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? 

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! 

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

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

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

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.  

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. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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!!

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

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!

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.

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! 

bufflehead

dupes - Holy cow!  Marc returns!  I didn't know you were in this GB, but its very nice to hear from you again buddy!  I'm dying to see that Flak Panther!!

Yes sir! Been plugging away on my demo-tiger, but though I had missed the deadline. Now that the extension is on, I'll put this guy up for now...and hopefully fit the tiger in under the wire, too. 

Update coming in about...5 minutes!

Great job Ernest. Tracks look great.

You are correct about the oil dot treatment. If you scroll back a few pages, I have better pictures. The only difference on these are the tracks.

I had to work 6 days each of the last two weeks, which plain tuckered me out.  Fortunately I was able to bang out a little work this weekend, so progress has been made on the Panther F:

To get the steel roadwheels spaced properly I had to trim the inner hubs down.  Using my trusty JLC razor saw and a couple pieces of brass tubing that fit just right I managed to get a good, even cut so that I could use the scrap piece as a shim on the backside of the inner wheel.

I used a piece of brass tube to help align the shims as they were glued to the backside of the inner roadwheels.  Also, once dry the shims needed some cleaning up and sand level and the tube helped with holding the wheels during this process.

The wheel spacing is near perfect!  To make sure, I completed the set of Friul tracks and dryfitted all the suspension components.  The Friuls took several hours to complete, but I think the time involved was well worth it.

The sprockets still need a little work though.

81 links per side were needed and I was able to get the proper sag by making the idlers adjustable.   As I mentioned in an earlier post I redrilled the idler mounting holes in the hull to make them round, cut off the short,  keyed mounting pegs on the idlers and replaced them with longer, round pegs.  Then I glued hollow plastic tubes to the pegs on the inside making sure no glue seeped into the joint.  I made sure these were very tight against the hull so there was enough friction to hold the idlers in position...at least long enough to test things out.  I'll glue the idlers in place during final assembly.

Yeah, not much of an update after two weeks, but those Friuls killed me!!

Next up is the rear plate, which will need more modification than I originally planned.  Updates to come...  

Wow!  I thought things were slowing down here and then, BAM!!  A flurry of amazing updates!!

Marc - very nice looking KT dio!  I love the figures, but have to agree with the others....need close-ups!

Gamera - How did I miss this page?  Sweet looking Porsche KT!!  I didn't know anyone was building one of these!  Great work with the zimm, camo paint job and figures! 

malone duke - Beautiful Panther G!!   I really like all the extra armor on it!  I'm doing the same thing with the Panther F, hope it turns out as well as yours!

Dave - Hey!  This is supposed to be for big kitties, not big doggies!!   JK!  Beautiful dogs and great photos....especially like the action pic of Apollo .  Panther is looking great and thanks for the info on those Bronco tracks!  I was thinking of ordering a set of those, but I found the Friuls in my stash.  If I build another Panther I might give the Bronco tracks a try.

Shawker - The King Tigers are really represented here and your's doesn't disappoint!   Looks like you applied your own zim!  Always a tough task but you nailed it!

dupes - Holy cow!  Marc returns!  I didn't know you were in this GB, but its very nice to hear from you again buddy!  I'm dying to see that Flak Panther!!

armor86 - Man, awesome detail on that Tiger!  Kind of a shame to cover up all that extra work with the primer, but the exciting thing is its finally geting some paint on it!!

Jack - Homemade decals?!?  You're much braver than I am! I've read how hard it is to do just white decals and you're method is new to me!   Strange how the camera altered the color of the backing...will it always look like that if its photographed?  Still, the tiger is looking great! 

Eric - Oh yeah, the Jagdpanther looks like its nearing the finish line!!  Its a bit hard to see in the photos, but it looks like you've added some subtle weathering streaks on the camo.  Did you use the oil dot method on this one?

Great, Great work all.  I'll post an update on the Panther F in a bit!

A little update. I have most of the cables done and the spare tracks.