And now for something completely and horribly different, a Sd.Kfz. 171 Panther D

[locutus]

Having gotten tired of painting spacemarines and chaos warriors for a while, i'm trying my hand at something different for a change, a Dragon Model Premium kit.

The idea behind them is, one of the older Dragon kits gets updated with photoetch (like those brass etch eagles from FW, only a LOT more elaborate), metal turned barrels, newly tooled detail sprues and all kinds of small 'extras' like metal towing chains, radio antennas, shells etc.

so, heres the whole box of goodies, yum yum!



the little box of figures was a bit of a second choice tough, i at first wanted the DML 6214 Panzer Crew set figures, which are VERY nice, but i couldn't find them anywhere, and when buying the Panther kit, i saw these figures for a grand sum of 2 euros so i bought them "just for the hell of it".

It turns out, they are actually quite fine, not to detailed, but i suppose they'll look fine enough once painted up.



As they are 1:35, they are quite big, they scale out to be about 51MM, which isn't very off from 54MM like Inquisitor (Verlinden Productions actually used to lable 1:35 figures as 54MM)

So, after about an hour of assembling i've assembled the chassis with its suspension.



Oh, and a small size comparison with a pot of paint :-)



So, that'll be one big tank!

Back to sniffing glue then!

[locutus]

As i haven't had to much time to work on the model the last 2 days, i've just built the general outline now, so i now can start on actually adding all the details (the kit has more then 830 parts, and yeah, i'm starting to believe that now!)

so for the general form, it now looks like this:



GW figures for reference :-)

I really like the look of the gun, it has a big fat "hah, you are so dead" look to it.



As is quite obvious to, these 1/35 vehicles are just way to big to use as starting points for 40k VDR vehicles, not just the general size (superheavies!) but all the details which give an impression of sizes (like hatches, wheels etc.) are all just in totally different proportions.

And on to the detailing!

The kit includes a quite nice little PE fret, it measures out to about 13 by 6 CM, so all the details are very very small



So, time to continue working :-)

[dave is the best]

Cool. this looks like a really good project.

Dave

[locutus]

The plan is mostly for this to be a study/test object, to work on my PE skills, and my first try at doing authentic camouflage schemes with an airbrush, and a oil in turpentine wash for weathering techniques.

[bigbauske]

I look forward to seeing more of this, the german WW2 tanks are some of my favorites, and with all the metal etching it should turn out nicely. Just for information locutus, What type of airbrush are you planning to use?

[Roel?]

Looks very promising, can't wait to see all those PE details added. Update soon please :>

[Catferret]

I am looking forward to seeing your weathering techniques and camo stuff.

Get that thing finished!

[locutus]

I look forward to seeing more of this, the german WW2 tanks are some of my favorites, and with all the metal etching it should turn out nicely. Just for information locutus, What type of airbrush are you planning to use?

I recently bought a package deal with a Badger 150 with a Medium tip and needle, and a Testors airbrush compressor, and i must say that i'm quite pleased with it, i already did some more simple test objects, like a big 1/600 Airfix model of the USS Forrestal (1950's vintage super carrier).

and about the PE, as i'm a impatient man ;-) i've first built all the large forms of the model, and i'm now starting on putting all the details on it.

I've just added a tank commander figure, as they really add a great sense of scale, as on those big tanks, its often not that easy to grasp how big it is!



i just see that i might have taken that picture a bit under a wrong angle, as no, thats not a hitler greeting ;-) he's just waving his hand.

the hand on the figure was meant to grasp the hatch of a Tiger I tank, it obviously doesn't fit here, so i had to do something else with it, also this tank lacks a commanders seat (i'm rather suprised it does!) and as such, theres no support for the model to stand on in this case (normally he would stand on the deck inside of the turret next to the loader, so i had to add a small plasticard insert.

the hole on the side, i'm rather unsure about what to do, normally there would be a pistol port there for the crew to shoot trough with hand weapons, they are supplied in the kit, but so are blank welded on plates to go on there, and a chain hookup, the chain which is *very* fine, looks nice, its just that it makes no sense at all to position a half a metre long chain there, and i cant find any reference pictures which actually show it on a Panther D.

If anyone knows what the hell it is, i'll be glad to know :-)