JagdPanther Preview

So i got around to building my two new Dragon JagdPanthers and of course it was a joy as usual. This particular kit comes with a die-cast upper and lower hull, which really adds a nice weight to the model. Luckily the metal parts fit together nicely, it really would have been a bitch if it didn't, and they are also richly detailed like the rest of the model.

As all of Dragons Panther kits it comes with alot of extra parts which can help you make it into an early or late version, in this kit the canon, gun mantle and exaust if i remember correct.

I haven't had time to painting them yet, since the queue for that is quite long at the moment, but i doubt it will be more than a few weeks before these two Tank Destroyers are finished.

Going to drill a hole for the commander

I tried to build an early and a late version

Well make a longer post when the are painted !

Box of goodies!

A shipment of long awaited goods just arrived today! :D it contained the 2 JagdPanthers i was waiting for and 6 M4A3 Shermans, which i bought out of sheer curiosity just to check out the quality and secondly to get some tanks to battle my panzer.

And boy was i suprised when i build a pack of Shermans, considering each model is only 13 parts i think the detail is very nice and with a proper paintjob i think it's going to be hard to tell the diference from a proper single model kit. These kits from Italeri is made with Wargamers in mind and i think most of the popular tanks from WW2 is available in sets like these Shermans.

I think they look quite nice

And a few pictures from some of my other current builds

Stug III WIP

King Tiger waitinger for paint

Soon im going to have 6 Shermans and 2 JagdPanthers that will need paintjob, i got quite alot of work ahead of me.

JagdPanther - Dragon (7241)

Well i just want to start by saying that JagdPanthers are freaking awesome. Well Panthers are the best looking tank to come out of WW2, so i suppose it was inevitable before i got a JagdPanther kit. This model comes with zimmerit which as usual looks perfect, alot better than what i would have been able to do myself.


As all of my kits i bought this at HobbyEasy where it was on sale, sadly i think it is out of stock at the moment, but i bet it's possible to find it somewhere else.

Well not alot to say about this kit, it was a pleasure to build and everything fits together nicely as usual. The only problem i've got with this set is that the hatches for the crew are molded on which means it would be very hard to give this kit a commander for instance, i suppose you could cut off the commander hatch and glue it on open, but chances of that messing up is quite high i would imagine.

The painting was done by as usual  by priming the entire model and then giving it a basecoat of the base camo color. Afterwards the camo pattern is applied, the pattern is went with was just some pattern i found on an image.

The model is drybrushed, given a black wash and then another drybush. Afterwards the details are painted, the tracks glued on and decals applied.

Overall this kit is highly enjoyable and i would recommend it to anyone who would like to build a JagdPanther. I got another 2 Dragon JagdPanthers just waiting for me at the postoffice, it's another kit though but i bet it will be as good.

The Collection! (so far)

Just wanted to throw up some pictures of all my finished tanks so far

Got 2 Stug III i need to build, 1 Tiger, 1 Panther and soon 2 JagdPanthers and a King Tiger

Stug IV - Revell (03182)

Don't let the sweet box art fool you, this set is crap, well atleast compared the Dragon Stug IV i've previously build. This set is not very detailed and i would consider it a beginner set after having assembled it, two of them actually (stupid me). Supposedly Revell makes some of the best Pz.Kpfw IV kits on the 1/72 market, sadly i haven't had the change to get my hands on one of those, but after having build this i'm not sure i want to throw more money at Revell right now.

I really like to look of the Stug with side skirts which is way i bought this because Dragon doesn't make a Stug IV with schurzen, i suppose it would be possible to buy some PE side skirts, but i didn't think of that at the time...sadly.

Of course i forgot to get some pictures of the Stugs assembled, but here are some of them after priming and basecoat of sand. I've also taken some pictures to compare to my Dragon Stug IV.

 Here you can see some of the differences of the two kits, the Dragon kit is clearly alot more detailed, actually i can't come up with a single thing where the Revell kit is better, except for the side skirts.
For wargaming i suppose the Stug from Revell would be sufficient but i surely wouldn't use it for display unless it was heavily modified with PE parts and other stuff.

Just finished with the camo scheme of both the Stug IV. I then drybushed them with sand and applied a blackwash to the entire model. I didn't try to recreate any camo pattern from photos, they are actually just random.

The wash is left to dry

I'm hoping i can have them finished in a few hours which i think is quite manageable, only problem is the damn rubber ring on all the wheels the most tedious of all painting.

Wheels almost done...and testing side skirts

Ok i finished both of them now and my conclusion is that it's going to be a long time before i buy another Revell kit, the lack of detail (especially on the lower hull, wheels and tracks(!)) just makes this kit less enjoyable. The only positive thing is the side skirts cover most of the lower hull so only small parts of the terrible tracks are visible.

Anyway here are the pictures of the finished Stugs.

I am quite happy how they turned out though, but next time i get  the idea of getting Stug IV with Schurzen, i'm going to get a Dragon kit and buy some PE skirts for it.

Tiger I Late - Dragon (7203) Trumpeter (07244)

I bought 3 Tigers from Dragon which include zimmerit and 2 Tigers from trumpeter without, i did buy a PE zimmerit set, which was actually meant for a revell Tiger kit, but it nearly fit the Trumpeter model aswell. There ain't really much difference on these kits, they both represent the Tiger I late production version, which was the last version of the tiger to be made in the end of 1944.

There are pros and cons thought.

1. The biggest strenght of the Dragon kit is clearly the zimmerit which as usual looks great
2. The tools on the upper hull is also better on the Dragon kit, especially the towing cables which are actual metal cable in the Dragon kit, unlike the Trumpeter kit where it is some kind of rubber, which i think is a worse solution than just plastic because it ain't easy to cut off any excess mold
3. The muzzle brake looks alot better on the Trumpeter kit, it doesn't look bad on the Dragon kit but it is more accuratly portrayed on the Trumpeter Tiger
4. The idler wheels on the Dragon Tiger is either not made properly or i managed to mess it up somehow all 3 times i build the kit, it's nothing major but it will require modification to fit properly between the road wheels, this is not a problem on the Trumpeter Tiger where all the wheels are nicely made at fits together perfectly
5. The Dragon kit also comes with abit of PE parts, in this kit it is only the exhaust guards whould would make it easier to give them a dented look if that is what one would want
6. Beside the inaccuracy of how the 88mm gun is portrayed on the Dragon Tiger the only other real flaw is the loaders hatch which is just completely wrong, i don't know what they have been smoking when they made that. I don't really mind since i don't care if the little tiny tank is not 100% historical accurate, but since it looks correct on the Trumpeter Tiger i doubt Dragon couldn't do it properly

Since i haven't build a Dragon Tiger without zimmerit i can't tell if i would prefer that to the Trumpeter one, but as it is right now i would definitely buy Dragon if i wanted zimmerit and Trumpeter if i wanted a Tiger without. Trumpeter also make a mid and early production kit of the Tiger I, well and so does Dragon. 

If you could get your hans on a metal barrel and muzzle brake for the Tiger to use on the Dragon kit it would beat the Trumpeter kit, because that really is the only big downside.

Painting

I usually paint my tanks in pairs of two, i think 1 wouldn't be enough for me and 3 to much, since painting some things can be quite tedious and i would go insane if i had to paint the same thing 3 times in a row. With 2 models at i time the paint is usually almost dry when im finished painting both of them and i can start a new paint on the first model.

I painted the 2 Dragon Tigers first, and since i had just recived some beautiful Panzer Crew figures from AB Figures i just had to paint some commanders for them aswell.

Here i startet painting the 2 Dragon Tigers on the left and  did some of the camo on one of the Trumpeter Tigers, the second is behind it still in its primer

Dragon Tigers

The painting process i used on these 2 are the same as always, here are some pictures of the process.

Wash and first drybrush

Both drybush done, details next

Here are a few pictures of the two Tank commanders i choose for these Tigers, this is my first try at painting this small realistic millitary figures, but i think they turned out ok. (I have painted quite alot of Warhammer figures in my day thought) 

I think the skin tone became abit to tan but could fix it if i wanted too.
Both are from a British miniature site called AB Figures and they make the most astonishing wargaming miniatures i have ever seen.

Trumpeter

Im afraid i don't have any pictures of the start of the painting process of my Trumpeter Tigers, but i got some of the Tigers with finished paintjob.

I do quite like how the camo turned out on these, the one with the mostly green camo is the Tiger with the PE zimmerit set, which is why it doesn't quite fit everywhere. The first couple of pictures show the tanks after the black wash is dry, i tried to thin it abit more on these than i did on the Dragon Tigers because i think they became a tad to dark. After those pictures the next drybrush of buff is applied, you might not be able to tell much difference but it is there, and it bring out the detail nicely.

Finished Tigers

Dragon

Trumpeter

I'm missing decals on all of the Tigers, but i'm waiting to get some decal softener home which should make it easier to apply them properly to surfaces covered with zimmerit.

I got another Dragon Tiger just waiting to get painted, think i will paint it together with my other Panther G, but next project is a couple of Stug IV i think.