• Modelers Alliance has updated the forum software on our website. We have migrated all post, content and user accounts but we could not migrate the passwords.
    This requires that you manually reset your password.
    Please click here, http://modelersalliance.org/forums/login to go to logon page and use the "Forgot your Password" option.

1/35 scale Tamiya Panther

M

matrixone

Active member
I have had this kit for a very long time and will finally try to build it, the dust on top of the box is getting pretty thick!
This will not be a very accurate model but I am not too concerned about that, this will be built as a needed break from my usual wing things.

hbe96eda.JPG



The box will be opened as soon as I get the Bf 110G-4 finished...I am curious what's inside. :)

Matrixone
 
Oh this should be cool! Nice kit Les, I did one a while back. You can really go nuts on the paint job (within reason)

:soldier
 
Good lucky ,Les!,...I remenber that I did this model in 1979,and it was one of my first experiences with an airbrush... :D

Hope to see a great job from yours :popcorn ...

Luiz
 
Thanks for the feedback!

This will not be a historically accurate build of a Panther, from what I understand a lot of the Panther ausf. A tanks had the zimmerit coating on them and I won't be adding that to my model.
The few books that I have on German armor have photographs in them showing many of the Panthers with the zimmerit, the very late war Panthers with the cool paint schemes look like they lacked the zimmerit...unfortunately for me when I ordered my kit years ago I really did not know this and believed I could paint my model in the late war ambush scheme and have the finished model in an appropriate camouflage pattern. Wrong.

I just finished the Bf 110 this morning and was very busy outside getting pictures of it so I have yet to open the box on the Panther and see what marking options the kit includes. I just hope there is at least one multi colored camouflage scheme included since that's originally why I decided on getting a model of the Panther in the first place.

Matrixone
 
Nice. That is a great basic kit for painting and such. 3 things I remember from building it. The barrel is absolutely terrible. Won't line up right and horrid seam. The tracks are way too tight. I had to put them on and then apply super glue to the tops of the wheels and hold the tracks down til it cured. There are huge gaping holes between the bottom hull and top if built box stock. All that said though it is fun to build and paint and looks like a Panther when done.
 
Thanks for the information Piet!

I have seen that photograph in my Squadron soft cover book on the Panther, however in the Squadron book 'red 438' was identified as a Ausf. D and not an A...as with books on the Luftwaffe there can be conflicting information in them and for an aircraft modeler like myself its hard to determine what is what on armor subjects. :drunk

When I unwrap the Panther kit I will see what I have to work with. :eek:hyeah


Matrixone
 
Today after making some room on my work table I opened up the Panther kit, my impression is this is an old kit and being an old kit its not up to what I expect from Tamiya products of more recent times.
The parts are not as finely detailed as I expected and the camo and markings suggestions are a joke...the decals look okay with lots of extra tank numbers and even some unit markings but not a word in the instruction sheet on where they are to be placed on the model. Looks like this model will be more what-if than a real world tank.

I tried to dry fit the upper and lower hull parts and quickly found a problem...there is a gap on the front of the hull and I did some carving and sanding to improve the fit but it will need more work with a file or sandpaper, as a last resort I will use superglue as a filler to get rid of the gap.

So far this model is not off to a very good start, maybe this was not the best kit for an armor noob to mess around with. :idonno


Matrixone
 
Yes that kit is dated. I did know if you were wanting to go to town correcting it. :idonno

Maybe one the new Tamiya or Dragon kits would be better starting point. :hmmm

There are a number of guys here that build German armor. I bet they would have a number of suggestions. :salute
 
Thanks Sherman,
When I bought this kit it was with the intention of painting it in an ambush scheme but back in those days I did not know the kit I bought was not a correct version of the Panther for that type of paint scheme, one Panther looked like any other Panther to me back then.

After having built several Tamiya aircraft models that went together without any problems I figured this Panther kit would be similar but that appears not to be the case.
This morning I started work on the kit and after only a few moments I could see from the detail molded on the parts that this is likely a kit produced in the late 1970's to mid 1980's. I tried to look on the instruction sheet and inside the large plastic parts for a date of manufacture but could not find any.

Since I am an armor noob I will go ahead and build the kit as is, trying to correct the inaccuracies would pretty much be a waste of time. I think your suggestion of getting a more modern Tamiya or Dragon kit would be the best move but in the meantime this older kit will have to do.

Matrixone
 
:eek:ldguy If you dont like the kit and you like a bit of scratch building?
Turn it into a Pantherturm I (stahluntersatz)


hc01a3b1.jpg


he251529.jpg


hb76ee9a.jpg




https://www.google.nl/search?q=Pantherturm+I+stahluntersatz&hl=nl&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix9ouggtXLAhWEhg8KHZbkBFgQ_AUIBygB&biw=1920&bih=963
 
Thanks for the suggestion Piet! What a strange weapon that Pantherturm was.

I have a soft cover book titled ''Panzerwrecks'' and in it there are a couple photographs of Panther tanks in Berlin that were placed in deep holes that only exposed the turret and the engineless tanks were encased in cement, these Panther turrets remind me of the Pantherturm.

Early today I did more work on the Panther kit and the more I look at this kit I can see why its not such a great scale model...this kit was designed to be used as an RC vehicle and some of the scale details were sacrificed for more durability so the model could be used for RC activities.

Since I don't have any leads for putting my model in correct markings for a Panther Ausf.A without zimmerit my model will likely be a what-if and am deciding on the ambush scheme or the disk scheme for its camouflage. :evil:

Thursday I might have some pictures of the build.

Matrixone
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top