Normandy Kitty....Takom 1/35 Panther A

Never know why I'll build something sometimes. I just had a hankering to do a Panther, out of nowhere. This was reinforced by another Osprey book, in this case Campaign no. 335, Mortain 1944. This was the counterattack to try and stop the Allied breakout from Normandy, by hitting West from the town of Mortain to attempt to reach Avranches on the coast, and cut the allied advance in two. Looked good on paper, but at this point the Panzer divisions assigned to this attempt were just pieces of Divisions, worn down in the previous Month's battles. One of these was the Leibstandart Adolph Hitler, the Waffen SS unit still possessing about 45 Panthers plus Mark IV's. The attack was a total failure, thanks to the U.S. 30th Division's valiant defense in and around Mortain, helped by tank and anti tank units, as well as the crushing Allied airpower. Patton's 3rd Army was heading Northeast and the Brits South, to encircle the German armies, and the attack was over as soon as it started.

In the Osprey (and on the cover) is artwork of two LSSAH Panthers rolling forward, with the Commander's eyes on the skies as Typhoons lurk overhead. Also a couple of photos of knocked out LSSAH Mark V's. One had it's turret sides covered with track links to augment the thinner side armor. That was enough to set off the Panther Party. The local Hobby Emporium had several Kittys for adoption and a Takom Model "A" Late model went home with me.

Any mid-'44 German AFV came out of the factories with Zimmerit anti-magnetic mine paste coated on them. We used to do that with spackle and hacksaw blades but now pre-cut tank-specific resin sets are available. I ordered one from Atak Co. and it fit and glued very well. The Panthers had several styles and the one I wanted was the square type., I think from the Daimler Benz firm. The Takom kit went together with no issues I can recall (It was this year's Lake George Cabin build) except for the tracks, which required all the guide horns to be glued on to the track links.

Takom molded them in strips, to be glued all at once to the link and length pieces, which eased things somewhat.

They did have a tendency to break off easily though, handle with care.

I also had to order another sprue of said tracks to do the spare link armor on the turret. This I found on eBay, 'Sprue A for Takom----. Unbelievable, you can get anything on the Bay. My Osprey book had a pic of a Panther, dead in a ditch, leaning over at a 45 degree angle, the spare track link hanging straight down. From this I deducted they were hung there with welded-on hooks of some sort. These I cobbled from some spare photo etch I had around.

Paint is Tamiya lacquers. Dark yellow, dark green 2, and Linoleum brown. The Tamiya color red brown just looks too greenish to me, more like Olive Drab. With the track links hanging on the turret, the Panther picture showed somebody painted the 3 digit panzer number on the turret mantlet area instead. No decals here, I snuck 'em in there with a fine point Sharpie. The whole shebang got a dark brown oil wash, more oils for dust and stains. The unders are AK "Mud" mixed with pigments, and the tracks the same with static grass smushed in. I tried to copy the mud patterns on the wheels from the photos.

Again from the photos, one can see spare wheels on the back engine deck. I painted these in primer, and guessed at how they would be tied on. The side armor skirts do not appear in the pics, I left them off and snipped the mounting lugs. I wanted a Cat Commander, he is from an Alpine set. I wired up his headphones and throat mike, and painted him with Vallejo Model Colors using the "glazing" method. And that's pretty much it. Now that I took the pictures I realize I forgot the cupola mounted MG, gotta go back and get it. Also included, a shot of my real Panther, who wanted very much to help me with the build.

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.