HL Panther G customization diary

[Red Devils]

Hey Jeff, I love what you did with your nails, very tactical That aside, excellent Panther...

Derek

[maxmekker]

haha, those fingertips, great.

that chipping on the Jack came out super. Last time I did salt it made a mess. the water+salt made bleeding marks after the stuff had dried up. had to do it all over again.

The first time, I had more Luck. Here is both salt(back row) and AK fluid(front)

IMG_4055%20(Small).JPG (47 KiB) Viewed 3804 times

those Wheels came out good to, after you tidy them up a bit, the first salt chips were to big, but you pulled it of , again, With the second Paint coat. Great

[jeff1101]

Nice work on the wheels maxmekker. I guess the main challenge of this technique (at least for me) is arranging the salt in such a way that the resulting chipping looks realistic.

[jeff1101]

Hey Jeff, I love what you did with your nails, very tactical That aside, excellent Panther...

Derek

I could see myself as a hand model.

[hotte8487]

Hi Jeff,

you've got really the green thumb...

[jeff1101]

Updates 10/20/2013 - Finishing up the tools WIP

Thanks for the comments guys. I see that I have put long hours of work and the first thing you guys noticed are my nails. Makes me wonder what really tickles your fancy besides tanks...

Anyways lets not go there and and continue on with the build shall we?

I thought of further detailing the fire extinguisher and finishing her up. See this pic of the Littlefield panther in SVSM.org.


First the molded on straps were detailed with brass strips from the leftover tool rack PE kit. I also fashioned the strap buckles from the leftover kit.


Buckles fastened...


Gluing with CA glue was kind of fidgety but was completed with not much drama.




I also took the opportunity to finish the jack block by adding the retaining bands. In the real jack block, the metal bands secured the wooden block from falling apart when the wood would inadvertently split during regular use when a lot of weight was placed on them.


Test fitting...


and primed.



The C hooks also got primed and painted. I used a new color XF-86 'dark iron' which was more convenient for me since I don't have to mix dark grey and black colors to get the same color.



Next I painted the fire extinguisher Tamiya Sky (XF-21). The straps were hand painted Tamiya olive green. Forgot to take pictures of these but I did take some photos during decal preparation. Its been many years since I've done decal work (last one was for a 1/72 aircraft when I was in my twenties) but I still remember how to do them. Be sure to soak them well in water before application. Also you don't have to remove the backing yourself as it will just fall off and settle on the bottom of the dish once you soaked them long enough.


decals applied.


The jack block also got painted. I first painted the bands Tamiya dark iron. For the jack block brackets, these were painted Red Brown and Olive green to match the camo pattern at their location.

These were then masked with tape and the rest of the block spray painted with Tamiya deck tan mixed with a little red brown. Sorry I forgot to write down the correct ratio but I just mixed the colors to taste.


And here's the jack block and fire extinguisher finished and glued at their stations.



Also finished up the C-hooks. After I painted them dark iron, I then sprayed Olive green. The chipping was done using the salt method. One thing I realized was painting the tools and brackets will add thickness to them so that I has some fit issues which could be a royal pain to fix. Here I had enlarged some of the bracket holes with a drill so that the locking pins would fit again after painting. I was very careful with the drilling as a slip up here can result in broken plastic brackets which at this point in the build I do not need.



Here is the C hook attached and finshed.


Finally I copied PainlessWolf' and drilled a hole at the tip of the MG barrel and re-attached it to the ball mount. Due to the fit issues I had before, decided not to paint the barrel as it was already black anyway. I'll probaly just dry brush some silver on it when I start weathering.

[jeff1101]

Updates 10/28/13 - Tools finally finished

Another milestone - Tools are finished! I can say that detailing the tools and tool racks have been one of the more work intensive part of this customization. I am glad I am now able to put that piece of work behind me.

Here's how I did mine. First all the tools were primed.


And then the individual tools were painted. I was too busy and focused in painting them since some of the tools require more than 1 color that I was unable to take photos of the steps. (apologies).


For the hammer, shovel and axe which have a combination of wood and metal colored parts, I used 2 colors.
For the wood, I forgot the exact ratio I used since the paint mix I prepared was so small, but it was a combination of
- XF-55 Deck Tan
- XF-57 Buff
- XF-64 Red Brown (too darken it)

For the metal color I used 10 parts of XF-84 Dark Iron and 5 parts XF-55 Deck Tan.
The crank tool was a combination of the mix I used for the metal colored parts and just XF-64 Red Brown for the crank tool handle.

The bolt cutter used my dark iron mix (10 parts of XF-84 Dark Iron and 5 parts XF-55 Deck Tan). However the "real" bolt cutter's handles were not made of wood but used a bakelite like material chosen so that it would not rot easily as it is exposed outside of the tank. (see photo below of the bolt cutter in the Littlefield Panther courtesy of SVSM.org. Compare the color of the bolt cutter handles vs the wooden jack block)


So for this color I used a combination of the following colors: (Again apologies since I forgot to write down the exact ratios)
- XF-7 Flat Red
- XF-3 Flat Yellow
- XF-9 Hull Red
- XF-57 Buff

Dry Brushing

I got my inspiration for dry brushing from this link. http://www.scalemodelguide.com/painting ... ybrushing/
After the tools dried, I decided to further detail the metal portions of the tools by dry brushing some silver paint on them. I used hobby color H8 Silver.


I made the Silver paint mix very thin, something like 1 part H8 Silver to 10 parts Thinner (plain alcohol). I then dipped a small brush...


I dabbed the paint brush in tissue paper to soak up the majority of the paint.


After that, you still can't apply it the tools just yet as it needs to "air dry". To do this I counted from 1 to 30, and only then began applying the brush to the tools using light strokes concentrating on the edges and making "streaks" appear like scratches.


The secret here is not to try to cover the surface with the new color and overdo it, but just add a hint of wear using the new color. A good guide is just before you think the effect you want is appearing, - stop. Here you can see the difference. The hammer on the left has no dry brushing of silver done to it yet while the shovel on the left was dry brushed.


And here are the tools finished and ready to be attached.


And finally here are the tools attached and glued to their brackets.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
Always a pleasure to come across another update on your magnificent Panther, Jeff. The Littlefield Panther has some odd tool setups on it. Did you see the little metal circles that they braced the corners of their Jack Block mount with? Almost like they were expecting to wind a cable around it. Maybe it had something to do with the factory it was originally built in? Your tools look great!
regards,
Painless Wolf

[jeff1101]

Hi Painless,

The tool rack/bracket arrangements for the Panther D, A and G were different. The Littlefield panther is actually a Panther A, but I couldn't find Panther G colored closeup photos with bolt cutter still in place so used that instead.

And you are right, the little circles in the corners of the jack block were used to wind up the "track pull" ropes. In later Panther Gs, these ropes would get their own seperate bracket.

I think the Littlefield panther was manufactured by MAN as well. They actually tried to replicate the Zimmerit pattern as used by MAN very closely. (Which is set in very neat patterns like it was applied by a tool not by hand)

regards
Jeff

[cannedheat]

well what can one say wot wot I have thrown mine in the bin not worthy old chap to grace these pages as yours and painless