Merry Christmas, Greg!

Roughly about 4, maybe 5 years ago I decided to pop in to my local hobby shop to buy Greg a box of five Late War Panther Tanks as a Christmas gift. I thought it might be nice to add these to his Late War roster, giving him some variation to the Panzer IV's and Tiger Tanks he usually tends to run.


They are a really nice, crisp, clean Battlefront kit. I really don't remember there being any issues of any sort with them. I am led to believe that they re-released the Panther Mk. V variant with the Zimmerit pattern in plastic, as opposed to the older Metal/Resin kits, and thank God they did, because we all know how horrible those can be. In fact, I think the older kits also came with a standard hull, no Zimmerit. Personally, I think they look incredible. 


Below is a pic of them when I was first assembling them...


 

Now initially I was thinking that I'd bash them out, but I soon lost my drive and they were sat collecting dust for the next however many years, but not anymore... I finally decided to sit down and finish them off so I could give them to him. I actually had a lot of joy painting these things up. It was doing the camouflage that really put me off doing it, but Guinness fixed that issue right up. With a belly full of a few pints, feeling relaxed and warm, I set off.


Now unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the process, just the completed product, but that's ok.





As you will notice, the front Commander looks a little different. I do remember when I built these up that I wasn't going to add any more crew than what was absolutely necessary. So I opted for two Commanders and one open hatch. I figured the HQ would have one of each, and a Troop leader would have the other Commander. In the end, I decided against it - as I was really enjoying doing it, I decided to consult the bits box. I can't really remember what I did with the initial BF Commander sprue. In the end, I grabbed a spare PSC Commander. I don't think it matters too much.


The camo was stippled on. There is no real rhyme or reason to it, as units just made do with whatever paints they had in the field, and added whatever patterns on they felt was suitable to their surroundings. I don't remember which Brown and Green I picked from memory. A heavy wash was added - perhaps a little too heavy, but I think they look grimy and it blends the camo nicely - and then finally the smaller details were touched up after. Then finally the decals were added. Funnily, I believe the decal sheets are a carry-over from their older kits, as there were two "Front" decals. One Left, one Right. As you can observe, the Front Left hull has the tools attached and no place to add a decal... So well done Battlefront. In the end, I stuck one on the Back Left as you can see.. The Front Right are specifically designed to cut around this and went on easily enough.
I will say this, I initially painted the tracks Matte Black, but decided to change that and tried to blend an Orange-Red with a Brown to attempt a dirty/rusted effect just so they look a little more like metal track-links, then touched them with a highlight of Oily Steel.





When assembling them, I went with the "Rule of Cool" and added spare wheels to the turret sides. They probably didn't go there - as this was where the Tank numbers would go. So I took some liberty with placing them either on the side or corner piece so they can still be recognised in game. Interestingly, I learned that the Germans had a rather simplistic system of denoting their Tank numbers. For example the 4 represented the 4th Company of the Tank Battalion. The 2 represented the 2nd Platoon and the third number represented the Tank's number within the Platoon. I thought that was pretty cool.





As I was on a bit of a roll, I decided I would paint up all the rubber tyres on all 47 wheels that were most visible. I found it to be quite fun and therapeutic and the little extra detail makes the wheels pop at close range. I also think it's here where the heavy, grimy wash comes into its own.





And finally, I also added some destroyed skirts for just a touch of character and added detail.





One more thing. Greg suggested we make Cabbage fields for the table. I did once actually attempt that for the Farmstead I made that time. Here's a pic.





Until next time!