Tamed Panther: “Cuckoo”

Large(r) basins, at least here in the Netherlands, were usually galvanised iron (that is, iron or steel dipped in a bath of molten zinc) rather than enameled. Smaller items, like buckets or smaller washbowls, could be either — though especially if they were for mainly indoor use, they would much more likely be enameled than galvanised. Everything used for things people were meant to drink would be enameled and not galvanised, though.
 
I painted the tracks in the same way as the lower hull and suspension: first I sprayed them with very dark brown, but now mixed from Tamiya Flat Black and Flat Earth, because Tamiya acrylic paint is much stronger than the Vallejo and Mig airbrush paint I used on the hull and wheels. Then I painted a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone (thinned about 1:1 with water this time round) over the whole tracks, and when dry, drybrushed them with first Humbrol Chocolate and then Dark Earth. And because the picture of Cuckoo on the forest road shows shining tracks, I finally drybrushed them with Humbrol Polished Steel, which I then buffed a little to give it some sheen.

And then they're finally on:

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That went well enough on the right, but less well on the left because a few links had broken as I assembled them, and of course, they fell apart as I installed the track. I glued the broken bits with superglue, and to the link next to them, and once that was dry, I could install the track.

This was the last major job. In addition, I added a little rust to the steel parts of the jack block, but you can't see that all that well (because red-brown on yellowish brown) and glued empty 75 mm cases on the engine deck, as is visible in the film of the attack on Geijsteren castle. They're from Academy, but these came as complete cartridges from which I sawed off the shell, then opened op the case with a drill and a hobby knife. I painted them silver, then added Tamiya Smoke followed by matt varnish, painted the inside matt black and drybrushed more matt black around the opening to represent powder burns.

Also an antenna from 0.3 mm spring steel on the turret (70 mm tall) and a figure for the commander. I don't quite remember if I showed him before, but he's from Bronco with a right hand and binoculars from my spares boxes, plus headphone cables from thin copper wire.

And then we're finally done!

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To really complete this, here are some PDFs with an updated version of the Zimmerit template and the markings.
 

Attachments

  • Panther “Cuckoo” markings 1.0.pdf
    57.7 KB · Views: 5
  • Panther “Cuckoo” Zimmerit damage 2.0.pdf
    34 KB · Views: 4
Does it say show? Oh, it does — yes, that's a typo :) but I don't feel like fixing it right now. Tomorrow! :)
 
I thought maybe it was pulled from service and sent back home where it got spiffed up for museum duty ;-)
 


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