RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Made a special blended Dark yellow from XF-60 and XF-57 in a 50-50% mix.
As I like to wash quite heavily and this of course darkens the overall finish , so a very much lighter base coat helps to offset this !
Part of the 'ginning' around was to get the panzer putty on the turret where I planned to have missing zimmerit patches.
Not as many as my F05 Tiger, but still enough to represent a turret that has had a bit going on......

Once that was dry, I used another blended brew of MIg AK 716 and XF-58 greens heavily thinned.
The pictures of the real machine from the front seem to show broad bands of cam colour with narrow bands of dark yellow base, or thats my eye anyway.
I managed to get the hull into camo before a storm came through..............normally I'd not care to mention it, but here at the moment, the driving rain brings as much satisfaction as a week in Vegas on hookers & cocaine ............so they tell me.

If the storm blows over, and unfortunately they do all too quickly, I might be able to get the cam on the turret.
It will be significantly different to the hull pattern though. The real pics show a zimmerit free hull with a classic zimm covered turret, so no doubt they are from different machines.
I cut a thin sheet of cardboard in half, and cut a semi circle into each middle end.
Slid both halves under the turret and added some old newspaper to form a mask.
That will allow complete freedom to paint the pattern on the turret without any overspray onto the hull.
Then it will be panzer putty off.

Jimster wrote:Nice! It looks as if it’s sitting at the tank factory awaiting it’s final coat of paint.

Well, it kind of is !!

Real nice balance of colours Mr Bix , cant wait to see how the wash blends them in . Top Job so far .

HERMAN BIX wrote:The real pics show a zimmerit free hull with a classic zimm covered turret, so no doubt they are from different machines.

Not necessarily true - the Zimeritt was applied to the turrets as they completed build and waited for assembly to a tank. Consequently there was a number of zimeritted turrets on hand in the various factories when the instructions to cease appilication were recieved.
Kampfgruppe Peiper had at least 2 examples (202, made by Daimler, and 152 made by MAN) with this configuration during the Ardennes fighting

Tiger6 wrote:

HERMAN BIX wrote:The real pics show a zimmerit free hull with a classic zimm covered turret, so no doubt they are from different machines.

Not necessarily true - the Zimeritt was applied to the turrets as they completed build and waited for assembly to a tank. Consequently there was a number of zimeritted turrets on hand in the various factories when the instructions to cease appilication were recieved.
Kampfgruppe Peiper had at least 2 examples (202, made by Daimler, and 152 made by MAN) with this configuration during the Ardennes fighting

Fair call, perhaps the same thing in reverse where a 'D' hull produced before the order to add zimmerit was issued was mated to a turret that happened to be after the application order by the time they both made the assembly line ?
With these being the nations most important and new weapons, and with resources & support still fairly good, zimm would have been available relatively easily.
Although, being 'D's I'm making an assumption that they(this) were assembled & zimmerit'd together(normally) but this specific combination of turret & hull was the result of a repair in the rear area. And Im leaning towards a post hostilities version more and more.
Why put a seemingly fine Panther into a subservient role when it might have been more use with a gun ?
Burning precious fuel pushing rubble around ?
Why not a Stadtgas fueled machine at best ?
Why use more support resource to remove the gun instead of just loading ammo it & sending it to the very close front ?

Could be I'm over thinking it

Given that your subject is in Nurenburg, its entirely possible that it was a mild steel prototype test vehicle from the local MAN factory and therefore no use for fighting?

Tiger6 wrote:Given that your subject is in Nurenburg, its entirely possible that it was a mild steel prototype test vehicle from the local MAN factory and therefore no use for fighting?

I'm going a D.B.
A whole lot of could be's thats for sure.........
Thats what makes this thing a must-build !
My last Panther was also a conundrum, I have to stop picking things I cant prove or disprove

Wildboar44 wrote:Real nice balance of colours Mr Bix , cant wait to see how the wash blends them in . Top Job so far .

Thanks Mr Boar, that front plate is not my choice of pattern, but it sure looks close to the period picture.
Appreciate the comments mate.

Would say Tiger6 is spot on cant see a gunners sight or mg hole in the Mantlet. Can you find a better pic to check.

Its an odd mantlet for sure, the photo's I have of the prototypes all show the gun fitted (mind you the proto's also had 2 head lights, where as I can't see any provision for a right hand side light). It could be that there is no mantlet fitted, and they simply bent up a sheet of steel to close the front of the turret off? There is no zimeritt visible on it.

The Zimeritt pattern on the rest of the turret shell is also unusual.