"Duel in the Mist" Panther G

[Jochen1944]

I'm really not clear on how to mod the axles on the Heng Long chassis to fit the available steel wheels. The whole setup is different. I've test fitted the steel wheels from my Tiger I on the Panther chassis, and found that they are wider than the Panther tracks! I'm presuming the Panther steel wheel sets are the right width, but still haven't worked out how to fit them. I dont want to spend the money and then find I can't make it work.

Thanks for the Camo advice. Having found a few similar paint schemes in various modelling books and some on-line forums, I was planning on using the following Tamiya paints;

XF-60 - Dark Yellow
XF-64 - Red Brown
XF58 - Olive Green

Does that sound about right to people?

[maxmekker]

This is going to look so good.

I use a thin mix of tamiya hull red to make up the primer,





for the rest I use xf 60, and since tamiya is pritty hard to get here nowday's ,I tried vallejo for the rest of the camo on my 1/35 build. The tank brown 'air' verson spray'd on nice, the 'german dark green' wich is not 'air' ( you mix it you're self) did clogg a little.

this is with a thin layer of heavly thinned tamiya buff.




Here it is after some AK wash.




Not sure what I choose to do with my 1/16 JP , so this build was a little practise before I go on with the jagdpanther build , but I think it came out ok.

[dgsselkirk]

Hi Guys,

First, nice "splash" on the front glacis plate!

And now for my 2 cents worth on colours. Just to cause hate and dissension among the troops!
Here is an interesting statistic, roughly 30 % of all males are to some extent colour blind! Years ago when I wore a funny green suit i was tested completely as I was remustering to helos so I know my eye is pretty good. Of course they are a lot older now! I actually believe Tamiya are pretty balls accurate as far as colours go XF-60 dark yellow, XF-64 Red Brown and here is where I differ, for the green I think XF-65 field grey is the one. And of course put on the base of dark red for the primer.

What makes the colours look "right" is patience Don't fear the airbrush! 3 things make an airbrush work right, one is consistant pressure. Most fine airbrushes only need about 14 pounds. I have 3 badgers and my fav is the 150. No finger action required and I can spray a 1/16" line no problem. Second thinning the paint. don't fall for buying expensive Tamyia thinners! Simple pure rubbing alcohol works awesome and you can buy a big bottle for a buck! Make it the consistancy of milk and it goes on fine, smooth and real easy. if you are worried about clogging, filter your mix through a coffee filter to make sure there are no bits in it. Third don't hammer the camo! I see guys all the time putting the colours on way to heavy thinking they need to have it on solid and not wanting to go over the pattern twice. But if you work the pattern by starting thin and broaden it I find it gives great results. In reality there are and were various depths of colour in virtually all oversprayed camo. Having said that of course hard edge camo is a completely different animal and if you are making a balls accurate model of course it is a different process. In my humble opinion I don't really like the asthetics of hard edge but for accuracy I see the point.

What makes it all work after you have the "new car" finish is how you weather it. Lots of guys on this forum and other sites have various techniques but most follow the same basic proceedure - some form of pin wash detailing and chipping, dulling down, and dusting up and then seal it good. I am almost ready on my KT build to move to the next steps and will detail how I do it including how I do stencils on vellum for markings. (I'm really cheap and like to try to do as much scratch stuff as possible.)

O.K. everybody feel free to diss me now on my opinion! LOL!

[jeff1101]

I'm really nervous about the next stage though... airbrushing was never my strong point.

Ha you and me both. It seems you have overtaken me on the build. I'm still on the modding stage on mine so now I will be the one to get tips and techniques from you as you paint your panther.

BTW what primer did you use?

[Jochen1944]

Well, thanks for all the advice on colours guys. I've decided to take some of the advice....

Jeff - My primer was Tamiya light grey primer spray. This is spot on, as Panther 101 was produced in September 1944 by Daimler Benz, and delivered 1st October. At that time, the base coat of paint was the dark yellow. Red Oxide primer was not used until October onwards. So I reckon light grey is a much better primer for the dark yellow.

In terms of camo - after alot of reading I'm going to spray these colours (I may be colour blind ) in this order;

1. Base coat of Dark Yellow (Tamiya XF-60)
2. Dark Green (Tamiya XF-61 lightened with some dark yellow)
3. Red Brown (Tamiya XF-64)
4. add the ambush spots - I read with interest the advice from Eastern Front. I'll certainly use your technique for applying the dots, but read elsewhere that the Ambush camo pattern consisted of green spots on the yellow, then yellow spots on the green and brown.
5. After that I've got a complex series of steps in mind to weather the tank (notes taken from a number of posts on the forum)

Well, we'll see how it goes. If I mess it up feel free to have a laugh!

I'm away for a week now, so wont be able to paint the Panther until next weekend.

[dgsselkirk]

Hey Easternfront,

This is going to be fun! First we shouldn't hijack this thread so I will make one more post on colour and leave it at that.
I think a company that is world reknown for thier accurate scale models in hundreds of kits would make every effort to be as accurate as possible on the colours they choose to represent thier brand. Of course anyone can make errors but spectrum analysis of the RGB from original chips and conversion to formulas is a pretty good way to make sure you are as close to accurate as possible and that is what I heard they did.

Museums.... humm.... really? LOL! I will tell you this a lot of museums have botched the repaint so be careful which ones you base your opinions on! also a lot of guys take pics under inadequate lighting in museums. If you use a computer, monitors are all over the board on colours. And don't get me started on "scale" colour interpetation! LOL!
For your viewing pleasure here are some side by side museum shots to illustrate how the historians interpet colour. I agree, jbuckley will be fine. anybody that can do this detail work will have no issues with being patient with an airbrush. Can't wait to see it!

[Jochen1944]

Thanks dgsselkirk. I've seen 3 panthers in the flesh, including the Bovington and Saumur examples and you are absolutely right. I particularly find the greens way too garish on both tanks. Well, the only Answer is to adopt the colour scheme in your last photo!! I'm struggling to match the pink, does anyone have a Tamiya pink they can recommend ..... OK, I guess we've done colour to death now. Interesting topic though. Thanks for all the input.

[dgsselkirk]

LOL!!!:)

[Jochen1944]

A decided to shave my chin!!

Got home at the weekend, was about to start the camo and .... spotted another little job needing to be done. I see what you guys mean about never being quite able to stop.

Well tomorrow I will start pre-shading and base coat - honest

[Jochen1944]

I'm looking for some advice guys. When using the 'hairspray' technique to create paint chipping, do you have to do the chipping immediately after spraying the top coat, or can you leave the model for a day or two and then do the chipping over a few days? From reading the on-line info I can't make out if you have to do the chipping before the paint dries?