RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Updates 9/24/2013 - Masking the Red Brown and applying the Olive Green

So with the Olive Green now available I began masking the Red Brown sprayed areas. I was trying to conserve on the Blu-tac as it was running out so for wider areas I used Tamiya tape.






And then I sprayed the final color Olive Green. For this color, I mixed:
- 20 parts XF-58 Olive Green.
- 12 parts XF-60 Dark Yellow
- 2 parts XF-55 Deck Tan

Updates - cont'd - Results

After the application of the camo colors, I just waited a couple of hours for the paint to dry and then started peeling the Blu-Tac and tape. Only the Blu-tac in the tool brackets were left as I still needed to mask these as the tools were not yet attached.

I was left with a big ball of sticky clay.


But all that hard work was worth it. I was quite satisfied, (well not completely satisfied) with the results. Not bad for a first time effort.

What went well.
Rear deck came out beautiful. There was some minor dark yellow paint run on the red cross but this can be touched up and corrected.



The exhaust and exhaust bracket also came out nice with very little overspray.




Tour continues...







Areas that I masked to show the red oxide also came out well. Barrel is not yet finished with the paint as I needed to remove the turret to prevent overspray.



What went not so well...
I had issues with paint runs. This happened because the paint mix was quite thin and paint build up on vertical surfaces (such as the turret sides) made the paint run when I sprayed a bit too much paint. Plus the fact that the Blu-tac wasn't pressed all the way to the surface which caused the paint to run through it.




Hopefully this can be corrected with a minor touch up. I'll let it sit a couple of days so I can come up with a plan to fix it.

Good Morning,
Jeff, that paint job fits right in with the extreme reaIism you have modeled into this entire tank so far. I wanted to use the original spray job that came with my Panther so I tried to be really careful while doing add-ons. Of course, I messed up a couple of times so I had to repair the goofed up areas. I settled on hunting down the original acrylics used on the tank ( Tamiya came closest ) and carefully dry brushing the fix into the surrounding painted area. It worked fairly well, enough so that you have to look to see the repairs. Looking at the minor runs that you have there, Jeff, maybe some fine point sanding and dry brushing the dark yellow back in would repair it to your satisfaction. Phil suggested a tool for fine sanding to me, Here is the link,
regards,
Painless Wolf

as wolf said, looks awsome. the minor running you will fix like nothing

Updates 9/28/2013 - Correcting the Paint Mistakes in the turret

Before I forget, some of you may have noticed I am airbrushing indoors now. Well I have ditched my jumbo air compressor and bought this compact air compressor from Tamiya.


I have used it during the painting of the camouflage for the panther and I think after that I could give it a proper review. My verdict? I really really like it!

Advantages:
- Its very small and compact. see pic below of the air compressor next to my airbrush so you can get an idea of its size. As you can see it really is very small. This makes it ideal for airbrushing indoors. I find that I can setup an airbrushing session on our kitchen table, which makes it very convenient.

- It spits out an even 10 psi of air. Not very much but I find this enough for my needs and allows a tremendous amount of control with the paint output. 1/35 scale modellers and smaller will find it more than enough. As a side benefit, this miniscule air pressure makes you very conscious of how you thin your paint. A paint that is too viscous (not thinned enough) will not come out of your airbrush as there is simply not enough pressure to push it out.

Disadvantages
- It overheats easily. The air compressor manual states not to use it for more than 30 minutes at a time. This can be an issue if you are the kind of person that paints continuously and non-stop. As for me, I like frequent breaks anyway so what I do is I put just enough paint in my airbrush for a 30 minute paint session so I am forced to stop when I run out of paint. I then just mix another batch of paint (which takes approx. 5-10 minutes).By the time I am ready again to paint, the air compressor would have cooled down enough to use again.
- it pulses. The compressor does not have a reservoir tank so that the motor directly feeds output air into the hoses. Again however, I don't find that this was an issue with me since the air pulses at quite a high frequency (more than 100 times a minute) that it evens out the air coming out of the air brush to such an extent that it does not affect paint output or quality.

So with that mini review, I decided to just re-do the turret side that had the ugly paint runs. Following PainlessWolf's advice, I got some very fine sandpaper and just sanded some of the paint runs out. I then masked the already painted areas with Blu-tac to prevent overspray.


I then repeated the process of painting the camouflage. First Dark Yellow, mask, Paint Red Brown, mask and finally apply the Olive Green.


Crossed my fingers as I carefully removed the Blu-tac when the paint dried. Very happy that the fix came out very well. Turret finally done! Now it actually looks better than the opposite side.



With the turret off the hull, I took the opportunity to re-attach the swing arms. Since the swing arms sits lower to the ground than the hull, I put some tape around it so that the paint on the swing arms doesn't get scuffed.


I also finished up the turret by painting the barrel with the camo color. Below are photos of the results.
First off, the barrel detail.


Also, I purposely sprayed the camo colors from the top and side of the barrel only so that I have this feathered effect of dark yellow on the bottom of the barrel.

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Here are the rest of the photos of the Panther in various action poses.



One effect of applying the camouflage after the tank is fully assembled is that patches of red oxide will appear on the upper hull when the turret is rotated at various angles. This is my interpretation of what can happen if the Waffenamnt directive is followed since I don't think factory workers will have the time to rotate the turret at the factory just so they can spray paint the hidden undersides!


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Eagle eyed readers might notice the very apparent pattern to the colour fields in the camouflage as I applied it here. After looking at hundreds of panther period photos, I have come up with this pattern that I believe is as close to the factory directive for MAN for the application of camouflage for Dec'44. Some of the pattern rules are very evident.
- the large swath of Dark Yellow in the hull front going diagonally on one side and then moving to the opposite at the hull bottom.

A MAN Panther. Notice the front glacis camo pattern.


- large to narrow band of Dark yellow running diagonally from top of turret to mantlet side. This pattern was well used during Sept-Oct '44 but was no longer followed strictly after Oct 44- onwards. Here I decided to still use this pattern for my panther although the pattern I used is no longer closely follows the Sept-Oct, directive.

Panther manufactured between Sep-Oct' 44.


Panther manufactured after Oct, 44. (I used this photo as basis for my camo pattern)


- Red brown usually sandwiched between 2 Dark yellow bands. You can see this on the mantlet front, the repeating bands on the barrel as well as some patterns on the tank's sides.

- When the 3 camo colors overlap, Dark Yellow is always on top of Red brown and Red brown is on top of Olive Green. (In that order) From this pattern, I believe factory workers for 'real' panthers would paint the Olive Green first, Red Brown Second and then apply patches of Dark Yellow last.

Good Afternoon,
Beautiful fix and beautiful finish on the paint for this amazing Panther. I like to look at page one of your build then come to your current last page and marvel at what has been done in the interval.
warm regards,
Painless Wolf

+1 on what wolf said. Great Camo job. Nice to see the mini tamiya compressor. Seems handy

Thanks maxmekker and Painlesswolf.I have enjoyed both your guys kind comments, suggestions and encouragements. I'm surprised you're still following this very long thread.

Updates 9/29/2013 - Applying protection layer
The paint finish is quite porous such that it is easily scratched by even a fingernail when handling it. Also marks can appear in the paint when you hold it with sweaty hands. To seal the paint and protect it, I sprayed Klear floor polish using the airbrush.

Just decant the floor polish directly to the air brush cup, no thinning necessary. I find the polish has the same viscosity as thinner so it generally sprays easily.


I then removed the turret from the hull and laid everything out so I can spray the polish in all parts of the tank.


Here are the results. Applying the floor polish adds a bit of gloss but darkens and reduces contrast between the colors. (That is why I wanted a lighter color tone from the beginning)


Before


After


I think I will stop with the hull at this point so that the other parts of the tank can catch up.
The tracks and wheels will be the next that will receive some TLC.

Coming along very nicely

Updates 10/06/2013 - Wheels and Tracks WIP

I now turned my attention to the metal sprockets and idlers.Like the real thing, these received a fresh coat of red oxide color.
Before - Primer Gray


After


To add some visual contrast, the wheels should be a bit darker in tone from the tank hull so I tweaked my red oxide color this time. For this I used the following mix. (all Tamiya acrylics)
- 20 parts XF-7 red
- 2 to 3 parts XF-3 yellow
- 2 to 3 parts XF-9 hull red

Next I painted the tracks. When I started, the tracks were painted with Tamiya primer grey.


I then sprayed the track's color. For this I used:
- 20 parts XF-24 dark grey
- 13 parts XF-1 black


Next I simulated dirt and rust by spraying it with the following mix:
20 parts XF-57 buff
10 parts XF-9 hull red
5 parts XF-1 black
I didn't even need to spray this mix evenly as this would look more natural if the color were applied in patches.


Finally to tone down the dirt and rust color, I sprayed it with floor polish. This protects the paint by sealing it in and also darkens the colors considerably. It also gives it a nice glossy finish and lemony scent.