Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,
A new year is the perfect moment to put another good model kit in progress. This time, reporting for duty is the notorious, Sd.Kfz.171 ‘Panther Ausf.G’. Yup, Panther is really famous during its service in World War II, those Germans really know how to create a terrifying battle machine. In the present days, Panther is also famous among military modeler, it’s like every scale modeler should at least experience one Panther in his entire scale modeling career 
And this time, it’s my turn have the experience.
As you can see, the kit comes from Dragon Model Limited (DML). In my opinion, when it comes to the details in the kit, DML is the best brand out there in the market. There are a lot of Panther variant being produced in battle, this one is the latest variant, the Ausf. G. As you can see in the box is written “w/ steel road wheels”, this Panther’s wheel rims are made of steel while the older version of Panther are made out of rubber.
The Ausf. G Panther back in the old days
Even though this is the Steel Wheel version of Panther, the kit comes mostly in plastic (there are some photo-etched parts, but not for the wheels). It doesn’t really matter because the wheels are gonna be covered in dust anyway, besides, a steel part will make the price of this kit increase like a rocket
The wheels…uncut
the lower hull…untouched
Lower Hull and Wheels…combined
I also did the back panel where the exhausts are located
I’ve started the fitting process and still not finished yet. Most of the fitting in military kit already requires you to glue the parts, so you can’t turn back once it’s all done. That’s why it is difficult to finish the whole fitting in just a day (and a reason why I can’t show you the finished look after the fitting ). DML however,tries to make things easier by inventing this Smart Kit series where they already gives you a no-runner and clean tracks for the tank, more detailed and option parts, I also see less annoying molding lines in those parts.
I still need to glue them one by one though…
the tracks are glued together, I separate them into several section for easier assembly.
Now the lower hull started to look more like a tank
As usual, I didn’t plan for any diorama or even a simple base for this one. I just wanna get it done and have fun splashing colors and weathering for this tank.
Well, that is all about the Panther for now ^^
woot a new project! those tiny tracks o.O did they come with the kit? take your time and have fun with this
I will, It always fun to work on a new kit ^^
The tracks are in one package with the kit
woah great to see you embarking on another project! time to steal more techniques!!
I still didn’t know what “new things” I’m gonna try in this kit though LoL
looking forward to the camo!
This tank will receive a multi-color camo pattern
Armor is one of the tougher genres of modeling.. Gonna be watching your build every step of the way!
Thanks
Will try my best on this project ^^
Ah I remember having a 1/144 version of it from the Can.do line, which is a branch of Dragon Models (based on Pz.Rgt.24, Aachen 1944 settings); it’s also one of my first tanks I have as a shokugan toy before I starte collecting them like crazy XD
The steel road wheel Panthers were a rather limited run. Info on this particular configuration was quite limited (and that I can’t view all info on achtungpanzer.co, possibly due to page coding error, is a little troublesome), but I guess it might have got to do with the limited steel and quality as suffered from being on the losing side of the war (as resources become more desparate for the Germans by that time of the war).
The magic tracks sure look like it saves you a lot of time from trimming the parts and sanding them. Having to link them up one by one is a lot of work though! ^^;
Will you have the camouflage pattern based on historical ones or one that you will make up on your own? Looking forward to see the big cat in colour!
Yeah, compared to the other Panther variants, the Steel Wheel version is a minority.
For the camo pattern, I’ll stick to how the manual sheet instruct me to paint