Tamiya Panther A 6/25 Done and Dusted

[wbill76]

Should look good under some paint and weathering as usual Leon, glad to see you able to get this little kitty back on track.

[Leon]

Thanks Bill! Nice to get this moving again among the other bench builds.

[afvfan]

Glad my memories were fuzzily wrong and the DS ones worked out okay.

[Leon]

Bob, I'm glad you memory was wrong! I would have hated to put your Panther back on the shelf a second time.

[Leon]

Afternoon guys,finally decided it was time to give this kitty some stripes! Can't say I'm disappointed the way they came out.Should have gone with my first instinct and masked them.Got some minor overspray and had a problem with tip drying.I used Vallejo Dunkel Grun and Rotbraun.Think I'm going to get the dark yellow out and try to get rid of some of the overspray.Hope it doesn't look to bad to you fellas.













Thanks for looking,as always ACW.

[Deleted]

Great sprayin Leon!

[Leon]

Bruce thank you! I guess I can't complain as this is my first try at spraying camo. Got to get used to not using the hairy stick anymore.

[afvfan]

Leon, whenever I do a non-masked, three tone scheme the last step is almost always to go back to the yellow to clean it up a bit, so don't feel like the Lone Ranger. That turned put pretty good considering it's your first effort with the airbrush.

[Leon]

Thank you kindly Bob! I'm really trying to a good job on your donation.

[adt70hk]

Leon

There is nothing wrong with that camo job!! I really, really like it.

Whilst I'm no expert on German camo, since coming back to the hobby I've been told (and read) on more than one occasion that it was often applied in the field in less than ideal conditions with whatever they use to get the paint on, so if there is the odd overlap just put it down that!!

Andrew

[Tojo72]

1/48 freehand,very impressive Leon.

[Leon]

Andrew thank you kindly Sir!

I had that same thought going through my mind!

[Leon]

Anthony thank you!

BTW... That's 1/35 freehand!

[Tobi]

I like it a lot Leon.
A little over-spray doesn't hurt, it will disappear under the weathering layer!

Don't forget the guys who applied the camo were soldiers, not art-masters... 

[wouter]

Hi Leon, very nice looking kittycat, sure like what I'm see. Camo looks great AND handsprayed.
Don't mind the overspray or little imperfections . Those Panthers were delivered to the Abteilungen in plain Dark Yellow and the camouflage was airbrushed in the field, so they wouldn't be perfect either. If I were you I'd leave it as is and don't try to remove some of the overspray ^^ .

Great base for further weathering there, keep it up chap

Cheers

[afvfan]

Mar 5, 2016 18:36:23 GMT -5 Leon said:

Thank you kindly Bob! I'm really trying to a good job on your donation.

You did a good job just by building it, Leon. That's more than I would have ever done with it. The rest is all icing on the cake.

[modsrule1976]

Looking good to me and definitely agree that there are some fantastic weathering opportunities with this one.

Keep going!

[Leon]

Tobi thank you!

Wouter thank you! Looks like I'll be leaving the Kitty as is and let the weathering do it's job.

Bob,thank you again my friend!

Modsrule,thank you! I'll keep it going.

[dierk]

I think it really captures the 'field-applied look' very well. Looks like your fears were unfounded - I'm nowhere near the finish line with mine

[Leon]

Dierk thank you! All fears set aside now and time to hit the bench again.

[wbill76]

Another trick you can do Leon to blend it together before you start weathering is to apply a very thin (~90% thinner/paint) mist coat of the DY over the finished camo to tie it together. Hold your airbrush about 12 inches or so over the model and do a quick pass, wait, then do it again as needed to get the desired result. Don't over-do it and be patient, it will do wonders and provide a nice foundation for the weathering to come. As the others have pointed out, the crews applied these schemes in the field with compressor-fed airguns (or even hand-painted depending), so this notion that the scheme has to be perfect isn't all that realistic. Just picture a scale-size crewman dragging an air hose and what the 'span' of his reach would be and you get a good idea of the limitations involved!

[Leon]

Bill thank you for the suggestion on the mist coat! I was pondering that idea but unsure about the thinner/paint ratio.

[modsrule1976]

On a similar theme I use a heavily thinned Tamiya Flat Earth to give a dusty/dirty layer to the lower hull/wheels etc. Helps to give you a base to work from.

[armorguy]

Bill's right on the mist coat Leon, and it's the kinda spraywork you can do with one eye closed, be sure the colors don't fade.

I remember a photo btw of a tank crew adding camo to their Panther using cloth and brooms (you read well, brooms !).

Looking very much forward to the first washes mate.

[Leon]

Modsrule thank you!

Guy,I'm going to give Bill's suggestion a try! I'll do a few test sessions first before I commit.

[c3p0.]

Freehand Camo looks great sir!

[vindicareassassin]

I use Tamiya buff and/or deck tan (XF55 & 57 if memory serves) in a 95% thinner mix the same as bill suggested, but I do it after I've done my pin lining, just to help tie all the camo and shadows together, like bill said do it slowly and let the coats dry before moving on, you'll be surprised how much the opacity of the paint returns as it dries.

[jsteinman]

[Leon]

C3p0 thank you!

[Leon]

Sean,i've heard about using Tamiya Buff! Haven't given it a try yet.