Panzer IIIN with Winterketten

Getting close to finishing this kit off. I just completed the turret and will next add the winterketten themselves. I also completed a few other things on the hull such as adding the securing strap on the jack box and brass chain to the towing pins on the rear. The securing strap was made from lead foil and the buckles and hooks came from the Aber buckles set. I also added the electrical conduit between the Notek lamp and hull headlight. Here I used thin soldering wire. The securing bracket for the conduit was again made with lead foil. The coax MG is from RB model. The rear right mudguard was posed in the retracted position and the axe on the right side was left off in order to give it a bit of a "in the field" look. I still have to add the fire extinguisher on the rear left side as well as the spare road wheels but will do that last along with the stowage I am doing for it.

Be sure to check out the rest of the build over on track link.

http://www.track-link.net/

Not all MG34 barrels are made alike

As part of my build log on the Panzer IIIN with winterketten that I am doing over on Track link I decided to add an Adler's nest High Definition MG 34 Barrel for the bow MG.  I must say that this part is truly a work of art. While it is expensive (the price being 1800 yen or ~USD$23) it is in a class of its own for dead on accuracy with the real thing. Adler's Nest makes these barrels with two finishes, a steel blue version (this one) and a brass version.

1.The base of the barrel has what I would call an octagonal plate that joins the armoured sleeve.
2.The muzzle flash suppressor is flared out at the end with thin walls and a wide opening just like the real thing.
3.The sleeve has notches on it as in the real barrel.


Compare this with the Dragon or any other after market barrel and it wins hands down for accuracy. I have included the Dragon kit part to show the difference.

Final Panther G 11th Panzer Division-Bavaria

One additional comment I would like to make.

I want to offer a big shout out to Walt Schneider for his assistance with this build. I did not have the decals from the kit to do Panther 411 and Walt  responded to my inquiry for the decals on Missing Lynx. He promptly sent me the decals at his own cost. Thanks Walt!!  couldn't have done it without you. Hopefully I can return the favor some day.


David.

Final Panther G 11th Panzer Division-Bavaria

Hi All,

I have been putting some work into getting the 11th Panzer Division Panther completed. Here's a few pictures of my work to date. I still have to complete the Commander figure and do a few more touch ups but I am almost there.
I have seen a number of Final Panther G's done as 421 from the same Division but I wanted to do something a little different and model 421's sister Panther 411. There is a well known picture of both 421 and 411 side by side in a depot after war and I thought it would be cool to do Panther 411 instead. Hope you like it.

Cheers!
David.

Panther 214 1st SS Panzer Division, Ardenne December, 1944

Good day all!

From September 1944 onward Panther's received factory applied camouflage paint schemes rather than having them applied in the field. Rech's Panther was a M.A.N. Factory produced Panther. I am not aware of any good quality photos of this tank other than what I have seen  from the Book Duel in the Mist and various film footage of it participating in the attack on Stoumont on December 19th, 1944. Therefore, this is my interpretation of  what I think Rech's panther essentially looked like. Here are a few pictures of my paint job. Hope you like it. Next up will be weathering.

Here's the link to the build pictures if you wish to take a look.
http://totalwarinscale.blogspot.com/2010/08/panther-214-build.html

Final Panther G 11th Panzer Division-Bavaria

Here is another Panther G I am in the process of finishing. This time time serving with the 11th Panzer Division at the end of the war in Bavaria. This is a M.A.N. Panther with such final production features as steel road wheels in the 8th position, flamenvernichter (Flame dampener) exhausts and no AA MG ring on the cupola.

Panther 214 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte, Ardenne, December, 1944

Here is another one of my current builds. This Panther G is going to be the mount of  Unscha. Rech who commanded Tank 214 of the 2nd Company of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte. The 2nd company  attacked Stoumont on December 19, 1944 as part of the Ardenne Offensive. Rech's tank has figured prominently in some of the most well known film footage taken during the battle of the bulge. Most notable is the film sequence of Rech's Panther with one of it's left schurzen dangling along with one of the shurzen on the roof of the turret being directed down Stoumont's rue du village street by  Htstuf. Klaus Diefenthal during the attack on Stoumont.


This kit is DML's 6267 Panther G Early Production Pz. Rgt 26 Italian Front.The kit states it an early G but can be built as a later G. I tried to do this build OOTB as much as possible. As you can see I added some photo etch but not a great deal. My references for Rech's panther were Duel in the Mist (an excellent resource) and some suggestions from Roddy MacDougall  who is one of the authors of DITM.


 I still have a few things to do such as adding the retaining pins to the track cable on the rear deck and adding a few more chains to the track retaining pins. I found that these are quite fine and not so easy to see on the model. When painting the model they can easily get covered over so I decided to leave them off and will add them as part of my final detailing.

Tiger 112 of s.Pz. Abt 501

Here is my latest completed project. It is Tiger 112 of the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion on the road to Pont Du Fahs, Tunisia in January 1943.