HL Panther G customization diary

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon,
Fantastic work on the tracks! My Panther build is complete. I considered bronzing the tracks as I did with the metal ones on the KT but as with the rest of the tank, someone at Taigen had a handy way with an airbrush.
warm regards,
Painless Wolf

[jeff1101]

Thanks Painless. I saw your finished panther on your latest post. Nice work! What will be your next project?

[cannedheat]

this old chap is something I wish I had your patience, ability wot wot ...

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Jeff,
Thank you for the compliments! I really want to work on one of those all metal Taigen Tiger 1s but I think I need to do a HL Sherman next to keep things balanced out.
regards,
Painless Wolf

[jeff1101]

Updates 10/11/2013 - Finishing the spare track links

The tracks had deep scratches and drill marks after I had drilled holes in the guide horns for the spare track links. To fix this I applied some milliput to the scratches. While still soft I blended them to the track's surface using cotton swab.




The single track link, I had sourced from the HL panther's original plastic tracks. The open track for the track pin was filled with milliput and sanded.


Since the hole for the track guides were drilled it had a rather jagged edge. To smoothen it, I applied Mr. Surfacer to the insides using a brush.



Spare track links finished.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
I take my hat off to you, Jeff. You are like some kind of Superhero for Patience. You see and correct what others might miss. I fully expect you to pull a Matheson once this tank is finally done and drive it away.
regards,
Painless Wolf

[jeff1101]

Updates cont'd - Detailing the Jack

The included HL jack was already nicely molded with good detail but I thought it can be improved. In particular, the real jack had grab handles welded into it. (see below photo from http://www.modellismopiu.net/)


The HL had molded on handles for the jack, but this looked fake so I shaved it off.



I sourced new grab handles using a paper clip.



I drilled new holes for the handles and attached the paper clip wire.


And here it is finished. I inadvertently shaved some bolts when I shaved off the molded on handles so these were replaced with styrene rods matched (more or less) to size. The paper clip wire was tin plated and I was afraid that primer might not adhere to it so to hasten corrosion and make it rusty, I soaked the whole jack in vinegar solution overnight.

[jeff1101]

Good Morning,
I take my hat off to you, Jeff. You are like some kind of Superhero for Patience. You see and correct what others might miss. I fully expect you to pull a Matheson once this tank is finally done and drive it away.
regards,
Painless Wolf

Thanks Painless. I see you made this comment before you saw the post I did for the jack.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning again,
Yes sir, I did. The jack post bears me out. ;o) I would not be surprised if by the end of your build, the jack was not fully functional.
regards,
Painless Wolf

[jeff1101]

Updates 10/14/23 - Weathering using the Salt Method

I read a good article from this link http://www.scalemodelguide.com/painting ... hips-salt/ on chipping paint using salt technique and thought I'd give it a go.

Salt is just basically another form of a mask but since salt has crystalline form, it lends itself better to the jagged edged chips often found in the real world.

I tried the technique on the sprocket and idlers as I wanted the red oxide to show through under the chipping. Anyway, If I made a mistake I would just re-paint it all over with the green basecoat.

Due to the smallness of scale I looked for fine salt. Fortunately I found this fine sea salt I bought when I was in Japan.


Following the instructions in the link, I dabbed some water on the surface for the salt to cling to.



Using the same brush, I got some salt and applied it to the wet surface. First thing I noticed was how difficult it was for the salt to cling to the surface, even when wet. Guess I was using the wrong salt?




Next, I let it dry and began spraying the green. Second thing I noticed was how easy the salt is blown off the surface when airbrushing the green. I had to distance the airbrush quite a ways off from the sprocket for the salt to stay put. Which meant the paint took forever to cover the entire sprocket and wasted quite a bit of paint.


Wait another couple of hours for the paint to dry and then wash the salt off in tap water. Here are the results:

I guess I put in way too much salt here?



I decided to respray green back to some of the larger chipped areas. Also the green was now chipping "too" readily so I sprayed floor polish as a liquid fixer to seal it.

Here it is finished and attached to the tank. Kinda like how it came out.




Next the jack and tow shackles got the chipping makeover.
But first I had special plans for the jack. Since the rear plate was a bit dark with all the camo colors, I wanted the jack to really pop so I decided to paint it Tamiya Sky XF-21.


But before all that, the spare tracks, tow shackles and jack were primed....





And painted dark gray to simulate German lead gray primer.


Since for the spare tracks this was its final color, I just sprayed my dirt/rust color mix (see How I painted the metal tracks several threads above this) and then sprayed my protection layer of floor polish.

Here it is finished and attached to the tank.


I next turned my attention to the jack. Having learned my lesson on the sprockets/idler, I tried to do a better job at chipping the jack.

I added less salt this time. And tried not to make the salt clump too much.



Here you can see how much distance I put between the jack being sprayed and the airbrush to prevent the salt from blowing off.


And here is the jack after the paint has dried and the salt washed off.



Here it is the jack attached to the tank.





Astute readers might ask, Why so much chipping on a supposedly 2-3 month old Panther? Good question and I am guessing that sitting between two hot exhausts can wreak havoc on a jack's paint job.

The tow shackles also got the salt chipping this time using red oxide primer color on top of dark grey primer.



If you're still reading this, then apologies for the quite longish post. So what's next? Fun with pastels! I bought the expanded colors set just to get my hands on those nice earth colors.