Italeri Panther A (Finished)

[Tojo72]

Looks good Dave

[deafpanzer]

Again, love that camo!!! Looking good too!

[Leon]

Keep up the great work Dave.Looking really good.

[wbill76]

Any progress is good progress Dave! Nice update.

[bbd468]

She's lookin fine Dave! Keep-er comin.

[Deleted]

looks superb, loving the camo

[hasenpfeffer]

THANKS! to Tojo, Andy, Leon, Bill, Gary and Pete. Thanks for the words of encouragement, fellas.

And, surprise... another update! Getting closer to the finish line. I still have a lot of small stuff to do. There's a handful of equipment that still needs to be attached, along with the tow cables, etc. The next, and really final, major hurdle is getting the tracks on. The drive sprocket and first couple road wheels aren't glued down to aid in this process. 

Some overall:




And a few detail shots...





Thanks again everyone.

[deafpanzer]

GREAT UPDATE!!! It kept looking better and better every time you post an update. Nice chipping job on the wheels...

[hasenpfeffer]

Andy, captterra, Dicky - Thanks fellas. It means a lot coming from the likes of you! (LOL - that could possibly be taken the wrong way...)

Slow progress for me... I think I have the tracks to where I want them. Next is to get them on the beast. Remember, these are the Bronco indies. My only gripe is that they are relatively fragile after assembled. The detail is great though. Every bit as nice as the 2x$ Friuls. The Friuls make up for it in ruggedness. This is a base layer of Tamiya Flat Brown, then mixed up (pigments) Mig Dark Mud with some mineral spirits and dabbled it on the primer coat. After that dried I did the same with Mig Dry Mud. Then I mixed up some Abteilung 502 Buff with mineral spirits and added in some AK Light Dust and hit mostly the edges. I followed that up by making a paste from AK Dark Steel and mineral spirits and dry brushed it on the tread. After it was dried I buffed it some to make parts of it shiny. It was hard to show that effect in the pics, but you get the idea.




More to come...

[Deano]

How did I manage to miss this ?? Its a Panther and a very sweeeeeeeeeet one at that . Excellent work Dave!

Deano

[Deleted]

Looking mighty fine! the tracks look super

[deafpanzer]

Tracks look PERFECT!!!

[bbd468]

Hello Dave! Man, the Panther looks great and those track are AWESOME! Well done sir.

[wbill76]

Nice work on the tracks Dave, will make a great pair of shoes for the Panther.

[hasenpfeffer]

Always appreciate the comments, fellas. Sorry the updates have been so spotty.

Well, I took a couple quick shots so I could show some forward progress. The tracks are on... there was a lot of grumbling and general swearing during the installation. Let me just say this: The Bronco indies look great and are fairly easy to assemble and are reasonably priced. The strength during assembly was very trying indeed. They came apart on a few occasions and where they did it weakened the little "pins" that hold them together. I had them on-off-on-off and on again fixing this. It is almost impossible to assemble the final link as needed, but liquid glue to the rescue. They don't fit the drive sprocket properly either. They only snug down on the teeth about halfway. Annoying to me, but maybe not noticeable unless pointed out. Still a lot of little things to touch up before I call it done. More to come...

[bbd468]

Well thats sux about the tracks messin with ya, im sure a few choice words were spoken aloud. It sure paid off though Dave, looks fantastic bro.

[deafpanzer]

Sorry to hear about the tracks... thats why I really like Friuls but with its skyrocketing prices I have to think twice before I buy another set. Your tracks look PERFECT just like the camo!

[Deano]

Hi Dave looking great btw , did the sprockets come with the tracks?

Deano

[hasenpfeffer]

Thanks, Gary, Andy & Deano.

The sprockets are the ones that came with the Italeri kit. The tracks did not come with additional sprockets. I didn't check to see if they'd fit a Dragon Panther sprocket or not.

[Deano]

Personally I think all AM tracks should come with a sprocket , this way they can be used on any same vehicle from different manufacturers. A bit of an oversite on Bronco's part . You still did a great job of them tho

Deano

[sollie]

been following this , Supernice outcome, as mentioned, I love the chipping. is it all done With brush. I cannot get the hang of it, don't look real. What did you use for chipping color ?

[hasenpfeffer]

You said it Deano... I think I subconsciously chose the 2 shots where that gap wasn't visible.

Sollie, glad to have you along. My chipping up to this point had been:
1. Very lightened base color,
2. On some of those (layered) a very dark brown, old rust color,
3. On some of those (3rd layer) exposed metal - a touch smaller for each layer.
This time I only used light base color and AK chipping color (1st time using it, and I like it). I takes some practice and loads of patience. I do it over a few sessions to avoid becoming anxious and reckless from boredom. I personally don't think I'm all that great at it, but some of it comes out looking pretty good. The hardest thing for me is restraint and scale. It is tedious work making all those tiny chips that you almost can't see with the naked eye.

[Deleted]

thats one very cool kitty! looks great

[sollie]

thanks for the info hasenpfeffer.

[wing_nut]

Yo brotha Dave... my Panther buddy. It's east to see how much yiu like that vehicle since each one you do is real eye candy. And no exception here.

[robbo]

Looking very nice fella, very nice indeed

[hasenpfeffer]

Well fellas, she's finished... only 8 months in the making. I sincerely thank all of you that have tagged along and offered encouragement here and there. 

So, this is Italeri's Panther A in 1:35. Bronco individual track links. Cavalier zimmerit. I scavenged a ton of parts from a Cyber Hobby Panther I built previously, and scratched a few things as well. This was also my first journey into soldering, albeit only a little. I went a little crazy with the dust and spent quite a bit of time trying to tone it back... but it's kinda growing on me. Please let me know what you think... like/dislike/misses, whatever. (Or if you have any questions about how I did something.)









I hope you enjoyed the blog. I certainly had fun building it.
 

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Oh, nice Dave... I like it!

The Panther A is my fav.    Nice work.





Jeff

[`Boots`]

A great looking Panther Dave and a top camo job as well

[Leon]

Fantastic work on the Panther Dave.Looking top notch.