1/72 Panther G

After a hiatus of over a year, I've completed a new tiny tank.

It's a Panther tank, by Dragon. This is the late (no pun intended) model, the G version, with steel wheels. Most Panthers had rubber on the outside of their road wheels, but like the Russians earlier in the war, rubber shortages made all steel wheels more economical.

 My 'pea-dot' camo turned out pretty well, I think. I used a paintbrush to apply the dots. The only real challenge was with my airbrush; it broke while painting the stripes, and I had to wait a month for replacement parts to arrive. The red-brown shade was something I mixed myself, using acrylics from Wal-mart. The other new technique I tried was with the tracks, which I got out of Alex Clark's book "Small Scale Armor Modelling."

I painted the treads black, and then painted a brown overtop with a brush. I then blasted the tracks with thinner (in this case Iso alcohol) with my airbrush. I then painted on dark steel where the tread would be grinding dirt. Other steel colors (like the spare treads) I toned down with a black wash.

Other than some mud on the back, I kept dirt to a minium. Once the decals were on, I toned down the color slightly and made everything match via a filter. 1/10 thinned Tamiya 'buff' was sprayed over everything.

The Panther was a highly influential design; the concept of 'one tank does everything and has a big gun' was copied by everyone, evolving into the Main Battle Tanks nations field today. Two tanks designed in World War 2 to counter the Panther would have long careers after the Reich was crushed: the British Centurion and the T-54/55 series would face each other for two decades during the cold war. Originally, the Panther was to replace the series of medium tanks Nazi Germany was fielding: the Panzers III-IV, and the Panzer 35t and 38t, while proving Teutonic superiority over the T-34. In firepower and forward armor protection at least, it succeeded in that, and in open country was capable of smashing the opposition with its long caliber 75mm cannon at distances too great for the other side to respond. Fortunately it is difficult to keep arranging battles in fields when the enemy has literally every other advantage. Post-Normandy invasion, tanks like this could only really move on roads at night due to constant risk of air attack.