FO Panther

[billpe]

*pics to come soon

This will be my second Panther and first Tamiya Panther. Will be using the following upgrades:
Aber Basic PE set.
Aber grill set.
Aber skirts (the Impact ones are no longer available ).
Aber aerial.
Aber fire extinguisher.
Aber aerial/cleaning rod tube.
Impact muzzle.
Impact tracks.
Impact front track guide/hull casting.
Shumo late mantlet.
Shumo detail parts for the cable holders.
Shumo vision block set.
Shumo turret rollers.
Some bearing set I got of a guy in France.

Pretty sure i'm going to paint it in one of the MAN factory schemes, probably the three tone diagonal lines based on a green undercoat.

There's also another factory scheme which has a 90 degree change in the direction of the lines across the top of the tank so it looks like a pathway (i'm guessing).

Just can't decide if I do a battle weary tank or something which just appeared out of the factory.

[Ad Lav]

Nice, look forward to the build!

[silversurfer1947]

Me too. Once I have finished my Tiger. I have the unopened box waiting. Your list of extras looks a lot like mine1

[billpe]

[Ad Lav]

Where did you get it from in the end? Shiny box

[tao]

I think some minor battle damage? It has been pointed out correctly that most of these tanks were not in action too long and sometimes the weathering effects have them look like they have been sitting outside for years. Though "battle damage" isn't weathering

[billpe]

Ad Lav, it was a random toy shop in Germany. UPS delivered so pretty quick!

I'm not sure about wear and tear to be honest. While the skill of the painters is without question, some are more worn than if you left in the open air for a decade. The last two tanks I did were actual vehicles with a certain amount of history that could be traced so the weathering and damage was in tune with their history. Panthers are a little different as individual tanks are far harder to trace so anything I do will be an approximation of a tank. I'll try and keep the scheme historically correct regardless.

Before I make a decision, i'm going to experiment with zenithal lighting. It really works on smaller scales but unsure about how it will work on a 1:16. If it looks good on a spare KT turret I have, I may well do the Panther using that technique, in which case I'll do it as it rolled out the factory.

[billpe]

ABS wheels. Quite nice molding on them.


Hit a snag:

Never had this happen before - looks like air bubbles in the casting. Spare is on the way.

[billpe]

Not much to report yet other than cutting various bits off so I can add PE parts. Found a nice site called Prime-Miniatures which sells 0.6mm bolts, so ordered some nuts and bolts sets from 0.6 and up so I can attach the PE parts with actual bolts and not have to worry about soldering copper wire to each part. Thought I had more butterfly screws but turns out I don't so need to get some from Axels and the antenna mount has that gap in it which is a bit annoying. Need to find a EU supplier of actual working miniature butterfly nuts and bolts.

Certainly compared with the other Tamiyas I own, this one needs the most doing to it to get it vaguely accurate in terms of detail.

[jtracks]

I had two of my suspension arms break during assembly. I thought I had put the rails in wrong because the arms just didn't want to line up. I was able to get replacements from Tamiya USA.