Stik’s Panther

[garybrantley]

Man, that running gear looks great, Carlos!  🤩 Those tracks are fantastic! 

[stikpusher]

Thanks Gary. They are not bad for vinyl single length tracks. Give me a few days to get them finished up properly

[stikpusher]

Yesterday I glued down the top run of the tracks onto the top of the road wheels to get a proper sag up there...
this morning I took a few photos




then I had to test fit the upper hull...





so far, so good....



now I'm in the middle of painting the AM resin periscopes that I had bought...



I've got to get the ones for the driver and bow gunner installed before I can close the hull up.

[speedgraflex]

Lookin’ good. The dirt slurry mix adds so much!

[kyledehart5]

Mighty nice looking work you’ve got going on here!!

[stikpusher]

Bruce and Kyle, thank you! I'm very happy with the progress on the running gear!

My main work on this over the past couple of days has been getting the periscopes painted up for installation. I have one more days work on that to do. When the paint was drying today I added the tow coupling bolts using some strip styrene and Academy "shave off" bolt heads. I also swapped out the kit jack for a better one from my spares bin.



As soon as I get the hull periscopes installed, I can get the hull closed up!

[TOWGunner]

Getting close to paint!

[stikpusher]

Feb 18, 2024 11:35:39 GMT -5 TOWGunner said:

Getting close to paint!

Right?!  I had to at least do a few areas in Dark Yellow during assembly, but not too much farther to getting it fully based, and then the camo colors on afterwards.

[stikpusher]

Today was the last little bits of work I needed to do before I get the hull all closed up... except one thing...

I got the periscopes and drivers vision block glued into place on the hull




and on the commander's cupola




And for one last bit I glued the side skirts armor plates into place



tomorrow I'll add the last bits of mud to the upper track run and inner faces of the side armor plates, then get the hull closed up.

[Steve Zuleski]

Catching up, wow, Carlos, kitty is looking real good!

[stikpusher]

Thanks Ski! I can start to see the final form now finally.

[handiabled]

Not sure how I missed the progress on this Carlos but you are knocking it out of the park. I take it from the running rear you are going to dirty this one up a bit?

[robbo]

This is a good looking Panther

[stikpusher]

Brent & Robbo, thank you.

Brent, yes, since this is a Russian Front build, I will be muddying it up a bit on the running gear and adjacent hull areas. The reference photos that I can find of GD Panthers show them to be in such condition most of the time..

[stikpusher]

Last night in the afternoon and evening I got the hull glued together



Then today I added all of the last bits... except the commander's AA MG





Tomorrow I can start the painting and hopefully have this all wrapped up in a few more days. I'll add the AA MG after paint and decals but before final weathering.

[kyledehart5]

Have her finished up in no time now. Nice!

[speedgraflex]

Bravo, Carlos!

[TOWGunner]

Looks excellent with all the BII on it.

[stikpusher]

Thanks guys! finish line not too far ahead now finally!!!

[Tojo72]

Coming down the hone stretch,nice.

[stikpusher]

Feb 21, 2024 17:25:00 GMT -5 Tojo72 said:

Coming down the hone stretch,nice.

Right?! At least now it looks like a Panther.

[stikpusher]

Today was another day of good progress...

in the morning I airbrushed Dark Yellow onto all the previously bare tan plastic areas that needed the color...



then after letting that dry a few hours, I airbrushed on the Red Brown and Olive Green camouflage pattern colors





Next up is a gloss coat tomorrow to get this ready for decals...

[kyledehart5]

Oh, i say. Brilliant camo there.

[handiabled]

Carlos that is a wonderful freehand camo job!

[lyle]

very well done!

[brandonk]

She's starting to look dead sexy now. Awesome!!

[tcoat]

[stikpusher]

Thanks guys! A few more days of work stages and I will have this one all wrapped up!

[hasenpfeffer]

Hey, glad to see you are still working on this Carlos. I've been MIA from this GB for quite some time. The running gear and paint came out great. I really like the scraggly green on the skirts.
The only other thing I will say as FYI (maybe for your next one) is that the vision block for the driver is not attached to the hatch. The hatch just opens to expose it. It's mounted on the interior of the hull with a slot cut for the glass block. But I get it. Italeri doesn't exactly give you a great starting point with having just massive holes for that area and the Ball MG mount.
You can sort of see what I mean in this pic - which is not the greatest:


Anyway - keep going. looking forward to your weather stylings.

[TOWGunner]

Nice camo Carlos. It looks excellent.