1:35 Panther ausf. G (RMF5018)

An almost pristine Panther tank got left behind by the Germans on the roadside, and two American grunts passed by what used to be this monstrous hunk of steel.
"Seems like those nazis have finally lost their guts."
"Yeah, the war over here is over."

After a whole year of work, the Panther ausf.G, kit 5018 from RMF Models, is finally done!

The whole process spanned a whole year, starting at the end of 2023 and wrapping up at the end of 2024. Who would have thought I initially planned to enter this model in the June Guangzhou Model Competition 2024(hahaha).

Of course, it wasn't all just slacking off during this long period; this work indeed required a lot of effort to polish the details. The production process was long, and there's a lot I'd like to say, but due to space constraints, only a few words can be shared here. So, let's focus on the production experience of the Panther itself.

I also used photo-etch kit from Rochmmodel, which was indeed top-notch in difficulty, and of course, the details were top-notch as well. Just the basic assembly took over five months. The kit from RMF had rich details, but some areas had poor weld lines and casting effects, so I remade those parts. then for the tools, such as clamps and fire extinguisher locks,I use 3D Print kit from Havey Hobby, to enrich the details and save a lot of time on these little gadgets.（Long live technology!）

I'm not one for getting into the nitty-gritty of historical verification; I mostly just go with the flow and do what comes to mind. For the painting, I chose my favorite: the Bavarian Panther from the box art of Dragon 6268. Since I got into this hobby, this beautiful yellow-green Panther has been my favorite. Of course, I already knew that have some historically problem, thoes batch of Panthers was painted in brown and green, but it was ugly!!! So, no thanks!

As I've said before: "The core of weathering is the imaginative." For this production, the core weathering idea also underwent a brainstorm. Historically, these Panthers only came off the line in March, and by the story node I set, less than two months should have passed. My understanding was to use less hard weathering and more soft weathering. The so-called hard weathering refers to wear, paint chipping, and large-scale rust. For a nearly new vehicle, too many of these elements are obviously not very reasonable.

While the so-called soft weathering refers to dust, water stains, and dirt. In the work, you can see that I tried to avoid large areas of dark second-layer chipping on the vehicle and used more light first-layer chipping to show wear; and for the flow marks, I also tried to avoid red rust marks and used more black dirty water stains, light dust wash marks, and other traces to show the wear. Since I couldn't show large-scale rust, dust naturally became the key to shaping the texture. In addition to placing sand in every corner of the vehicle, I also used multiple layers of different dust colors to dye the vehicle, trying to use this method to reflect the image of a vehicle that was constantly on the move and transferring battle lines in the cold and rainy days of the European spring. (Interesting fact: the large granules of sand on the vehicle and the base actually come from the pyramid sand I brought back from my last trip to Egypt.)

Although the weathering is soft, it can also make the picture lack textured highlights. So at the same time, thematically, I wanted to highlight the state of the German army at the end of the war, which was frightened. Therefore, I chose to destroy one of the tail storage boxes and used a large area of burning marks to show the process of burning and rusting after being attacked. But I didn't want to make a destroyed tank, so I only used small-caliber holes. The story is: "the German crew was pursued by the Allied forces, and the tail storage box was pierced by a small-caliber weapon (it could be .50, or it could be a small-caliber cannon) and ignited the flammable materials inside. The frightened German crew did not have the courage to resist and did not have time to assess the actual damage to the vehicle. In a panic, they drove the tank off the road and abandoned it and fled. "😭Tipps: There is a small Easter egg on the base to reflect this story.)