The kit – and additions
The kit used is the Tamiya “Steel wheel” Panther 1:35. I updated the kit with some photoetch from Aber.
The front hatches and the crew heater on the engine deck are from Tiger Models. The tracks were changed for Fruils Model, which give a very natural “track sag”. Also spare track hooks were added on the turret edges, a typical feature seen on Panthers of Kampfgruppe Peiper.
Painting
Painting is done with Tamiya acrylics.
I always use heavily thinned mixtures, sometimes up to 70% thinner. After priming with matt black a green base coat was applied, followed by the red brown camo.
For the disc camo I used the stencils from AK Interactive / Uschi van der Rosten. This is a masking stencil, which you can use multiple times. It’s a bit of a time consuming process, because each time, you have to mask the areas where you don’t want the dunkelgelb to be. When the discs were ready the dunkelgelb camo was sprayed on in a cloudy pattern.
Top tip!
It is important not to use base colors which are too dark, because the weathering process will alter the appearance significantly and darken the base color. Therefore I lighten the camo colors with some Deck Tan or Flat Flesh.
