1/35 Tamiya Panther Type G- My First Armor Build

[mustang1989]

Well fellas......the Ta-152 is behind me now I've had to rethink my next build in que which was going to be the Testors 1/24 scale Pantera. I'm going to push that build back by one slot in the que just because our son is going to leave for the military in the next few months so I thought I would build something military while he's still around to check out the progress on my work. 

This is my first ever armor build and I've been pretty stoked to get started with this new to me genre of modeling anyways so......here it is. I've been watching plenty of videos and seeing all of you fine armor builders here turn out some pretty fancy work so I'm going to give this a go.  It aint gonna be all totally accurate per se but I'll try and get it close. I'm also not going all out with PE and AM stuff so I can just concentrate on getting this build done somewhat half decently. I've got another Panther later on that I'll be going all out on. 

Without further ado...I'll be going with the Tamiya kit for this and already have all of the materials to make this all happen. 

Edited April 29 by mustang1989

[slusher]

I will be following, Joe!

[mustang1989]

3 hours ago, slusher said:

I will be following, Joe!

Thanks for taggin' along Carl! 👍I've really been looking forward to building this one for the last few months. Not that I got bored with autos or aircraft.......I just wanted to try something new and of great interest to me. 

Edited April 22 by mustang1989

[Codi]

Hey Joe, great subject you've chosen again.  I'm always in awe when I see pics of IPMS shows and what the armor, aircraft and diorama builders can do.  The aftermarket stuff available seems endless too so you could go nuts on this.  I know this is your first but be sure to share the 2nd one "that I'm going all out on"........cheers, tim

[mustang1989]

On 4/26/2025 at 4:29 PM, Codi said:

Hey Joe, great subject you've chosen again.  I'm always in awe when I see pics of IPMS shows and what the armor, aircraft and diorama builders can do.  The aftermarket stuff available seems endless too so you could go nuts on this.  I know this is your first but be sure to share the 2nd one "that I'm going all out on"........cheers, tim

Thank you for the "good word" Tim. Gonna give this thing my best shot.

Managed to stiple on the texture on all sides of the tank body and turret over the last couple of days. Just gotta hit it with some 1000 grit sandpaper to blend it all in a tad bit.

 

[Belugawrx]

I'm in..should be a fun watch Joe,..I haven't built a tank in ohhh .....50 some odd years.... can't go wrong with a Tamiya tho

Cheers

[mustang1989]

55 minutes ago, Belugawrx said:

I'm in..should be a fun watch Joe,..I haven't built a tank in ohhh .....50 some odd years.... can't go wrong with a Tamiya tho

Cheers

Thank you for taggin' along Bruce. Careful now with the 50 years stuff......you're dating yourself. lol

[shoopdog]

I’m on board for this one. 
 

[mustang1989]

On 5/1/2025 at 6:02 PM, shoopdog said:

I’m on board for this one. 
 

Glad to have you on board Keith 

[mustang1989]

I've been on this one pretty much every day since the last update and am making some decent progress in the construction phase. Sanded the texture a little with 1200 grit sandpaper and have added some things to the hull. I did discover/ experience what a lot of armor guys have been talking about with all the road wheels on German armor. Pretty tedious stuff but we're getting through it. So far so good.
 

[mustang1989]

Just to show that I've actually been working on this one all week long......

I've been hanging what parts I can and still get by with the priming process and then onto the masking & painting in the near future.

[Mattilacken]

Nice build mate! Looking sharp! I do also want to build a old german tank.

[mustang1989]

6 hours ago, Mattilacken said:

Nice build mate! Looking sharp! I do also want to build a old german tank.

Thanks Anton. There are a TON of options out there and I have a few armor kits in the stash. I figured Tamiya would be a safe place to start learning. 

[STU111]

G’day Joe. I’ve built a couple of Tamiya armour kits in the last couple of years and I’ve found them enjoyable to build. Tanks are fun ‘cos you can dirty ‘em up. I’ll be looking in on this as well. 👍🏻

[mustang1989]

On 5/16/2025 at 6:14 AM, STU111 said:

G’day Joe. I’ve built a couple of Tamiya armour kits in the last couple of years and I’ve found them enjoyable to build. Tanks are fun ‘cos you can dirty ‘em up. I’ll be looking in on this as well. 👍🏻

Thanks Stuart. I'm having a good amount of fun with this build and I'm not going all out on it which makes it all that much more enjoyable. I may build a couple of these before I tackle my MiniArt Panzer build/ diorama just so I can get the whole process down a little better before going all out. 

[Dragline]

For a first build you are already doing some upgrade stuff there buddy

 Following this one for sure!

[mustang1989]

Thanks Bob!! 

I've been more gone than here over the last few days due to increasing demands at work and electrical problems with my house but it looks like I'm back on the sunny side of both situations now fellas. 

I did manage to get everything in primer on a few days ago as I had an extra hour or so that I hadn't planned on available to me for benchtime. I also finally broke a jig in that I got from a friend on another forum and mounted the Panther on top. This is going to be a VERY useful tool. 

[mustang1989]

And now.......the road wheels and track tension set up starts.....

I procured a spare kit so I could do a road wheel build up as an assembly to act as sort of a jig to run the track around and set up the proper sag in the tracks that Tobi and others have mentioned. Never realized just how many road wheels these things have. 16 in all per side?? 
 

[mustang1989]

I installed the wire screens over the air/ radiator intakes and am scratch building a retaining device for a spare road wheel. Here's the start of all of that as well as showing off the screen work. It doesn't show in the pictures too much but I have bent the screens between all of the spars to simulate being stepped on. 

[mustang1989]

After I took a second look at it, I just didn't feel right about it .....so.......I added a little something to the mix. 

Before: 

 

aaaand after:

 

 

Then I started working on the second spare road wheel and have these 1/25 scale lugnuts just laying around in my spares bin and they are working out perfectly for stuff like this.

[mustang1989]

Going with a late war camo pattern and I've got the secondary color & color modulation applied and have done some additional work on the road wheels. I'm finding that building armor is pretty enjoyable.
 

[shoopdog]

Looking good there Joe. I’m finding that building armor is quite enjoyable myself.

[mustang1989]

On 7/3/2025 at 6:56 AM, shoopdog said:

Looking good there Joe. I’m finding that building armor is quite enjoyable myself.

Thanks Keith! It's definitely giving my modeling skills a workout. lol 

Well........I mixed 60% Tamiya Dark Yellow Enamel with 40% Tamiya White and hand brushed the lines between the color borders of the camouflage and then came back over the lines with some Tamiya X-20 Enamel Thinner and brushed over the lines causing a blurred / worn effect.

I also acquired an Aber metal gun barrel as I just didn't feel right about the two-piece OOB gun barrel. This will be getting primed and painted soon. Next up will be some gloss coat in the areas of the turret and hull where the decals are going to be positioned and decals will be going on after that.