I dunno Ernest, shame the Panther F was the only version without a muzzle brake right!?!  It would hide everything there nicely.

I'd say go deeper if you can Ernest. The thickness at the end of the barrel appears too much so IMO.

Dupes -- stupendous job, the tools look as if they just came from the manufactirer, the sparwe treack looks like it was spares they had around the planet when the modifications were done -- the mix of weathering states creates a feel of haste and desperation, which is very evocative of those terrible last months of the war. Very well done in ever respect!

M/TB379

Hang in there Eric!  Just take your time and work at it until you're happy with it! 

Minor update on the Panther F.

Rear plate is prepped and installed.  Removed the molded on mounting strips for the stowage boxes and drilled holes for the exhausts.  I got a little carried away with the carving knife and took a bit too much plastic off on one side! I'll add the details after I join the upper and lower hulls.

The upper hull took a bit of work. Removed the front fenders and all the molded on mounting strips on the sides and filled all holes, gaps and accidental gouges with putty and sanded smooth.  Had to do this three times to get it right!!  Also opened up the hole for the front MG ball mount and installed the sponsons.

While all the putty was drying I took a look at the 75mm gun from the Accurate Armour resin turret set.  As I was comparing it to the kit gun I noticed a dark line running the length of the gun, which I surmised is a steel rod added during casting to keep the resin gun from warping.  Not unusual and actually helps to keep the gun straight.

But when I checked the barrel end to see if it was hollowed out or not I noticed that it wasn't and also that the steel rod ran all the way to the end of the barrel!!  DOH!!  Who's the dunce that did this!  Drilling out the barrel end is an easy task, but not with a steel rod in the way.  So I carefully carved out the resin around the rod and when I got enough out I used my Dremel and a small grinding burr to grind the rod down.  I don't want to go too deep for fear of the burr accidentally widening the inside diameter too much.....what do you think?  Should I try to go deeper?

So close. Not liking everything about it, but I need to move forward.

Wow Marc, that was fast, but it still came out beautifully!!  The weathering streaks and chipping add so much to the overall look and I love the scale thickness schurzen .  Camo is superb and I really like how the stacked flak guns look on the turret!  Better keep that badboy away from our P-51s and P-47s!

I'll have an update on the Panther F this evening.  I just spent 3 hours cleaning the mancave/work bench...it was starting to look like a tornado hit the room and was becoming hard to do any work!

Love it Marc! Great finish. My one concern is your first photo. It looks like prominent blue streaks going down the front right fender. I had an issue with the blue oils drying too quickly on my Jagdpanther as well.

Dunno if she's accurate or not Dupes but I think she looks cool! I love the streaking effects you've got going on there.

dupes - man that was fast (both you and wingnut are quite the speedsters).  The overall finish along with the scheme looks pretty wicked.  I'm not at all familiar with this vehicle, so  cannot comment on the historical accuracy.  

There does seem to be some oddity in the finish, in that the vehicle in general looks weathered and worn and the spare tracks look older than the vehicle.  In contrast, the tools/stowed gear appear to be practically factory fresh, even the flak barrels look newly machined (maybe I'm wrong but I thought gun metal was a darker colour?) .  Not sure if this disparity was a conscious decision on your part?

Regarding the red fire extinguisher, probably not official Wehrmacht issue, but given the situation at the end of the war it was probably 'borrowed' from a civilian vehicle or possibly the factory had run out of wartime colours.

Again, awesome work!

regards,

Jack

Are those tumbleweeds I see blowing around here? 

I think this one is done. Take a look at the pics and let me know if there's anything I need to change/improve on/whatever!

Hey Dupes - Use the "Insert Image" (middle bottom row) icon in rich formatting and paste the direct link into the box that pops up. Should work like a charm. But not sure why it works intermittently for you the other way... 

Well, now I don't know WHAT to do. Click IMG code - paste - pics don't come up?

What the heck? That's the second time this forum has failed to process my image links correctly. Second attempt:

i158.photobucket.com/.../FlakPanther17_zps7730f027.jpg

i158.photobucket.com/.../FlakPanther18_zps06bc2cd1.jpg

Oil dots galore for your consideration:

i158.photobucket.com/.../FlakPanther17_zps7730f027.jpg

i158.photobucket.com/.../FlakPanther18_zps06bc2cd1.jpg

tigerman

Have to bring it up though, would the fire-extinguisher really be red? I can see it being red say in an open-topped vehicle like a half-track, but to me it really stands out.

Neat looking Dupes, both the 'double-decker' AA platform and the cool colour scheme. Looks like to me you've already done some chipping.

That's looking very sharp Marc. That's a pretty nifty camo scheme.

Have to bring it up though, would the fire-extinguisher really be red? I can see it being red say in an open-topped vehicle like a half-track, but to me it really stands out.

Headed toward the finish line - only 2 days left until I pack for the show!

Tools, chipping, wash...next up oil dots.

Yes, no progress here. If all goes well, I might be finished by next week. I just have a few do-dads and some weathering to get done.

Hmmm... 24 h without a post here... can't let that happen 

Greetings IBuild148 - I have found using a set of sharp side cutters first, then sand, thou I have also used X Acto knife ... Fine Scale Mag. has a good article on PE too! Armor86

tigerman

I have a conversion in mind. I trust it existed, but I'll have to google some pics.

Won't matter, i love what if's.

I have a conversion in mind. I trust it existed, but I'll have to google some pics.

Hasenpfeffer

 

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. 

 

Eric, i am sure you can fit in a Flak build

"Blitzkrieg of Building" - I LOVE IT! Haaaaaahahhahahaha

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.

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

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.

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......

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