Panther Ausf A late 2-20-10 I'm calling this one DONE!

Good man, Dave! A fine job there, replicating what you had! O think it's going to be terrgic once you get it all weathered to match the sides.

It may be a long slog to get to this point, but in the end I sincerely believe that the effort will have been well worth it. The other payoff is that, once you've been to this point and past it, you'll be less likely to hesitate about fixing any other unforeseen disaster that might come your way in the future. 

You da man!

Bill,

To get the NATO Brown how it was before, I printed out an overhead shot of the cat and used it as my reference.  The NATO Green was truely freehand.  I just squiggled away with it.

Doog,

The next time I have to redo a paint job I won't be so hesitant.  Mechanical/technical fixes are easier for me to fix than an artistic one.  We are truely creatures of habit.  Some habits good, some can be improved upon.  The cat will get its dot filter in a couple of more days.

Eric,

Thank you.  It was nerve wracking initally.  By the time I got the base coat reapplied, I was OK with it.

Thank you everyone for stopping by and your support and comments.

Cheers

Dave

Great job your doing on this one, wicked paintwork. This kit and the zimmerit does look strangely familier

Hi Dave,

Figure poses look great I am looking forward to seeing what you do with these guys!  You might already intend to do this but I will suggest it anyway.  If you take a hat pin and scribe all the details on the figues especially around the collors and uniform epallets.  It really makes the detail pop and is well worth the effort..

My Pleasure Dave! Here is a great Vinnie Branigan Toot on how to detail plastic figures and bring them up to resin-like standards.  California Bill sent it to me thsi summer and it took me awhile to find it.

http://www.modelarmour.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=81&jfile=viewtopic.php&f=12&t=866

Dave its looking sweet bro.  Nice redo, heck I dont know if I could do it, that took guts.

Damn, the guys in the black suburban outside are taking photos..........what the!

Bob

Silent Helo's......................I KNEW IT!

Bob

Well the Panther shop has been idle for a bit.  Holiday stuff, job stuff, family stuff.  You get the gist of it.. I know... cry me a river. LOL.  I did get a little work done on the figures today.  Used a toot that Edmund turned me on to.  It works pretty well. Just working on the learning curve. The figures do have more depth to them after getting the "treatment".  The figures you are about to see are still in a fairly rough stage.  I'm working on getting the plastic fuzzies off.

I think with this one you can kind of get an idea of the undercut from the jacket that stands out better. Including the flap on the "fanny pack"

This is the figure I like the best out of the bunch. Don't tell the others.

A couple of pics of the T/C.  The last one clearly shows he had a severe case of "plumbers crack". He was spackled!

Well, I haven't posted since the update.  I see I am waaaaay behind the 8 ball on posting.  Feel free to point me in the right direction for updating this thread.

I finally figured out which code to use to post.   Hence the edit.  I see what you guys are talking about with certain aspects of the site "dogging" .  No offence Doog!

Cheers

Dave

I finally got around to re-dotting and filtering the hull top. That took long enough.  I left the figures on the rear deck as I had to frankenstein one of the figures legs to get him to sit right. The others sit just fine.

I haven't flat coated or pigmented to top, hence the discrepancy in color between the hull top and turret top.  It's cold in the garage and there really isn't a safe place in the house for it to dry faster. I'm just glad I finally got it done.

Cheers

Dave

Hery Dave!

Awesome Stuff!  Are you going to use Hornet heads on these DML guys?

I dated a Sofia once but she wasn't as wide and dangerous as your Sofia!

Shaping up to be a winner. That is a very nice cat you have there. I can't wait to see her all finished up with the figgies.

Edmund,

Wow, thank you very much! Yes, these guys are getting head transplants by the mad Dr Garage Science. . The figure whose legs hang over the side weren't hanging right so I made him an offer he couldn't refuse.  A razor saw! Mmmmmwwwhhhahahahah!

I hope the Sofia you dated wasn't as foul tempered as this one. "Wide and dangerous" LMFAO!

Panzer88,

The figgies are slow in going.  Rescribing detail, filling gaps, "Frankensteining" the limbs.  Just when I think I'm about to shoot a primer coat on at least one of them ..... I spot something else that the OCD just won't let go.  Well, better to spot it beforehand..  Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. If you spot anything point it out.  Lots of Mk I eyeballs are better than one set.

Cheers gentlemen

Dave

Nice to see this one's still on track Dave, look forward to the "extreme makeover" for the figures too!

Bill,

Yes, the Panther shop is back on track. It went idle for a bit as there was a lot going on.  It's been nice to get back out to the bench even though is colder than a well diggers in the garage.  Still nice to work out at the bench.  I got more done on the figures, unfortunately what I got done isn't photographing well. Once I get the figures completely assembled, I'll post some pics pre and post primer. I should be able to start painting the figures the same day since I use Tamiya paints to primer with and, Vallejo for the finish work.  The T/C figure may get relegated to the bin for later use.  I'll see if I can work some mojo on it.

Thank you for checking in on the build.

Cheers

Dave

Long time no post.  The program I usually use to load from the camera pooped out (reasons unknown) I can still access the pics in the file. I just can't load new ones.  Until I can back up that files pics I'm learning another program I had lurking in the hard drive.  One of my wifes beloved horses she had to put down last year is on those files.  Angels dare not erase those files. 

Well, long story longer.  The holidays are past and now it is much easier to get time out at the bench. I apologize for anybody with a dial up.  Lots of pics with this one.  I'll try to post more regularly is smaller packets.

The first few is of the group on how I plan on posing them.  If anybody has constructive feed back I am all ears.

The figure is Miniart.  The head start off looking like it had an inordinate amount of primordial primate DNA. Some sculpting with a #23 blade helped on that. Along with getting rid of the double chin.

Here is the shop of horrors.

A re-posing of the arm.  First vee veel rrrremove it!  Ya like zat!

Primer shots

The holes on the back of the neck won't be visible but, the ones on the helmet will be.  Gotta fill those and, correct the line on the helmet.  Gotta check the other helmets for them as well

And the pail to hang off the back

Cheers gentlemen

Dave

Dandy Dave is back and lookin good too.

Tony Lee

Welcome back from the Holiday Madness Dave!

I missed your posts and I was and am looking forward to watching you paint these guys up.  First the VB link really shows here on the re-defined detail.  These guys could almost pass for resin!   I don't see anything but a smooth canvas begging for base coats and highlights, and shadowing, and oil washes, and a little bit of pigments and some mire highlighting and shadowing followed by a dash of hope, awe and some old fashioned swearing!!

Edmund,

First off, I must thank you (if I haven't done so already) for that figure toot you turned me on to!  Man, what a difference that makes.  I never would have figured a # 23 blade could be so handy on something so small.  I have procured some scalpel blades from kits at work that would have tossed after the kits were opened for used.  No! The blades were not used. That would just be gross. #11, #22, #5 work very well in certain areas as well.  The TC figure, I was almost going to toss back into the bin and order something.  Then I thought what the heck, the plastic may be soft but that means I can work with it much easier.  The detail I got out of it was that of resin.  Not a top shelf resin figure but, MUCH cheaper.  The Dragon figures just look much better than when they were out of the box.  The rear most figure does not have a Hornet head, as I did not have any Hornet heads with caps.  So he got a # 23 facelift.  Thank you again!

It is truly nice to be back out at the bench and productive! I eyeballed the primed figures on the bench just before I have to head out to work.  It was all I could do not to sit down and start painting on them right not.  There is something about have them primed that makes me want to go into a marathon painting streak.

HOT DIGGITY . Work just called and needed volunteers to stay home.  Patient census is low.  Woo hoo!.  Right after I get some dinner (breakfast in my case).  I'm going to be laying down some color on the figures

My pleasure Dave. I got it from Bill and it was written by Vinnie Branigan one of my Modeling hero's.  He gives so much back to the hobby in a gracious humble manner.

Your build is spectacular and your figures will be the icing on a delicious cake!  Why am I so hungry all of a sudden!

Very nice work Dave and it sounds like you've got an extra bonus with benchtime as well...now get crackin'!

Edmund & Bill,

Thank you gentlemen for your support and encouragement during this mostly fun project. There was that color thing with the top hull. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply.  I actually have gotten a fair amount done on the figures.  The heads are painted, albeit one had an ever so slight mishap with an errant paint bristle.  The face was done and I was painting the helmet when the lightest mark of green kissed the cheek and dried there before I saw it. . Well that happened.

As happens with me when it comes to figure painting, it takes a while to get the colors decided and on.  I try to get more tonal variation when there are more than a couple of figures involved.  While making sure the tonal variation isn't so wild that it looks like they just went through paint booth at Disneyland.

So far I'm just working on all of the base colors since the figures are being painted production line style rather than completing one at a time. The exception being the TC with his clothes having a camo pattern.

When I have access to the camera later today I'll post some progress pics

Cheers

Dave