WWII German Panther D, 15mm Flames of War

 

This is a single unit build of a WWII German Panther D, from around 2010 or 11. Flames of War sells individual blister pack units of their 15mm miniatures, too. I needed an extra Panther for a game I was going to play in and I figured this would be a good opportunity to test my brush painting skills on a complex camo pattern. The Panther came with a solid resin hull and metal accessories. The turret comes loose, and I had still not learned about using rare earth magnets to secure them in place yet, but may do so in the future (alternatively, a little BluTac works nicely for that purpose).

 

Assembly

The resin can come a little hairy

 

...most of the hairy residue will come off with your fingers, or sometimes in the washing process (dishwasher detergent), but light brushing with a wire brush will also take the stuff off without damaging or scratching the surface.

The main gun barrel comes loose and you generally have to remove some flash; or even straighten the barrel, as it's made of a soft metal which can bend in shipping and shop display handling.

 

 

The main barrel mounts with a male end nub that fits in a female receptacle, using gel CA glue, which holds the loose parts better while drying. You will still need a little assist in the form of gravity to get the barrel elevated and held in place and left to cure for several hours.

The treads go on surprisingly well; basically, using gel CA glue, you need to pinch with your fingers like a vice, holding the metal treads to the resin tank body with firm pressure for several minutes... that's long enough for the CA glue to grab and hold, after which you can set the tank down to cure for several hours for a secure bond.

 

The kit also comes with German Schürzen (“Aprons” or Side Skirts), which had to be straightened; these attack with small pins. It come with the option to make it a command tank (with a commander figure inside his turret hatch), or an option to button up the tank with a closed hatch (no commander figure). I chose this as a command tank, as that's what I needed for the game to play. Also, I placed a tank wheel on he turret side, which tank crews were known t do for added amor protection.

 

…note: I’ll replace the BluTac poster putty with rare earth magnets at some point 

On with the skirts!

 

 

This is also a good time to talk about the directions you get with Flames of War miniatures, which are minimal at best description!

 

Painting

I'd pre-cleaned them with a soapy dishwasher detergent wash, but forwent the priming. Then, a basecoat of Folk Art black acrylic paint was handbrushed on the entire surface of the miniature, followed by a Desert Sand basecoat. The following is a good shot of an initial coat of the Desert Sand Yellow...

 

A full coat of Desert Sand looks like this...

 

...and to this...

 

Next, a more advanced step of camo pattern is applied. Used at the ending phases of World War II, the German Army would standardize and improve camouflage patterns, on 19 August 1944. It was ordered that all vehicles were to be painted at the factory. The pattern, Hinterhalt-Tarnung (ambush camouflage) was used atop a base color of Dunkelgelb (in this case, a Desert Sand yellow). For further camouflage effect, dots were included in the scheme to help blend into the forrest better and deflect the eye). Now achieving this on a 15mm miniature is no joke, peiople! Here's what it looks lik

 

 

The bottom was left uncamouflaged.

 

Future Floor Acrylic was applied next, to protect the basecoat, airbrushed on in a makeshift sprayboth back in those days!

 

Decals were then placed on the tank and detail painting was done to the tank commander and add some silver to the tank treads for rad wear...

 

 

 

A homebrewed dullcoat mixture of Future Floor Acrylic and white glue is applied to take the shine away and bring it back to a more realistic, natural look.

The Finished Work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For scale comparison, the 15mm miniature placed next to my 1/35 scale plastic model!