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Panther Ausf G – Pz. Rgt.16 / Battalion / 3rd. Company / 2nd Zug / Tank number 3. The Pz.Kpfw. V Panther equipped the tour médium companies of the 1st. Battalion 16th Panzer Regiment.
The kit: Panther Ausf G of Gunze Sangyo High Tech kit 1/35. It comes with many parts of white metal and photoetched with great quality and the plastic is excellent too. Fenders were not included.
Add-ons: The gun barrel of eduard, bosh light of Greif and fenders of Voyager and some scratch.
White metal of Gunze is similar to lead because of its easy manageability and it must be handled carefully because it bends easily. In some cases I perforated pieces like exhaust pipes and I drilled the holes of the ilder and sprocket wheels. The Photoetched are easy to mount, the tow cable is one of the best I have seen. Taking into consideration the age of this kit, its quality is excellent.
The tracks are individual and are made of plastic (Link by Link), but I used them in another Panther and finally used Tamiya tracks. I have those of Gunze but I noticed that the metal was too soft. I only used them to mount some in the turret and in the lateral part of the armored.
The kit also contains several pins same that I have placed at the front mudguards after perforating the fhotoetched for the assemble. This effect is very good. In the engine rear zone I could appreciate that the left side is shorter, so it was not necessary to make an small cut to place a beam support. I perforated the frontal plate to place the bosh light cable and in the back of the light I placed a medium chain
As the side-skirts are irregular for adding impacts, I made some modifications as the rear grids. The assemble of all pieces has fixed correctly and without problems.
Several pieces like shovel, hammer, back boxes, etc. have a very good white metal detail, so it is not necessary to mount any kind of photoetched. For the engine deck handles, the hatchway and the rest of the Commander turret I used copper wire.
This kit has a metal gun barrel but the one I used of Eduard has a better and accurate detail because the one of the kit is a little longer. After having mounted the tank, it is time to look at the photos of the kit to detail it in the best possible way. By using Milliput I added some cement in the Commander cupola hoop. While it dries, I have decided not to place all the fenders, I just selected 5 to give them impacts appearance, as well as in the flank of the Panther and something smaller in the front. Before starting painting, I have first applied a brush of Gunze Sangyo in the metal parts and in the photoetched so painting holds better.
Painting (using Tamiya acrylics): I applied the dark-yellow color in all the tank, including the mounted tracks and wheels. It is always recommended to have a cardboard at hand to make aerograph testings in order to avoid splashes. After seeing the camuflage scheme in the “German Werhmacht Panzers Divisions” book I selected it by first applying dark-green color and then dark-brown. The technique I use for the aerograph is to use it as a pencil, first I draw the camuflage in a thin line and then I fill the hollow. I recommend that you first try over a cardboad before doing it over the armored and have lot of patience and an excellent pulse. Now the final part of the camuflage is to paint the points only in dark-yellow over the green & brown camo using a 5 “000´s” brush.
Decals: For a better finish I decided to use Archer transfers, an excellent option. Regarding the German tactical insignes, this version in the front-sides does not have them.
For the tools. I used white a base color and light brown of Vallejo - and - gun metal of Humbrol. Over the wheels I used black-grey of Vallejo. First I painted the front and later the borders, many patience for this!.
I decided to use the aerograph for the tracks. First I added Parafilm for protecting the up sides and for painting I used chocolate-brown of Vallejo and it was applied in some places as the wheels, rear and front plates. I applied a little varnish matt before to start the washes
Washes: The first step is to wash with oil using the natural shade. Based on the Book "Applied Modeling Encyclopaedia" I continued with washes on the skirts
For this I prepared a line of different oils as toasted, siena shade natural, yellow ocher, English red, white titanium, natural shade, black ivory and green. Over the fenders I have applied (dots) few English red, siena and natural shade predominating the target. With turpentine spirit clean and with a small movement downwards we dragged and mixed the colors smoothly, if it does not result at the first time, we may totally clean it and try again as many times as necessary until we have a satisfactory result. I have mixed oils in different colors, for example; one skirt with natural, white and English red shade; another one with green military, target, English red and yellow ocher, successively, in order to obtain different tones. The black color predominates because of the type of drying that it represents and the English red is adequate to give a rust view.
In the turret I applied military green oil using a clean brush. With the minimum from clean turpentine spirit, almost to dry brush, we come to raise and to dry the color of camuflage. For this is necessary to apply in circles. This procedure also I applied it to the other colors of camuflage with its respective tones. The result consists of which the turret gives realze of textura. In the rest of the armor I applied the washes using the same method that I applied over the skirts.
Pigments: I apply some of mud using Mr. surfacer 1000 mixing with pigments toasted shade in the front, back, wheels and skirts. The lateral damaged part in the zone of impact where I added some oxide in the twisted metal. I have used pigments in 2 tones (red English and siena toasted red) mixed with another pigments and smoothed yellow with brown. Some small parts were mixed with turpentine to draw up the borders and then with dry pigment. I have worked the tank with more pigments and I added a small touch of oxide in some nuts and flanks, fixing the dust on the wheels. In the part of the exhaust pipes was covered with Mr.surfacer 500 of Gunze for adding oxide.
In the exhaust pipes aspect of the exhaust pipes was covered with Mr. Surface 500 of Gunze – first it was applied an english red pigment mixed with thinner of Gunze and then I applied a dry pigment that gives an oxide aspect, for this results I mixed toasted siena pigments and yellow ocher with thinner, waited for it to dry and then applied over the red pigment; at the end I applied black pigments and oxide in small zones. In the protectors of the exhaust pipes I applied Mr. Surface too and over it before drying putty I patiently and carefully applied clean thinner to mix the putty without removing it. Then I applied earth pigments with a small mixed portion of toasted siena and yellow ocher to finish with a slight hand of black color.
More adds-on in scratch: This is a new addition; I made the support with styrene to mount the trunk. The screws were made with the Greif tool. Finally, I painted the piece using some spots of Mr. Surfacer 500 of Gunze + medium brown + pigments of earth colour
Painting the tow cable; I have just started the painting with Tamiya grey metallic and in the rest of the photos I finished using sienna pigments toasted diluted with turpentine spirit + dry pigments (without diluting) using a mixure of English red + ocher yellow.
Checking Final details: I am adding some touches with pencil in the handles, screws, etc.
Tracks: Here I used 100% pigments mixed with toasted sienna + ocher yellow + thinner of Gunze; the result for me is very interesting because when the tracks dry they avoid shining - the effect is 100% dry as real oxide.
Spare tracks for the turret: Here I applied siena toasted pigments mixed with thinner and after dry pigment (mix of red english with yellow ochre) the effect of the oxide is amazing!
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