Month: April 2019

Esci Pz.Kpfw.V Panther in 1/72 scale

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 5 Comments

One more Panther! This will be it. I now have seven Panthers which is enough for any battle. Four from PSC, Zvezda, Dragon and now a vintage Esci kit.

I have been having a lot of fun buying up these old Esci kits on eBay. They really hold up well even after all these years. I think I like the smell of old cardboard and instructions with brown edges. This one had an illustration of using a lit cigarette to help melt a bit of sprue for an aerial. Fantastic suggestion back when cigarettes were good for you.

In comparison the other Panthers I have built in this scale, it measures up well. It is a nice chunky model, like the Plastic Soldier Company ones, only with much better detail. I also prefer it to the Dragon Panther which is too refined and looks a bit boring. So it was a winner all round. I did not use the crewman as he was rubbish, and may pop a nice AB figures German officer in the hatch. I was very happy with the end result, but the building of this model kit was definitely a challenge. Two words. Vinyl tracks. I am sort of seeing them as a positive now, like a badge of courage, I have to conquer the shitty vinyl tracks. In this case I managed to snap the front sprockets, but trusty drill and wire to the rescue I fixed them up better than ever. Probably two gallons of super glue were used in the making of this cat.

A very weird design issue with this kit was the lack of hull above the running gear. Esci have left off a whole area where you can just see into the hull of the tank. Very odd. So that needed fixing with some thin plastic card. The tow cables were tricky to fit and needed more super glue and patience. I made an aerial out of washing up brush as usual, rather than taking up smoking again and stretching sprue with my Benson and Hedges.

I gave up modelling when I started smoking in the 1980’s, but then luckily modelling has been the addictive habit I have taken up again in the 2010’s. Gave up smoking a long time ago. Probably a good swap from a health perspective.

I used a red brown base followed by dark sand and three colour camo. I made sure I under cooked the chipping and went easy on the dust and dirt. Learning from previous over cooking. The original decals were brown and crispy like barbequed pork so I used some nice new ones. Happy Easter everyone!

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Dragon Sd.Kfz. 171 Panther Ausf.D Late Production

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 11 Comments

Another big German tank finished. This time a Panther. So far my Panther brigades are made up of Plastic Soldier Company vehicles and one from Zvezda. Dragon kits are always a special treat, they are great to put together. I always keep one eye on the Dragon USA web site as they often have special deals with kits going as cheap as USD 8-10. That is a great saving over anywhere else. It is very rare that Dragon kits come up on eBay for resale, and if they do they are quite often priced higher than buying from the source. So where is the value in that?

The moulding and detail on this kit is of the usual high standard I would expect from Dragon kits. The running gear is very clever as it is moulded in rows making sure each level of wheels is straight. It also saves on time but does not reduce the realism. The tracks are the nice soft type that fit very easily and can be glued to produce sag on the top of the wheels. Oh what a relief after fighting for days with a face full of superglue wrestling with those old Esci tracks! The detail is very delicate and a different level to the Plastic Soldier Company models. The only addition I made was the plastic aerial on the back. The side skirts are optional and are nice and thin. In hindsight I wish I had made some damage to one of them like on the box art. Next time.

My paint job started out well. A nice covering of sandy dunkelb, followed by camo green and red brown patches with my brush. Then I over sprayed with my Tamiya dark yellow to fade everything out. Unfortunately I am still experimenting with my weathering. So I think this time I overdid it with the chipping and lost some of the impact. As always its a learning experience, so next time I will take it easy with my sponge. I used decals supplied with the kit from the two options you get.

This is a great kit. Much better than some of Dragon’s other “fast build” type offerings I have built. I think to hide some of my average painting I will add some extra foliage branches and stuff like that. In case you are wondering I had to take photos on a bit of white paper as my table is all packed away for renovations. I think I need a stronger light source for my photos! Next I have a vintage Esci Panther, oh no back to the horrible tracks of death……….