So taking a break to do something new. After playing Company of Heroes with a good friend of mine, FOR OVER A YEAR, you get to know them well. My my buddy loves Panthers.
No, not the furry sleek black animal that won't be with us for much longer, the tank!
So, for his birthday I drunkenly promise to build him one for his room. Now he isn't long into the hobby himself, and quite frankly I haven't got much experience going to town on a single scale model kit. (There are several differences between scale model building and wargame model building, let me tell you!).
Grabbing a Dragon Panther Ausf A kit on discount from
Wonderland Models, I got a damn good deal from those nice Scottish Gentlemen, whose customer service and care is legendary. I love those guys. Now I have two reasons to visit Scotland!!
Now the kit is intimidating. Unlike the usual built for ease kits that GW make, I'd forgotten how damn fiddly and infuriating scale kits can be. Namely, the instructions were translated horrifically from Japanese and the pics didn't often match the actual product. This was were my experience making gaming models came in. I... improvised.
The hardest part as usual with Tank or tracked AFV's was of course the bloody tracks. These sections took me the longest and I'd be lying if I said the longest part of that was spent actually assembling it. No, no, most of it was looking back and forth between the instruction manual, to the sprue, to the PC screen where I'd looked up reference pics of actual Panthers in the field. (Incidentally, its a really good idea, but be prepared for lots of blown up German tank pics...)
Now my friend did finally give me a preference on colour.
"Dirty grey".
Right. I can do that. It's one of my skills! But this time I would experiment. First though, enough text! First pic.
After assembly, I primed with Army Builder Black. Simple enough. Though was the elastic track sections and the sprue in WARM (READ NOT BOILING) water to prep them for the spray. Otherwise you'll get awful side affects.
For a first coat I used GW's Mechanicum Grey for a good medium tone to work from. Next I used GW's Nuln Oil wash to pick out the shading. My intent was to bring out the wear and tear on the tank as I went.
I then went back over in the MG colour, flattening certain areas but leaving crevasses, drip points and generally leaving the parts of the tank most likely to discolour or suffer paint deterioration first. Time and time again I see massive differences between highlighting edges and low lighting them with such wear and tear. I used to be a strong fan of the former, but after this figure... I think I like my tanks dirty. :D
Forgive the pics, sadly I changed camera during this process so all I have is that first one and these of the finished product. :'( Still.
Next up was a healthy smatering of Agrax brown in the cracks, more Nuln Oil on the edges before diving into the more pastel colours. First up was Abaddon Black on the edges before edging it with the odd faint touch of Skull white to simulate the Tanks primer coat wearing out.
Next was the experimental bit and it took no small part of research on youtube etc. It really displayed that a scary amount of skill is out there. Pigments. The thing wargamers whisper about in the same sentence as the meaning of life. Using Vallejo's rust pack I went a bit nuts, lacing many obvious places where rust would build up and then some. At one point I had to use the Pigments useful quality of reduction after I had finished as I'd used far too much!
Lesson? Less is more but you can take it off! Also, Pigments don't always dry the same colour as they look. What I thought would be brown turned out to be more rust!!
For the tracks I smothered them in GW's Stirland mud (There must be a better way!!!) and built up the muddy brown to a lighter dry dirt colour using P3 Gun Corps and then dry brushing with Bleached Bone.
I then followed up the same procedure on the hull itself, following the natural destination of all mud thrown up by this beast.
For the base I simply grabbed a cheap frame from work (Thanks Marius!). Taking out the glass I sealed the back on and removed the fittings. I then filled the inside with poly filler (Sparkle på norsk), using tape to mask the edges. Sadly despite my best efforts, the super glue I used marred the gloss finish of the frame. Not a huge mistake but, lessons learned.
The sloshed up "mud" was then sealed with watered down PVA glue, as Poly filler is notoriously thirsty. Leaving the "tread marks" I used thick PVA this time. I heaped on two layers of sand, bashed off the loose bits and let it set for an hour before smothering it with a watered down layer. One more for luck before I finally left it to dry over night.
Painting was simple enough. Black spray followed by the same paint and drybrush procedure I had used on the tracks. However, later I would need to use more poly filler and paint to set the Tank into the dirt, so it didn't simply sit on top.
The dude on top was treated to my ahem, best gamer painting techniques, the face came out better than I hoped. The detail on the man wasn't the best, but luckily something I'm used to (Have you seen Games Workshop circa 1997??). Remembering that nothing is ever truly black, the subtle grey highlights on the leather were inspired by recoloured pics of panzer crews.
And yes, he had to be blonde. -_-
Most of the detail work was simply "simulating" the affect of detail. Putting on thin lines of rank etc where the figure itself had none.
On a last note, the transfers on this were as usual, an absolute bastard. S'cuse the French. Youtube offers a wide variety of helpful tips, but I think I will be getting a transfer setting kit. It makes this all the easier. Hell, we didn't have fixing agents etc back in the 90's!
Lots of lessons learned in what turned out to be a fantastic project.
I've got around 20 Imperial Guard tanks waiting similar treatment next year.
Be warned ;)
Thanks for reading,
R
PS: Any rumours that I destroyed the original tank treads by treating them to a wash of boiling water which shrunk them and I had to beg for replacements, is a filthy lie. I didn't beg. I asked nicely. :)
