1/35th VK 16.02 Leopard

[Peter Marshall]

Nice little 'baby' Panther

Not quite a paper panzer as they did build a couple, but not a success. Too big and heavy to be a good recce vehicle, and the 50mm just didn't have enough penetration late in the war. Designed to re-use a lot of components from the Panther.However I really do like the look of it - it's a Panther Cub.

Rather than the Hobbyboss 1/35th Kit I am building the Amusing Hobby version, which seems to have better details and fully workable tracks with pins.

Work starts by assembling the main gun, sight and co-axial MG-42. The Mantlet needed a small dab of filler for a small sinkmark.

Then the fun starts - a base coat of Ammo Cremeweiss, then Gunmetal for the MG-42 and Breach mechanism. Breach operating lever painted Red, rubber around the sight optics, then some chipping and weathering.

Finally for the day, Cremeweiss for the turret interior, picked out the commanders periscope optics and glued the mantlet into place

Peter

[Mr Grumpylee]

Ok, so this is different and interesting...I'm following all the same

Lee

[Peter Marshall]

Today's work - first added the turret basket with the seats

Then finished off the turret, adding the smoke grenades and hatches. Hatches are held in place with a couple of dabs of Copydex to allow them to be opened easily after painting.

Then built up the lower hull, complete with the working torsion bar suspension.

Added the Glacis plate - this needed a tiny dab of Vallejo plastic putty on a couple of the joints to remove a tiny gap.

Finally put the upper hull in place, and dry fitted the turret

Peter

[Peter Marshall]

Today's work - started with finishing off the rear. Added the storage boxes, exhausts and the jack

Then the tools on the left side, with the PE axe holder

Right hand side tools, with a PE hammer holder

Wheels ! - 2 drive wheels, 2 idler wheels and all the main wheels

Added the PE grilles, drivers hatches with the PE retaining clips, mudguards complete with tiny wingnuts and the lamps.

Then finally on with some Alclad black primer

Peter

[Mr Grumpylee]

This is looking good Peter, i'm liking this alot

Lee

[Peter Marshall]

Today's work - first sprayed some Ammo Red Brown primer over everything

Then used some Vallejo liquid mask to dab some chips at the edges, the moved on to building the tracks.

They give you a nice jig to assist with this, you place the cleaned up track pads into the jig

Then push the track pins in the holes, using the sprue to assist nicely.

Repeat 71 times for each track, and 9 more times for the spare tracks. Ideal work while listening to the cricket, and surprisingly relaxing. The result is well worth it, nice workable tracks

Then on with the Ammo Dunkengelb mid on the wheels

Finally sprayed the main body of the tank, and slotted the shultzen in place to spray them too

Peter

[Matt182]

Looking really good Peter

[Peter Marshall]

Today's work

First the Cammo with Ammo paints - these are some of the colours that have 'issues', but rather than using laquer thinner I got them to spray nicely by using AK Interactive thinner - in fact 50% thinner to paint, at 12PSI. This probably won't work for everyone, as I like working with thinner paint and lower pressures than a lot of people. The other trick is to build up the paint slowly.

Then sprayed the tracks with Ammo Rust tracks - once again a colour with Issues but sprayed flawlessly with 50% AK Interactive thinners.

First oil wash of brown to start tying things together, and removed the mask fluid to reveal some red primer.

Ammo track wash over the tracks

Then finally used pigments on the spare track links - Track rust and Dark Steel

Peter

[Peter Marshall]

On Holiday this week so got some more done today.

First finished off the tracks, adding AK Dark Steel and Track Rust pigments to give the wear on the tracks

Then after some fiddling, got the tracks and wheels on the little Leopard

Added some chipping

Added the decals

Painted the exhausts Rust brown, then added Dark Rust, Standard Rust, Light Rust and Smoke pigments

Pin wash of Wash Brown, then stumped back

Opened up the turret hatches, and painted the periscopes

Peter

[Peter Marshall]

Today's work finishing off the Leopard

First added some streaking grime

Added some Dust Effects in some of the corners

Added some Rain Marks

Then gave a base coat of paint to the tools

Then after some more weathering and some mud it's done - Teaser pics

Full RFI post following

Peter

[tommy1drop]

Lovely build and finish Peter

Tom

[Peter Marshall]

Now available in RFI here