|
   
Just for a change of pace, it was nice building a fantasy tank, not really fantasy mind you because it was projected but never actually built. One wonders how this tank hunter would have fared with such a huge gun, not very maneuvrable...
This model was built using the FCM resin/white metal conversion (also includes a turned aluminium barrel). This conversion is a mixed bag, very well moulded in places and miscast with ugly overpours in others.
The resin steel wheels were oval and all wheels were replaced with Dragon items. The rest of the chassis is Tamiya's Panzer IV H early with Dragon return rollers (chassis modified to 3 return roller configuration) and Dragon individual tracks.
The miscast driver's visor was removed and a converted one from Italeri's Jagdpanzer IV L70. Plastic card and strip was used also in places and the supports for the portable crane (plagued with air bubbles) removed as well because they're not present on Jagdpanzer IVs and nobody can prove me wrong anyway...
As for the fictional colour scheme, I was inspired by a Panther shown in one of the older Panzer Files Japanese books. Base coat is a mix of field gray and green while the stripes (painted first then masked) are a light cream colour. Weathering was done mostly with an airbrush with some ground pastels thinned with alcohol and applied with a brush. Crosses from Archer Fine Transfers (great stuff!).
All in all a nice looking vehicle but the FCM conversion is flawed and very costly : I don't recommend it. Unfortunately the CMK combi kit is even worse but I guess such a vehicle would not be too difficult to scratchbuild. [Discuss my model]
|
