So here we go. Got back from Valleycon late on the 24th of March, and, as usual, was totally fired up to build like mad when I got home from the show. Got my next spring show this Sunday - the 7th - so I'm working fast to crank this out! The "official" title of this beast is: 2cm Flakvierling 151/20 auf Pz.Kpfw.Panther ausf.G.

Starting with a Tamiya Panther chassis and the following aftermarket bits:

General assembly went quite quickly. The Tamiya parts were a breeze as usual. Added their (small) etch set for the necessary parts coupled with Voyager schurtzen and hangers to fix the far-oversized kit skirts. The Real Model resin turret needed some help - a lot of pitting to fill (some of which I missed), holes galore to be drilled for barrels, lifting hooks, foliage loops, grab handles. Most of those were scratched, managed to scrounge some left over dragon parts as well.

Immediately moved on to priming:

And basecoating!

Part of my choosing this build was to try out the new set of paint I grabbed at the show...haven't quite worked all the bugs out of airbrush AK colors yet, but I will! Bottom line - some of the darker colors are VERRRY dense. Camo steps:

And finally, where I am as of last night. Stenciled numbers, basecoated tracks, some detail painting. Once I've got the tracks weathered fully I can mount them and then permanently attach the schurtzen. Hopefully that will be done by tonight!

All comments/suggestions/etc highly appreciated! 

Ernest thanks I wish that was my entry but I built that one Four years ago when I was building a lot with the guys at MM magazine.  A master modeller from Canada sent it to me as a gift.  I have and will have to put more into it as I have not started the dio for it, but it has about 130 hours or so, I really should keep track of my time as everyone always asks how long does it take to build.  I usually lie and say a week but we all know nothing takes a week lol.

Oh and what scale is that? maybe it is the pics but looks big.

Will post some update pics tonight  getting ready to lay down the first coat of modified yellow or the German name and some added pigments.  I can speak German better then I can spell or write it lol.

Hey wow great work guys, nice to see so much getting done over the Easter weekend!

Jack: Thanks for the candor, I'm still looking for places to improve here and there. I guess I should go back and touch up the camo a little if I over-spray my chipping. The figures- well I tried something new here. I thought that instead of painting the sweat stains darker grey that I might use a little Tamiya 'smoke' for the stains for a more translucent 'wet' look. Yeah, it didn't really turn out the way I wanted... It wasn't bad enough for me to paint over but I won't be doing it that way again.

Nice work on the decals, I need to pick up a better quality printer and give that a try myself.  

Eric: She looks good to me! Love the camo!

Dupes-very interesting build-I like the camo scheme.

Eric-I don't notice any issues with the tracks-nice build-I like your weathering approach.

Dan-you are making very good progress-looking forward to your camo schemes.

Jack-ya' gotta love digital cameras-looking forward to seeing some more pics

Shawker-nice work with the zimmerit

Ernest-you're making great progress with a kit that has some obvious issues.  Keep up the good work.  And I'm enjoying seeing how you are solving the various issues.

Nice to see a flurry of activity......going to attempt to spend some time this week after work on the tracks & road wheels

Marc - That Flak Panther is so cool!  Never saw a variant like that before!  Love all the goodies you got for it and the progress pics are great!  And you've got me checking out that AK line of acrylic paint.....verrry interesting!  I noticed Friul tracks in the first photo, but looks like you're using the DS1000 tracks instead?

Shawker - If you're referring to the size of the Panther F I'm working on, its 1/35.  Maybe its the close-up pics that make it look bigger?

Bob - as usual I'm building an older kit that needs quite a bit of work to get up to recent standards.  Its cool though;  it hones my buildings skills, but more importantly....it gives me a chance to use some of the spare parts and AM stuff I've got squirreled away!!

That's pretty wild Dupes. Wouldn't that have been something?

Good to see all the action, it sure looked like it was dying in here.

Dupes, great to see you back over here. I have wanted one of those panther turrets, i think Accurate Armour used to do one. Do Real Model sell on line and do you know if they do any other versions. Ashide from the Coelian, i think there was a third Flak Panther proposal.

Thats a great scheme, looking forward to seeing this one completed.

Ernest - the AK stuff is neat. Nice to have some different shades to break up all of the Tamiya XF-60 on my shelf, know what I mean? Although I think it's more suited to brush painting than the airbrush - very hard to get it fine/smooth enough for detail spray. As far as the Friuls - I wasn't sure which way I was going to go when I started...with all of the schurtzen on, you can barely see the tracks at all, so I figured I'd save those for another build and just use the DS tracks (which I like a lot).

T-man - sorry I missed the extension notice, or I'd be (slowly) blogging the berge-tiger as well. Seems like the forums as a whole here are pretty dead these days?

Bish - Real Model DOES sell online! And man, do they have some awesome stuff (most of it too expensive, but I can dream). Go to realmodel.cz and check it all out. Drool-worthy.

I DO have this conversion as well:

http://realmodel.cz/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=garden_flypage.tpl&product_id=49&category_id=12&keyword=panther&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=79

Which I think was done by Cyber Hobby at one point? Maybe? Going to have to do that as well as the Quad-Flak variant to complete my "Flak Panther" collection. 

Not sure about CH, i know Dragon did the 3.7cm Coelian in their old Imperial series, i have that one in the stash. Like you i would like to get all the Flak Panthers. Just checked Accurate Armour and they do still have the MG 151 Quad as well as 3 versions of the twin 5.5cm turret, but i've never ordered from them and their website hasn't been updated in ages.

Have you checked the Osprey New Vanguard book on Panther variants. You may get a shock as there are a few more Flak Panther proposals. Includeing one with an 88mm AA gun, and it also says there were several other options for the twin 5.5cm gun, includeing mouting two MG 151's above the larger guns.

Now you have gone and done it. They do the conversion for the Sturm Panther as well. And both options for the 5.5cm turret. I can hear my wallet screaming at me already.

Lol, am I detecting an AA tank GB in the future? 

Gamera

Lol, am I detecting an AA tank GB in the future? 

I did think about that once before, still a possability. I do have a thing for German Flak Panzers. In fact, i entered two of Dupe's GB's a few years ago and built 3 kits, all German flak vehicles, its about time i did another.

It would be a cool and slightly different theme. Frankly though I don't have anything I could enter into one though...

I have a couple of Flak Panzers also one on the Panzer III frame and a Whirlbird, I think it is on the II chassis I would have to check but that sounds cool after I am done with this Kitty.

At the risk of de railing Erics great GB, unless anyone else wants to take this on, let me have a think on it. I have 3 GB ideas i want to run next year and it looks like i will be hosting the D-Day GB. So i might re jig the time frames for one or two of the others and fit in an AA GB later this year.

Hi Andy,

Catching up on this GB and I came across your PE posts. Stunning!!!

My question is HOW did you remove the plastic around the tools before you attached the PE peices.

I have a WIP KT and I have been twisting for 2 days on the best way to do this and avoid breaking the pieces.

A couple of pages in as many days.  Guess the build is still kickin'  

FUPES!  Nice my man.  So if oyu have a show on Sunday I guess that means 1 more year that you're not going to make MosquitoCon.

Bish, I must have missed your GB ideas including D-Day. I'll have to miss that one, but could be interested perhaps another.

Hey guys, great work all the way around! 

armor86 - Looking really good!  I actually prefer covering up all that shiny stuff. To me, the paint and washes bring out more detail - stuff you don't notice when it's shiny, white or grey plastic. Painting ties it all together. All of that effort is paying off in spades... 

Jack - Don't the make clear decal printing paper?  lol, just teasing... I hope the blending goes well. I wouldn't mind trying the decal printing sometime... I make painting templates now and then for turret numbers, but getting outlines is a real pain.

Ernest - thanks! And a superior job in bring the Panther's chassis in line. Fantastic techniques, sir. 

Dupes - That Flak Panther is pretty nifty. I really like the late war paint scheme as well.

Eric - Looks like you're almost done, man. Don't see any issues with the tracks from my end. Looking forward to all those extras.

I got the rear end of my Panther stitched up. It took a spacer for the deck and some major clamping on the sides to get it there. Not perfect, but I give it a pass.  I also got the cleaning rod storage tube brackets in place. The tube isn't glued on yet, but just put in place to get an idea of how it'll look when done. For the heck of it I hacked off the molded on resin rear hatch retainer and replaced it with the PE part I had. Not a big deal, but adds some shiny stuff to the turret.

I added some fender extension brackets to the front fenders. Found the plastic wingies on the Dragon kit left overs. The bracket is just extra PE sprue cut to size.

Overall shot. Shouldn't be too long before some primer is in order. Just the rest of the tool racks and side skirts/brackets. 

IB48: I know some of the Dragon kits come with tools without the clamps molded on for the PE parts. I'm not sure how to remove the molded on plastic ones from the parts except delicately. You might find some spare ones without the clamps molded on in an accessory set or scrapped model.

Bish: Yeah I'll give you a 90% of being in on the D-Day build whether you or the Hammer run it.

Dave: That zimmerit looks perfect and I love the engine.  

Hi guys, amazing work as always -- Gamera your airbrushing with the AK colours looks pretty darn good in the pics!

Bish -- I have at least five flakpanzers in the stash so I would definitely be up for something!

I've been working lately, on more than one task -- a job plus two other major projects. Time should be easing up soon and I'm thinking of treating myself by finishing the KT -- it's been sitting forlornly in the display case for months!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Mike: Lol, I think  you're confusing me with Dupes. He has done a fantastic job there though I'll agree.

Sorry about that, I was catching up at breakneck pace! M

Let's see if I can remember all the things I was going to reply to.

Bish - ahhh, right, old DML kit. Couldn't remember if it was them or CH. Somehow I never ended up with that one, so got the Coelian conversion instead. I have NOT seen the Osprey Panther Variants book - but would LOVE to see these other versions!

If you DO end up running a flak GB, let me know...I've already done a ton of research into available vehicles/kits for my own personal project use.

Errrrrr...getting late, memory failing. I'll just leave you guys with tonight's pic:

She's got wheels and shoes, a bunch of detail painting, and the first base-color chipping. 4 days to go...no sweat! 

Oh, that's what I forgot.

Wingy - no can do, my friend. I'd love to get to Mosquitocon one of these years, but 6 hours of driving in one day (that's my "local-est" show) vs 20 hours over 3 days along with 2 hotel nights plus gas and food - and of course a raiding of your vendors to justify the trip - would cost a bit too much right now. Gotta go with the local show. 

Maybe you could hold it in Boston next year? 

And Hassenpfeffer - love the looks of your Panther as well!

dupes - the Flak Panther is looking great Marc!  I wasn't too sure about that green color at first (exactly what does "Resedagrun" mean?), but up close it looks very nice.  I'm sure washes and filters will tone the color down somewhat.  Chipping work is looking good too!

Dave - Panther is looking good, all that detail work is paying off!  The gap at the rear still looks pretty big....is it supposed to be like that? 

Just a bit of an update on the Panther F:

ITS ALMOST DONE!!

HEHE!!  Just KIDDING!!  Belated April Fools joke fellas!  I partially assembled the kit turret so I could use it as a test bed for painting and weathering. I fitted it onto the hull and decided to take a pic!  An Accurate Armour resin turret will replace the inaccurate kit turret.

Here's the work I need to do on the rear plate.  First the kit stowage boxes aren't bad, but slightly inaccurate so I'll replace them with unused stowage boxes from a Dragon Panther Early kit which are more accurate and have better detail.

The rear plate has raised flanges for the kit stowage boxes, but the outline doesn't match the boxes!  I'll carve, trim and sand those off in preparaton for the replacement boxes 

There are small raised squares on top of the exhaust housings which don't belong so I'll remove those and drill holes to accept the unused Flammvernichter exhausts from a Dragon Jagdpanther Early kit.

Lastly, I did a little research and some late Panthers with IR equipment installed also had a special IR box in place of the right stowage box.  I like the way this looks and decided to depict this variation, so I looked around for an AM part and found this on the Modeling Artisan Mori website:

http://artisanmori.web.fc2.com/mgp22-23.html#mgp23

Voyager Models also makes a PE set for this:  PEA 072

However both are nearly impossible to find, so I think I'll just modify the starboard box as best I can:

Hopefully it won't take me but 2-3 days to get these modifcations done......

tigerman

Bish, I must have missed your GB ideas including D-Day. I'll have to miss that one, but could be interested perhaps another.

The D-Day GB was Hans von Hammer's idea. But he hasn't been around for a while so i have offered to take it on if he doesn't come back. It will start on June 6th and run for a year. I haven't posted anything on the other GB's yet, just some rough ideas at the minute.

Looks like we got enough interest in a Flak GB, keeps your eyes open for July/August time.

Ernst, The F is looking good.

Dave, sorry, i think i missed what you used for the Zimm. Is that Milliput.

I have an idea for that Flak GB. Can't commit yet, but you never know. 

Quick reply - thanks guys.

Ernest - No the gap shouldn't be that big. It should be reduced by the size of the white spacer material I had to fit in between the rear plate and engine deck. The gaps should be somewhat covered by the extended grille covers in the rear, but it's something I'm gonna have to live with given the fit that was presented to me by this kit.

Looking forward to your next progress.

Bish - No Milliput. I had mentioned to Shawker that I'd like to try that... but this one is a set of Cavalier. I'm just working so slow on this one, it's easy to forget and too hard to try to find, like 50 pages ago or something. 

Dupes - You're cruisin'. The Blitzkrieg of building.