This is my 12th kit, a christmas present from my ever patient Mrs. The kit is by Dragon and is one of thier new releases. I also got the Eduard etched brass detail set, a Jordi Rubio aluminium barrel and a set of Fruil Modellisimo white metal tracks. First impressions of this kit are very good. Its accurate and very well made, virtually no flash, very good instructions and beautiful fit. Dragon are really getting competitive with Tamiya with releases like this!
I assembled the model as per the instructions but left off the tools and stowage as these need extensive modification with the etched brass. The hull was texturised using my hobby drill and a dental burr on low speed to give a pitted cast metal look to the non zimmerited surfaces. The zimmerit was applied with Humbrol modelling putty ( this stuff is excellent), then I used my Pyrogauvre ( low temperature soldering iron used for engraving) to cut the zimmerit pattern into the hardened putty by hand. I assembled the kit with tools and stowage affixed before spraying, leaving only the wheels on the sprues.
For painting I coated everything in an undercoat of Citadel Miniatures "chaos black" spray paint. I then base coated everything with Tamiya xf 49 Khaki. Then I applied the main coat of XF 60 dark yellow, cut with around 40 percent Tamiya thinners. This was applied to all the main panels of the vehicle, leaving a thin edge of Khaki undercoat showing at the edges to give a basic shading. Then the camo pattern was applied using thinned xf 64 Red Brown and xf 5 Flat Green. The next step was to apply a very thinned ( 90 percent ) burnt umber/ white spirit wash to the whole vehicle. Once this was done i appled a concentrated wash of burnt umber to reised details such as bolt heads and periscope guards to add shading. Now I detailed the stowage, first blacking out the areas needing to be painted with xf1 Black.
The metallic areas were dry brushed with xf 56 Metallic grey then highlighted with xf11 Chrome Silver. These were then washed with burnt umber oils and coated with MIG pigments standard rust applied neat ( these really do blow pastels out of the water, this is the first time i used them and they rock). The wooden handles of the stowage were simply painted xf59 Desert Yellow and washed with the old faithful burnt umber ( I got this from a great site for afv modellers, http://bsdi.usppp.com/wwiiscalemodels/). the periscopes were blacked out, painted with chrome silver and washed with Citadel Miniatures "warlock purple" acrylic. I then sealed them with gloss acrylic varnish. To finish the hull, I prepared a wash of MIG pigments european wash and white spirit and liberally slapped it on to simulate dried mud. I also muddied the underside of the hull with a mix of tiling grout, pva and static grass mixed with the european dust pigment. This was also applied to the tracks once I had assembled them and sprayed them with a mix of black/red brown and thinners ( 10/90/80 percent ratios). With wheels and tracks fitted, a final dusting of neat European Dust to the wheels and hull finished the model.
The Panther A was ( believe it or not) the second in the series, with similarity to the Panther D which was the first. changes from the D included a new commanders cupola, Improved running gear and better transmition ( lessons hard learned at Kursk!). A new ball mount for the forward mg was also fitted but later in the production run. This mark saw service in the Eastern and Western theatres, being present in Normandy and Italy.
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