ARMOR - Panther (PzKpfw V) Group Build (any scale)

Use masking tape when painting the markings. It is not that hard.

Draw a cross on a piece of masking tape. Cut the cross out. Stick the tape on the take and airbrush.

WIPW: Please resend the Panther info and pics. They either weren't received or lost by me! Probably the later.

ALL: Updated WildWilliam's pages - 5 new pages for your perusal!

I will be updating more soon, please forgive my slowness.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Captain Caveman Peter it looks great by the way im glad Kylies over here but it was us Brits that inflicted Pop Idol on the world

Trivia: Both Kylie Minogue and petbat were born on 28 May....just several years apart!
Inflicting Pop Idol on the world and beating us in the rugby world cup. You Brits certainly have a lot to atone for! Then again, you did give us Dr Who, Red Dwarf and the host of shows only us 40+ guys would know. Let's call it even.

Thanks for the kind words on the build too, guys.

TIGERMAN: I would have at least some sort of national insignia. Troops did not venture far without them for fear of friendly fire as well. Maybe you could try to make a flag, or just crosses..... or make it a captured unit and put a different country on it

Petbat, WOW!! Magnificent.... My hat is off.... CAN NOT WAIT to see it all painted...
Great Job..

Eric,
i was afraid to paint mine too!
the idea of the paint sneaking thru the zim and under the tape would not leave my head.

Peter - amazing stuff! sorry i forgot to wish you a happy Australia Day.
saw it on my calendar yesterday at work.

Dwight,
i like your new sig!

Derek,
thanks for getting those up so fast. sorry i got so far behind and dumped so much at once.

All,
please excuse my amusing spelling & grammar on my post on the group build site.
i do the posts in notepad (no spell check) and sometimes my re-writes change verb
tense w/o me noticing. despite being born in NJ, raised in upstate NY and spending
the last 8 years in southeastern PA, parts of the posts look like i am learning the language
as i type !
apparently, i should take these to work and run them thru the Word spell check!

ed.

Peter: WOW! ... What a fine job!!!! Was really cramped in those forward crew compartments I would be claustrophobic especially with shells coming in ! Very nice detail there , did you scratchbuild all of it ? KUDOS anyways ,but if you did you are super talented ! Keep up the good work all and post them pix!

QUOTE: Originally posted by claymore68 Frosty: If you can send me your email I can try to send a dirct link.

Derek: i'd really appreciate that !
try film_shipping@Moma.org, it'll get 2 me !
thanx, & looking forward 2 checking out the site !
BTW, nice work on ur build !
in fact, it's pretty exciting watching all these projects !

best wishes 2 all,

frosty

Peter:
that is one beautiful interior u built 4 ur kitty !
inspirational, 4 sure !


frosty

looking great guys lots of nice looking kitties . sadly i've been fairly busy the last couple weeks and didn't get a whole lot done , barely had time to wash my kit last week (soap and water to prep for paint). the build itself is completed (other than a pe part or 2 that fell off when washing). someone earlier in the thread said something about only using the handles for the pe tool clamps , i gave it a try and it looks prety good , thanks for the tip, i tried several times to put the clamps together with no luck but just the handles look almost as good, should be fine once painted. sadly it will be on hold some more until the weekend , i usualy don't have time/feel like setting up my airbrush , paint then clean it on weeknights after work, i wish there was a quick way to clean my airbrush, its such a pain in the butt . needless to say i won't be making the deadline.

ha ha ...I'm 1600

QUOTE: Originally posted by Kennethc ha ha ...I'm 1600

Thanks for the advice guys, I think for now I will pirate my Tamiya ones and worry about that tank later. Maybe I'll try some of the advice given. Anyone try stencils? Probably would be hard to do on zim like Ed said.

Pantherlehr have you ever tried running straight alchohol through the air
brush ( if using tamiya acyls of course , simply clean out the cup pour in straight alchohol ( or thinner if testors ) and spray the whole cup thru it , it cleans out the brush pretty good as long as you do it right after your paint application .

Still working on the tracks. (2nd side, finally). Glued on the hull tool racks. Progress is slow when I've got to baby sit my kids into doing their homework!

Peter, fantastic job on that interior. Wish I had the patience and the eye for the meticulous detail!

QUOTE: Originally posted by spector822002 Pantherlehr have you ever tried running straight alchohol through the air brush ( if using tamiya acyls of course , simply clean out the cup pour in straight alchohol ( or thinner if testors ) and spray the whole cup thru it , it cleans out the brush pretty good as long as you do it right after your paint application .

yeah i do that but when i finish i usualy take it entirely apart and do a full cleaning too. often i don't use my airbrush for a few weeks so i'm somewhat worried about not doing the full disassembly/cleaning thing , maybe other people have insight about this , is it ok to leave the airbrush sitting for a few weeks after only spraying alchool to clean it? its my first airbrush so i don't realy know all the tricks. (it occured to me to just keep a container full of alchool and put my airbrush in that when i'm not useing it but then i figured it might damage something or eat away the finish)

PantherLehr: i just picked up some stuff at the art store made by Createx called airbrush restorer it works great for cleaning dried paint! it also helps keep rubber and teflon O-rings in good shape, its non toxic and water soluable. it really works well.

I'm depressed. I was concerned that my compressor might not be working properly, but I don't have to worry about that now, as my compressor has disappeared. I mean as in, vanished from the face of the earth.

Oh well. The remote chance of finishing by 2/1 has completely fled, I think unless I take the rattlecan route, and I am beginning to shy away from that. I like to preshade, then block in colors, and there's no way I can do that with a spraycan. This, I have decided, is particularly important for a one-tone tank, particularly when that one tone is dunkelgelb.

That said, I am still fiddling with all the PE junk. I got that horrible tool fret for the forward port side of the tank done, and have my fingers crossed that the teeny parts will stay on when I jam the tools on the racks (which I will do when I'm almost done painting the tank). My new Eduard barrel arrived and was stuck on the tank. The Mirage grille screens are pretty good, but I'm having a little trouble getting them to sit flush. I also have to damage them -- these things always got the snot kicked out of them, and were heavily torn up and dented in -- but the damage is not looking like it does in photos of actual Panther grill screens.

I also corrected the fret that holds the tube onto the mid port side of the tank. For some reason, it has a big L-shaped bar running horizontally along the top of the tube. No photo of any early A I have depicts this bar, but it was an absolute pain removing it and cleaning it up. Actually, Eduard's PE set has several things on it that don't tally with my photo sources, like the track hangers for the turret and some other little bits. But my sources are limited to the Wiking photos I am using, so maybe other Early A's had these things.

After all this work on PE, I'm feeling a but stupid that I will be putting the Dragon track links on, with their solid guide teeth. I may use the Friuli set I was saving for my Panther G, but that will require ditching the sprocket I already built and painted.

Despite all the griping, the thing is coming along. My wife said last night, "oooh that looks very impressive." She said she liked the color of the grill screens and I had to explain to her that they would be painted. Maybe I will leave them brass, just for her.

I love this hobby!

Hate to hear your troubles Larry, Hopefully you'll finnish it soon after the deadline. I agree don't try and paint it just to finnish, wait and do it right like you want. Just be careful with the PE parts.

hi guys

hang in there Larry_Dunn, i'm sure you'll be ok in the end.

i put some of tamiya's decals (red #135) on my zimm'ed turret and to my surprise[:0], they settled down pretty well. it took quite a bit of time though, as i cut each number out individually; that and a big old coat of future which they were laid on meant that i got no silvering at all (nothing to silver...duh!!)

as ever, all the pics i've seen posted recently have been awesome...

regards,
nick

Good to hear Nick, Glad those decals worked...

Oh I forgot.. I got my diorama base about done. Just a little detailing to do. It isn't what I had planned but neither is the tank... SOOOO anyway. It has turned out to be a simple street crub. I am hoping to build a few more details into it like a lamp post or fire hydrant. I ordered some refugees from Custom Dioramics that will eventually populate it. I am gonna try very hard to get a figure painted for the tank....so well, see.

Larry,
not to dig at your wound, but disappeared how?
did you take it somewhere for repair & it is lost?
was it stolen from your garage or back porch?
i am confused.

nevertheless, you have my sympathies.
is there another modeler w/ a compressor around you that might loan it to you for a day or so?

i agree w/ Kenneth - don't finish it in a hurry w/ a rattlecan.
the build has more of a "time frame" than a "deadline"
it is not like you will be disqualified from the fabulous prizes! :-)
if you rush now, you will regret it later
("marry in haste, repent at your leisure") !

ed.

Nick,
good choice!
that is the number set i used, but i cut them up and turned it into 51 .
just to be contrary.
:-)

QUOTE: "marry in haste, repent at your leisure"

William, it's like it grew legs and walked away. It is not where I put it. I looked all over and cannot find it. My wife does not know where it is. It's actually a little creepy.

that is odd.
of course, i spent an hour yesterday looking for my Panther In Action book.
it was on my work bench under a scrap piece of paper (for airbrush test shots),
and the Panther instructions, in the (open) Panther kit box.
the problem was i KNEW it should be on the bench, but when i did not see it,
i foolishly broadened the search.

of course, a compressor would be a lot harder to miss than a thin pb booklet.

do you have children that could have moved it or taken it somewhere for their
own mysterious purposes?

sorry.
ed.

QUOTE: Originally posted by wildwilliam do you have children that could have moved it or taken it somewhere for their own mysterious purposes?

I like to think that it ascended to heaven along with the PE grabhandles for my panther's jack.

Honestly, the kids are deathly afraid of the basement, which comes in quite handy, I must say. They'd never go down there. That, and they are three, and it's a fairly heavy compressor.

I always hated the thing anyway. No on/off switch. Good riddance to it. I may invest in one with a switch. It's a sure way for me to find the one currently missing, of course.

Larry,
that happens to me, but not w/ anything that big.
mostly scotch & masking tape rolls and paint.
after i look 'everywhere', i buy more.
as soon as go to put it 'away', there's the stuff i already had!

but i live alone, and attribute it to my insanity.
:-)

so it wasn't you looking for oil for this compressor a while back in this thread?
i was thinking maybe you took it somewhere.


sorry, this has nothing to do w/ Panthers,
but i am hoping to say something that makes you smack your forehead
and go "of COURSE! how could i have forgotten i
put it in the trunk
took it to Bill's
launched it at the neighbor w/ a catapult
whatever.

ed.

Thanks. No, mine was an oilless compressor. It's got to turn up somewhere, unless someone pinched it.

QUOTE: Originally posted by wildwilliam Larry, that happens to me, but not w/ anything that big. mostly scotch & masking tape rolls and paint. after i look 'everywhere', i buy more. as soon as go to put it 'away', there's the stuff i already had! but i live alone, and attribute it to my insanity. :-) so it wasn't you looking for oil for this compressor a while back in this thread? i was thinking maybe you took it somewhere. sorry, this has nothing to do w/ Panthers, but i am hoping to say something that makes you smack your forehead and go "of COURSE! how could i have forgotten i put it in the trunk took it to Bill's launched it at the neighbor w/ a catapult whatever. ed.

QUOTE: sorry, this has nothing to do w/ Panthers, but i am hoping to say something that makes you smack your forehead and go "of COURSE! how could i have forgotten i put it in the trunk took it to Bill's launched it at the neighbor w/ a catapult whatever.

Hey, I plead TOTAL innocence! Maybe he and Robert took it to the buffet!!

Larry: Did it get ripped off ? or was it in your house and maybe mumma hid it on ya ? Hey I don't know where you live but I got a husky compressor at Home depot for about 70 bucks , the thing is quiet ( comparatively) and has been working great for my uses here ( and I have used it quite a bit lemme tell ya !) Some guys here may say that it sux , but so far it has been a good investment ! And hey .... it has an on off switch too ! Don't rattle can your tank just to finish , like I tell the other folks here , if ya don't finish in time , post it in the armour forum , the whole group would love to see it I am sure !