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This diorama depepicts SS-Unterscharfuhrer Ernst Barkmann and his Panther A "424" at the crossroads to Le Lorey, on July 27, 1944, at the moment he encountered a squad of grenadiers who informed him of an approaching Allied column on the road to Coutances.
The Panther is a reworked Italeri A. The turret has been displaced 3mm to the rear, which gives a nice optical illusion that the hull has actually been lengthened to the correct size. The zimmerit is the Cavalier tile pattern, the photo etch is by On-The-Mark. The figures are resculpted DML/Dragon with replacement Hornet heads. I built the tree from roots, brass wire and Hudson & Allen Black Oak leaves.
After finishing and attaching the Panther to the base, the roadwheels were stained with a solution of black and red-brown acrylic paint thinnned 80% with isopropyl alcohol. The spot-stains were applied with a 5/0 sable brush; likewise, the rim stains were "flowed" into the inner circumference of the roadwheels with the same brush. Two or three applications were necessary to get the variety of stain depth. For the stains of accumulated gunk, I scraped red-brown pastel chalk into a pile, then added a drop of the alcohol stain solution. I picked up a bit from this pile with the 5/0 brush and applied it to the places which would probably grease up with gunk up easily. When it had dried, I drybrushed it a bit with khaki yellow.
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