the tank numbers meant. I had come across some forum posts of builds where others have built Peipers and Prahm's tanks. Further reading, I came across a ghost tank. Panther 223. Doing ancestry research, I'm always up for a challenge. So I began to dig into some research. What I found were a lot of conflicting stories and reports. Thus began my minor obsession to gather as much data as I could.

Initial reports/stories had Oscha.Walter Ropeter commanding Panther 222. From what I have been able to find, the books Duel in the Mist Vols 1-2 have him in command of tanks 222 and 223. The later is actually the cover of Vol 3 (and the image above), in which the authors have mentioned Panther 223. In Vol 1, they mention him in command of 222. The book, Ardennes 1944-1945 has him in tank 223. However, the book Kampfgruppe Peiper: The Race for the Meuse has him in tank 225 at Stoumont.

Further research I was able to locate that Ropeter was actually in Panther 222. However, it seems refueling in Ligneuville with contaminated gasoline, Ropeter and his crew switched to Panther 223. It was in Panther 223 that Ropeter attacked Stoumont on Dec. 19th 1944 where he was taken out next to the Stoumont train station by the US Battery C, 143rd AAA gun Bn.

US forces removed the tank the next day to a quarry near Remouchamps. Photos of the tank show that it was painted in the Diamler-Benz Classic Factory Pattern and carried the distinctive pattern tactical numbers used by the Leibstandarte. The D-B classic factory pattern was the 3-color brown, green, dunkel-gelb combo, with the dots of contrasting color applied in the case of 223.

For the build, I am using the Dragon Panther G Late version Smart Kit. I was also able to pick up some nice resin figures on Ebay. My goal is to not only recreate the tank before the battle, but to build my first diorama of the tank on the road with Ropeter standing next tot he tank and his crew in the hatches.

Like previous armor builds, I will be documenting this build as I go. There will be a lot more firsts with this build and refinement of a few processes from the other two armor builds.

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Bad Po Po, Bad

It sucks as you get older and things like eyesight tend to go. Even with glasses and magnifying lenses, some things tend to still get missed.

So now that the body is painted and has sat still for most of the week to degas, I laid another coat of the Extreme Chrome down since it still didn't have that shiny look to it. 

But I started to notice things as I looked everything over. The black paint had air bubbles in it that I didn't notice before.The chrome parts looked like it was flaking off. Though it was washed, sanded, primed, etc., I didn't notice these things until after the fact. And I tend to stare at them before, during and after painting to try and notice.

To a point, it looks okay. Looks like the car has been in service for some time, and they're trying to keep it looking good until they can get a new one! I have a story for everything!

The body lines for the doors are bad. My masking skills are far from subpar. So there is touch ups to be done.

There seems to be spots where the chrome paint doesn't want to stick to. Again, though it was washed, lightly sanded and cleaned up before the primer, it might be the gloss black paint causing the issue. Though it dried for a few days before the chrome was laid down, there's still a reaction.

Again, I didn't see all the issues until after the chrome was laid. But I wasn't about to strip it and start over. In my mind, it actually adds to the build. It's not a full rust bucket, but just starting it's transformation.

So while all of this dried, I thinned out some Testors Tan enamel paint from the bottle with Mr. Color leveling thinner. I bought some tossable cups from HL a few weeks back and this made things a bit easier since all of my little glass cups still have tank paint in them for the next armor piece.

I lowered the air pressure on the gun down to about 8 PSI and closed the spray angle to almost a fine line then adjusted it to paint the entire interior. One thing I actually noticed before any paint was laid on anything was the poor modeling job on the interior door panels. 

It was so weak, when I rubbed my finger across it, I couldn't feel anything. So I spent about 20 minutes or so sanding all of it away. There's no detail left which may or may not be a good thing. But the paint came out nice on it. 

I don't like the fact there are no decals for the dash whatsoever. So that means I will fight the eyesight and see if I can detail it up a bit. 

I sprayed some of the Testors Gloss paint into a few cups so I had something I could touch up the body with. Though I don't have pics of that yet, it's sitting in the room drying. I'll start on painting the motor and finishing the assembly of that.

I believe, later this evening I will start to wet sand the body to try and get some of the blemishes out.

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'70 Ford Galaxie

Picked this kit up earlier this year at Ollies. Bought two of them, ended up giving one to my brothers girlfriends kid. Should have kept it, I know it's just sitting in his closet some place.

Was going to keep this close to box art, light blue and white. Bought some Mr. Surfacer 1000 gray perimeter at HL for this, as I didn't want to try and do it over black. 

Same process as all kits, wash the sprue trees in dawn water and let dry. Did some basic clean up and stripped the chrome. This time however, the bleach wasn't touching the chrome tree. Ended up using oven cleaner. Washed the trees again and primed them.

The body and interior bucket, dash and front seat were done in gray while everything else was done in black.

Once the primer dried, I took a can of Testors Gloss Black spray and did all of the chrome pieces. Lesson learned from last time, the AK Interactive Chrome needs to go over a gloss black.

While the chrome was drying, I masked off the body to spray the white first. I was going to use the Createx Opaque White. I did not however, remember the issues I had with it on the Bronco I got for Christmas last year.

SO I ended up with this.

Exact same issue I had on the roof of the Bronco. Only other white I had was a Testors spray can of Gloss White. I let this dry, sanded it down a bit, wiped it clean then sprayed the white. I was worried because the white was coming out of the can in all sorts of directions and seemed very thick.

I heated it up a beat by letting it set in warm water and shook it until the letters almost came off the can. Still spraying the same. All my paints are stored in my closet in a box. It's always about 73-75 degrees in there so not sure what the deal is. 

I let the body sit for for a few days until I couldn't really smell the paint any longer. This way I knew that it was almost degassed. I pulled the tape off and saw some bleed through, but not a lot. Now, I couldn't go with the Createx Blue I had since it's not as shiny as the white I just laid down. So I chose the gloss black.

Testors Gloss Black sprayed the same way. I am thinking I got a batch of bad paint from HL. Again, I heated it up and shook it til letters fell off the can. No change. 

After getting the body covered, I let it set for about 4 hours. I tested the underside of a fender to see if it was dry enough to handle. I started removing the tape and was left with this.

There are some touch ups to do which I will do over the weekend, while I respray another layer of chrome. But it looks like I'm going to have a standard black and white. Which isn't all bad. I've never done one before anyways.

I noticed that there are air bubbles in the black and the white has orange peel. I know I can do away with the orange peel. But not sure what's going to happen with the air bubbles when I try to remove them.

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