Tamiya (1/35) Late Version Jagdpanther
Keeping the Pantherfest alive!
| Ben Hinks | 24/07/2010 19:15:41 |
 415 forum posts 30 photos | Good afternoon folks, Well, the Panther G has been all wrapped up and is complete it's time for the Jagdpanther! Let me show you the kit and accessories first if you don't mind........... Photo 1: Here you can obviously see the box & box art, the black vinyl track is the Tamiya offering and the beige one is one of the Dragon DS (Dragon Styrene) tracks that I have left over from my Panther G seeing as that build got the Fruil treatment! I'm keeping costs down on this one as I spent a fair bit on the Panther and accessories so this will be having the DS vinyl tracks - no Fruils this time! You will also see the Armorscale 88mm Jagdpanther Barrel and Resin Mantlet. That was an essential AM piece as the Tamiya barrel is the style that has that awful seam down the centre where the halves join and as you no doubt know it's a pig to get the barrel neat & tidy without creating flat spots ets when sanding. The only other (ESSENTIAL) AM item is the Tamiya PE Grill set which I have on back order with the LHS. Finally in this picture you'll see the leftover Fruil Panther track links which were unused-these will replace the plastic kit ones that go on the rear sides. These will make a big difference as the Tamiya links are pretty ugly and don't help in the looks department!
 Photo 2: I was having a good old rummage to see what the kit offered and was interested to see what they were handing out in the way of metal tow cables? String? Wire? No - moulded plastic tow cables complete with eyelets (see top right of picture). This is something very new to me in 1/35 and something that I, personally, have not seen before. Tbh I'm not 100% convinced. They ask you to apply 'heat' and then gently bend to get the dead striaght plastic cable to take on some form. I'll try the Hairdryer/hot water methods but I'll be VERY careful (and reluctant tbh) if I have to go near a flame with them! I've got spare Panther eyelets left over from the Panther kit so I may try other methods when I get to this stage of the build. Who knows, I might be very impressed with them!
 Photo 3: Having looked at various pictures of JP's it seems that the side skirts are fitted in single parts - not in a single piece as supplied in the kit (the box art depicts this too - check it out in the first photo). With this in mind I picked up a 12" x 2" piece of 0.10" of brass sheet for £1-50. I'd like to try to use this instead of the kit skirts which aren't accurate. I'll be able to bang them up, bend them, whatever. Again, it's a while away yet so I'm not too concerned yet. Other options involve gently slicing up the one piece plastic skirts and put some bends on the corners of them with the hairdryer or hot water. The other option open to me is if I decide to go with a proper factory build in which case the side skirts would be straight and tidy.
 >>>>>Onwards........this kit offers two options called 'A' & ''B' oddly enough  Option A covers the tank between May to Dec 1944. Option B covers it from Dec 1944 onwards. The diffences being A gives her the LHS (as you look from the rear) Muffler c/w air cooling inlet pipes, B will give her the Muflers with Flame Dampers (I think these look cool). Option B also replaces the rear LHS standard engine grille with a heater unit for the crew compartment. I think I'm going to go with the 'B' Option as it offers a bit of variety and something different - I can't see any other A & B differences but I've only had a quick skim of the instructions at present. Finally, I need to think of painting options. I'm going to push myself into making some serious AB progress and will be trying to replicate one of the cammo schemes seen on the box art. There are two options: The first is the usual Dunkel Gelb base coat with Red Brown & Dark Green over the top. The second refers to the change in German paint schemes from 1944 onwards - basically a Dark Green base coat with Dunkel Gelb and Red Brown over the top. The second option, in theory, would tie in with the later 'B' option which I am going for. The box art shows this scheme of red brown and Dunky Yellow over dark Green. What do you guys think to this scheme? If I wanted this build to be accurate would I need to go with the green base coat to allow option B to work? Thanks for dropping in. Work proper will commence tomorrow............ ATVB Ben |
| Wouter | 24/07/2010 21:22:44 |
 407 forum posts 252 photos | Hi Ben, nice project you have there.
Concerning the green base coulour....you don't necessarely need to put the green as base colour to work...On the KT I'm still working on, I applied the 'hard edge' camo....in reality the green colour was used as the base colour but I used the yellow first...Nevertheless the result still looks convincing in my mind.
Anyway, if you go for the camo scheme's for later vehicles, almost all of them had the 'hard egde' camo...so to obtain it realisticly you need to use some painting masks... Freehand camo's sometimes also look great but if you mask it, it's far more easy in my opinion...
 Anyway, looking forward to this buil mate
good luck!  |
| Chris Spalding | 24/07/2010 22:25:29 |
 2583 forum posts 945 photos | Hi Ben, Looks like an interesting build ahead ,Looking forward to how you get on with the brass
 Chris |
| Ross Moore | 25/07/2010 00:16:00 |
 71 forum posts 23 photos | Hi Ben Looks like a nice build ahead, I will be watching. With the bending of the plastic tow ropes, I found very hot water, soak for a minute, then just a tiny bend, back in the hot water, another small bend, repeat, it takes awhile but it was doable without breaking the plastic. Or you could try getting some picture hanging wire and attaching the eyelets to it, that is something I'm going to try with next build. cheers Rossco |
| Ben Hinks | 25/07/2010 13:41:45 |
415 forum posts 30 photos | Cheers Wouter, Chris & Ross...........
Wouter: re the cammo I will be masking the bulk of the build as I want a nice neat factory type finish-not a blotchy random field applied look.
Chris: yep, I'm feeling brave and all the JP's I've seen have had individual side Shurzen fitted one small square panel at a time giving them an offset look-not in a perfectly aligned row.
The only sheet metal they had in the store yesterday was what I picked up and it is pretty heavy being 0.10" brass (compared to the kit plastic) so CA will be needed to hold it I think. I'l see how it goes otherwise I'll probably slice the kit Shurzen along the panel lines and go for the same look that way and I'll use the hair dryer or hot water to get some corner bends.
Ross: thanks for that matey. I'm not exactly blown away by these cables but it is a £23 kit from1996 so I'm not going to moan. I'll see how it looks and if it looks pretty poor I'll grab them unused eyelets from the completed Dragon Panther kit box which is still packed with unused spares (I've got to grab some handy bits from in there later anyway) and I'll try the picture wire or stripped electrical flex instead. I'll give the plastic cables a go and base coat them with flat aluminium and do the hairspray method with dunky yellow to see how it goes.
ATVB & thanks guys,
Ben  |
| John Barr | 25/07/2010 14:22:01 |
 290 forum posts 52 photos | Hey Ben. This same kit is in my stash somewhere, looking forward to the build! Edited By John Barr on 25/07/2010 14:22:17 |
| Ben Hinks | 25/07/2010 14:51:18 |
415 forum posts 30 photos | Hey John,
You should dig it out mate - we can build in tandem and exchange ideas!
The build itself is very basic and the part count is very small so I reckon a couple of concentrated weekend sessions should see her built. It's the AB cammo scheme which I want to really work on this time.
I've only got one kit left in my stash now and that is the Tamiya 1/48 early model Tiger I. I've also got the Tamiya 1/48 tank field maintenance crew 5 guys c/w worbenches, stepladders, the lot (painting them will be fun) so that will make a nice little dio. After that I think I'll feel obliged to buid British tank - I'm liking the Bronco Comet with Fruils so you will have to keep the Pantherfest going whilst I at least build this Comet. I'm not sure if the 1/48 Tiger really appeals tbh? It was my first ever build and not great which is why I'm having another go but it has the Godawful die-cast Tamiya chassis and I'm not going to use the link & length tracks as they were appalling! If I can get 1/48 Tiger Fruils (I'm told by Lou Steiner that I can) then I'm going for it, otherwise it's the Comet for definate and the Tiger goes back into the stash for a while.
Boy would I love to get my mitts on one of them limited edition FlakPanthers but I think I'm dreaming as they would literally be gold dust!
Update shortly,
ATVB
Ben  |
| John Barr | 25/07/2010 15:48:09 |
290 forum posts 52 photos | Ben, maybe after my mutant Panther I'm building now. |
| Ben Hinks | 25/07/2010 19:32:19 |
415 forum posts 30 photos | Good afternoon chaps,
Well, I've got her started and she's looking good!
As promised I watched the rest of the F1 race and got everything sorted out. I wanted to keep the build simple this afternoon as I've had a stonking headache all weekend, that's thy I didn't start her yesterday. I marked out a spot on the build guide where I wanted to get to this afternoon. I planned on getting the suspension arms fitted, the front drive sprockets, the rear idlers, rear bins and the mufflers/flame dampers. I cut all of these pieces off, cleaned them up and on they went - WIP underway!
Like I normally do with most of the types of large wheeled tanks I will be fitting the wheels last to allow me to gain full access to the lower hull etc to lay pigment etc.......... Photo 1: Underside showing fitted suspension arms..............
 Photo 2: Mufflers c/w flame dampers in place aswell as rear bins.....................  Photo 3: Basic structure...................
 Thanks for looking guys One thing which I will be looking into is the Dunkel Gelb which I will use on this build. The bulk of my previous builds which required Dunky Yellow have been painted with a 1:1 mix of deck tan and dark yellow (Tamiya). The Panther build which I have just completed was done using Gunze 'Sand Gelb' but this was a little pale but still very good. I'd like this build to have a 'brighter' yellow colour seeing as I'm planning a 'factory fresh' look. I don't mean more yellow like a Lemon, just a 'brighter' yellow than the normal browny yellow which I use if you know what I mean? Like the yellow on the box art which can be seen in post number one. I did pick up a couple of jars of XF-59 Desert Yellow to try - I haven't decided for definate what to use yet. Any suggestions for colours or combinations for this required look will be greatly appreciated. Cheers guys, ATVB Ben [H] Edited By Ben Hinks on 25/07/2010 19:58:46 |
| Wouter | 25/07/2010 19:36:57 |
407 forum posts 252 photos | I usually use Vallejo Model Air dark yellow, sometimes mixed with some white (colour modulation stylish eh
)...you get this kind of shade then:
this one is taken under a pale 'sunlight' lamp while the KT photo has been taken in straight sunlight... anyway, tidy build so far and good luck on the search for the perfect dunkelgelb |
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