Dragon 1/72 Panther G plus crew

For information on the Panther, look up Scott’s preview of the kit here:

http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/misc/military/dragon/7363.htm

Again, see Scott’s preview.

I started building like how I build the typical armor model, by sub assemblies.  Turret, body, road wheels and tracks.

The turret was straight forward to assemble except the gun mantlet.  The gun is designed to elevate, but the rod did not fit well so I just glued the gun in place with liquid cement as well as the PE mantlet cover with CA glue.

The body of the tank went together quickly, but there were some gaps that needed to be filled and I used Vallejo Plastic Putty to quickly fill them in without needing to sand down the zimmert surface detail.

I discovered that some of the road wheels were short shot which meant that they had to be glued carefully so as not to be out of alignment.  They were painted Panzer yellow and then rubber portion of the road wheel was done with a black Sharpie marker.  The short shot road wheels were placed in the middle so they would not be noticed.

The build order did not make the best sense to me.  Best that you don’t follow the instructions regarding the armored skirt and tracks.  I didn’t add the armored side skirts till after I glued on the tracks otherwise it would make for an incredibly difficult assembly.

I sprayed the tracks on with a combination of gunmetal and Metallic Gray.  Unfortunately, my track record with rubber tracks is poor and this kit was no exception.  Once I had finished painting the tank, the tracks were stretched to get them to fit properly, but I  couldn’t get them to fit properly without bending the fragile road wheel posts.  My solution was to CA glue the tracks to the wheels and hide the track join with the armored skirts.

The various small plastic bits (machine guns etc) were painted with their respective colors and glued in place.  I misplaced the actual tracks and had to use the spares provided with the kit instead.  As I’m not building for accuracy nor am a Panzer/Panther expert, I can live with this.

The kit also comes with PE.  After a mental block regarding the engine cover screens and with some help from folks on the forum, I glued the screens over the plastic.  I didn’t use the other PE bits for the screen supports (apparently) and the track racks (because I lost the track parts that fit these PE bits.)

Painting

I decided to use the paint scheme for the Pz.Abt.1, Pz Rgt1, 1Pz Div “LAH” Normandy 1944 which is a Panzer Yellow base color with Red Brown patches surrounded by Dark Green.  The model was preshaded with metallic gray and then sprayed with two light coats of Tamiya Dark Yellow, the equivalent of Panzer Yellow.  My airbrush does not do fine lines in 1/72 well so I decided to spray the green (Tamiya Dark Green) on first.  I spaced the markings as best as I could and tried to conform them with the shape of the Panther.

Once I was done with the green, I loaded it up with Tamiya Red Brown and set the compressor to low pressure so I could control the over spray better.  The shapes were not as sharp as I wanted, but considering how weathered this tank was going to get I could live with it.

Weathering

This step began once I finished up the entire tank.

I began to dirty up the tank by running a watercolor wash of burnt sienna and black into the zimmermit and any panel line I could find and did not bother to clean it off.

Next, I used MIG weathering powders (concrete, dirt and rust) into various areas around the body.  This did not look great, but it was necessary to provide a base for mud and dirt when I sprayed various thinned (2 parts thinner: 1 part paint) shades of Tan, Yellow and Brown to tone down the weathering and blend in all the colors.

Finally, I used thinned flat black to spray the exhausts and gun muzzle.

Since the kit came with figures, I decided to make my first ever diorama so I read a Shep Paine diorama book and checked out John Reid’s notes on his amazing diorama in the forum for hints and tips.

I will say that building the tank was much easier than thinking out what you want to with a diorama.  Trying to make the thing fit proved to be more of a mental challenge than I thought especially if you have no idea what you are going to do in the first place which is one major reason why it took me so long to build this review kit.  I’m usually a pretty decisive person, but apparently there is a tortured “artist” within my psyche that I had no idea about.

My choice would be ultra simple, a muddy field.  Strangely enough, it took me a week to select such a simple piece of terrain.  The diorama base was a $2 wooden circular plaque from the local art store and the surface texture was created with drywall filler.  Before it dried, I took the Panther and pushed the tracks into the filler to create the track impressions of several Panthers.  I also used the figure legs to make footprints, but these do not show up in well and can not be seen in the photos.

Once the filler hardened a couple of days later, I took various shades of brown, grey and yellow to create my version of a muddy field in Normandy.  However, I do not know the exact color of Normandy dirt so I based it on the dirt around my bungalow.

The figures were posed in various poses with the gaps filled in with Vallejo Plastic Putty then hand painted.  I based the figures camo on a pics of a Dragon 1/6 figure I found on the net.  I used Tamiya OD as the base color.  Tamiya Buff and dark brown blotches were hand painted or dry brushed on for the camo pattern.  The flesh was done with Tamiya flesh, but I did not do any facial detail (I’m sure that someone can do this with 1/72 scale eyeballs, but I’m not that talented.)

The figures came with equipment, but not weapons so I opted the Panzer crew to have sidearms so they all had pistol holsters.  I’m not sure if shoulder holsters were issued to Panzer crew, but for the sake of being different one crewman has one.

The tank and figures were glued onto the base and voila, I had my first simple diorama.

The tow cables were done next.  The kit comes with a metal wire to simulate a 1/72 tow cable.  Initially I tried to use the plastic versions, but both broke because the bits were very fragile when I cut them from the parts gate.  The cables were glued on using CA glue then weathered with rust and dark brown.

For a final touch, I took one of the numerous hairs that has fallen off the top of my head and carefully glued it on the antenna mount as a whip antenna.

The Dragon Panther is a very nice simple kit to build and I recommend it for modelers of all types and ages.  There are a couple of issues with it, but nothing that a little bit of modeling skill can’t fix.  The addition of figures turn this kit into the basis for a simple diorama and can help diorama novices like myself to make their first diorama.

“Achtung-Jabo!”

The scene consists of a (not so bright) Panther Crew taking a break in a farmers field on a overcast day when a flight of P-47s appear out of nowhere.  Two of the crew (including the tank commander) has spotted the planes while two other crewmen are oblivious of the approaching doom as they enjoy their cigarette ration.

Dan Lee

March 2009

Thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com via your editor for the review kit.