Looks great, Louis (@lgardner). I am really looking forward to seeing your zimmerit with some paint over it. How many hours do you think you have invested in just adding the zimmerit?

Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
Thank you. I have made some more progress over the past few days. I have not posted it however. Tonight I will get this journal up to date. The Panther is ready for paint now, so please stay tuned.

John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
Thank you for the compliments. I am ready to give the entire model a good coat of Panzer Sand Gelb. I have left the wheels off on purpose, so I didn't get any over spray on them later. I have not kept this build journal up to date. I plan on fixing this later tonight. The Panther is ready for a solid coat of Sand Gelb now.

Please stay tuned my friends.

Here is what happened over the last few days with the Cologne Panther.

The road wheels were all painted, and are now ready to install. I am waiting to do this until after I paint the hull completely with a nice coat of Panzer Dunkelgelb. I just realized I have been calling the color with an incorrect name.

Dunkelgelb or simply Dark Yellow as it translates into English is the correct name for the color.

The areas on the center set of road wheels that rub against the center guides of the track links were also painted.

This should stand out nicely once installed and the tracks are added.

The track jack was assembled and painted. Eventually it will be mounted on the rear in between the exhausts.

The bow MG was also assembled. I decided to paint it because I had originally intended to have both of the hatches open on the hull. Later I decided against this. So this is something I could have skipped doing. Hindsight is indeed 20/20.

The main gun was also built and installed. I decided against painting it for the same reasons I mentioned above. The only hatch I will have open on this model is the Commander's cupola hatch. The rest will be closed, and I will have a crewman painted and installed in the opening. So not much will be visible.


This set of pictures shows how the turret looked at this point. It is not yet completed in these pictures. I am VERY pleased with the turned aluminum barrel that was included in the kit. It is a very nice looking part.

Remember in an earlier post where I was talking about the track return roller and how one of the tank manufacturer's installed a metal track support shoe in it's place ? This is the return roller I was talking about. On my next Panther A kit I will likely build it up using the shoe in place of the wheel.


The front slope and rear of the tank hull was painted. I wanted to see how a different color would look and I also wanted to see how the Zimmeritt would look with some paint on it.

Here I have used (ironically) a RAF color. Blasphemy you say ! Off to the gallows !

No it's true. Here you see what Model Master enamels looks like and the color is RAF Middlestone ANA 615. I think it is an excellent substitution for the German color Dunkelgelb. It will look even better under a bit of weathering and road dirt / grime.

Here are two more pictures that show the sides of the hull have also been painted. I did it like this so it would be easier to paint all of the hull now with the road wheels off. There was indeed a method to the madness. 😉



The Commander's cupola was assembled. The vision blocks are molded in clear plastic. I really like this choice. I will be masking off the outside glass in a few, so I can spray everything in ANA 615. The inside will be painted in an off white color that was used on WW2 German tanks. I think the name was something like Elfenbein. It is a creamy white color.

Just a word about modern American armor. The interiors on all of the tanks I served in were painted in a gloss white. Granted it was often chipped and dirty. Sometimes it looked horrible, but it was home. I tried to paint my tank interior occasionally to keep it looking better.

Still on the subject of the Panther tank cupola. I built the MG mount but decided against installing it. I don't see it present on the Cologne Panther in any of the pictures or videos. So I will leave it off this Panther, and stash it in the spare parts bin, as it is indeed nicely molded.

This shows how the turret currently looks, with the nice and shiny main gun tube stealing the show... 😉
Notice just how long the main gun is on the Panther.


These last pictures show what the hull looks like currently. Notice the cupola is still not glued in place.




These pictures show the sides of the hull after all of the various tool holding brackets and spare track mounting accessories were installed. This should look great under some paint.

I just had to do this and position the gun tube as it was shortly before the hull of the Panther was hit by an American 90MM main gun round after it was fire by the T-26 Pershing gunner.

This picture kind of gave me goose bumps once I saw it.

Here you have it ! This shows us how the Panther currently looks. I will be spraying the ANA 615 RAF Middlestone over the entire tank in a few. If things work out, I might be able to post some more photos of it soon. If not, then I will have some good pictures for an upcoming post.

As always comments are encouraged, and greatly appreciated.
Take care everyone and stay safe.

This is something that I just couldn’t resist doing. I have two other German armor projects that I have been working on recently.

I would like to introduce you to some of my near future headliners.

Here we are from the left to right.
Otto Carius Jagdtiger

Cologne Cathedral Panther is in the middle.

On the far right side is my Michael Whittmann “007” Tiger in which he and his crew were killed by Canadian soldiers in a Firefly Sherman.
The anniversary of this happening is on August 8th.

It will definitely be in the headlines on this day. I’m also thinking about building up one of his other Tigers as well. He lost his Tiger in Villers Bocage and I think it had the number 222 or 215 on the turret. I’m definitely going to have to go back down the rabbit hole on this one.

The tracks are done on both the Jagdtiger and the Tiger.

I still have to build the track set for the Panther.

So please stay tuned for this update in the near future.

Take care everyone and stay safe.

Good night

Amazing progress, my friend @lgardner! Your upcoming headliners look awesome!

Here is what happened at the Iron Werke today. I have practically finished the Panther. To be honest, I am surprised at how quickly it went together. This is not a complaint by any means. In fact it's just the opposite. I am very pleased with the outcome.

Even though this kit is a Dragon / DML, it built more like a Tamiya kit would have. Other than a few tiny fiddly parts, this was an absolute joy to construct. I can definitely see myself building a few more of these in the near future.

I have a late model 1/35 Dragon / DML Panther G with steel wheels and the circular disc pattern camouflage that is now calling my name loudly... plus it doesn't require any Zimmeritt. This one and a 1/35 Tamiya Jagdpanzer IV L/70 (also in the circular disc camouflage) have been screaming for me to build them lately...

Here are some pictures showing what went on.

I started out by painting the areas on the return rollers and sprockets that would have made contact with the tracks with a silver paint. This will simulate the contact patterns between the sprocket teeth and the tracks, as well as the track center guides and the return rollers.

The inner and the dual road wheels were added next. I had the turret in place for the photo, and then took it off for safe keeping so that I wouldn't accidentally damage anything by handling it during construction.


The front sprockets and rear return rollers were added next. The sprockets were not glued just yet though. I wanted to be able to make the tracks follow the sprocket and align perfectly into the openings for the teeth.


The inner child (and former tanker) in me just couldn't help it... I wanted to grab a photo or two of the Panther at this stage of assembly... and it just looks SO cool with the turret on. I digress... 😉

This particular kit comes with what Dragon / DML calls "Magic Tracks". Indeed they are just that... magical. They come ready to install. No flash or anything is present. These things look GREAT, and I wish more model kits would have this as an alternative option to the typical "rubber band" style of track.

I know it looks intimidating, but once you get on a roll it's not too bad.

So I started clicking the tracks together. They literally snap together. In about 30 minutes I had enough done for the Port side.

88 track links in total are needed per side.

Just to be safe, I applied some glue sparingly just to help hold the links together and in place on the sprockets. This also allowed me to achieve the sag I was looking for. Typically the German and Russian tanks had a lot of sag in the tracks. They were ran very loose, while the American counterparts tracks were always kept very tight. This included even the modern day M-60 and M-1 Abrams series.

Yep... I put the turret back on for the picture. The Panther tank is supposed to look bad a$$, and how can that happen without the main attraction ? The turret ? OK I need help. 😉 I'll admit it.

This is the Panther with one side of tracks done. One more to go. This thing looks SO freaking cool ! Did I ever mention that the Panther is my all time favorite tank ? Ever ?

Back to reality now. Here I am clicking the Starboard side track links together. You can see how I have snapped them in place firmly around the sprocket. This is why I left the sprockets loose earlier and did not glue them on when the directions tell you to do so. The sprockets will be permanently glued in position later on, once the tracks are completely done and no final adjustments or tweaks are needed.


And just like that, we have 99 percent of the building part of this Panther tank completed. I still have to add the OVM tools and spare track blocks in various places on the hull and turret. Then I can add the few decals and start dirtying this one up.

Chances are I will dirty up the Jagtiger and Whittmann Tiger at the same time.

I'll close tonight's installment with this view of the Panther. Now how cool is this tank ? A word of caution here about installing the tracks on back wards. Yes it can be done. I always try to consult pictures when possible to make sure the track cleats are running in the right direction.

I have a question for you. If I didn't mention it otherwise, (earlier in the build journal a few posts back), what would you think about the color that I used on this Panther ? It was supposed the be the Dunkelgelb color... as that is the standard color used for German Armor during 1943 to late 1944.

This is actually a Royal Air Force color. ANA 615 "Middlestone". Had I not told you about this, it could have passed otherwise don't you think ? In fact, I kind of like it a bit better than the standard Dunkelgelb color. It would look even better on an Afrika Korps vehicle don't you think ?

As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by, and have a good night. Stay safe everyone !

Those tracks are incredible, Louis @lgardner
The "hanging" of them looks very realistic.
Last year I had the chance to be up close to a King Tiger in La Gleize, Belgium. This Tiger participated in the Battle of the Bulge with Peipers 1st SS Panzer Regiment. This piece of armor is so impressive.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.