Tank duel between the Cologne Cathedral Panther and the T-26 Pershing

Started by Louis Gardner · 185 · 7 hours ago
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    George R Blair Jr said 1 month ago:

    Sherman is coming along nicely, Louis (@lgardner). With your background, I always figured that you would be doing a lot more armor. Can't wait for the diorama plans.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    Wow! Fantastic progress, my friend @lgardner! Great that you fitted the correct cupola and I loved your scratch built sponsons! The Sherman looks excellent so far!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month ago:

    That's indeed some great progress you made, Louis @lgardner
    Nice work on the scratch building.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    George R Blair Jr (@gblair)

    First off, thank you for the compliments on the second Sherman. I am amazed and also very happy with just how fast these kits have been coming together.
    Yes I have been thinking about what you said and you are absolutely correct. With my background as a real life “tanker” one would think that I would build more armored kits. Lately I have been doing just that. I have several different tanks and some wheeled vehicles that are getting very close to being done.

    My heart has always been in aviation though. I believe that is why I continue with building more aircraft than armor vehicles.

    As far as the diorama goes, I originally wasn’t going to build anything for this project. If I were to build something it would have had to be huge, and it would have probably take up a portion of our backyard in order to make it look realistic as far as the size / scale of things.

    So I think I might just try to build some sort of photographic base that will consist of a cobblestone street with a set of rail tracks running along it as the base. Then I’ll attempt to make some walls for buildings in a Hollywood TV production filming prop style. These would probably not be connected to the base, but they would have a capability to be positioned in different configurations and locations.

    I basically just need a front wall. I think that I will try to mimic some of the buildings that are visible in the background of the original Cologne engagement film.

    I will also construct several piles of rubble that will depict the ones that we see along the sides of the streets. These will also be moveable. So that I will be able to make it look like a different location by simply swapping the panels and rubble piles around to different locations.

    Wish me luck ! This will be a first time attempt at doing something like this for me. I have made several photographic bases for my aircraft builds, but nothing anywhere nearly as complicated as this.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)

    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Thank you for your continued support. I’m very happy with how the sponsons look now that they have been filled in with plastic card. I’m also very happy with how the new turret looks. Having the correct style of cupola and split dual hatches was the best way to go about this.

    Wish me luck on the future project of making a photo shoot base for the final article.

    Please stay tuned as I have another update coming up next.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    The second Sherman has had the turret painted ODG and has the interior painted with a Gloss White color. This is how the real thing was done.

    I don’t have any pictures of it yet but I will take some and post them later on.

    The final tank has been started.


    I introduce to you the Panzer Mk IV.

    I enjoy building armor for a change of pace. I’m especially fond of gluing them together and not having to worry about painting anything until later on.

    This is what the road wheels look like when glued together. The Dragon / DML kit is from the early to mid 90’s and is designed to be built with the hatches closed. There is no interior included in the kit.

    This allows for a faster build, and it reminds me of how I built kits up as a kid. Back then I would “slam them together” in a single afternoon.

    I’m building these tanks at a much faster rate than I typically would be doing if they were aircraft.

    However I have been taking the time to build them carefully enough to where they fit as they should and they are correctly assembled in the end.




    This shows the lower hull and suspension system installed. The rear hull glacis and exhaust system have also been added.




    These pictures show the upper hull being made. The fit is spot on and no gaps are found.

    I couldn’t help myself from doing this. I had to place the upper hull on top of the lower portion. I wanted to make sure that it would fit perfectly and thankfully it did.

    This was not permanent and I removed it shortly afterwards.




    Here more details are added to the upper hull. It’s really starting to shape up now.


    The turret was built next. The fit was again very nice. The tiny parts were time consuming and very fiddly. Things like the miniature lifting hooks and various other things were very trying for me, especially since I have fat fingers that don’t move as well as they once did. It doesn't help things at all with my up close vision not being what it once was too. The curse of Father time is catching up with me... along with multiple injuries over the years. I was not a couch potato for sure... Now I'm paying the Piper for my "youthful exuberance".

    Another tricky part was adding the side skirts on the turret. This involved a lot of careful fitting and eventually worked out great. These side skirts were a prominent feature of the Mk IV J late version Panzer. This particular version also has a screen type wire mesh material that was used to defeat shaped charges on the sides of the hull.

    The earlier versions of the H and J models used a solid steel plate for the skirting. Someone discovered the same thing could be done using less metal and also reducing the extra weight at the same time. You can see these lightweight / expanded metal skirts were also used on many other German armored vehicles, such as the Stug IV when we are talking about the Panzer Mk IV series chassis.

    The Mk IV was the workhorse of the German armored units and were in service throughout the entire war.


    The last thing I did was to temporarily position the newly constructed turret on the upper hull.

    I wanted to see how it looked together.

    More progress has been made. I’m going to be posting more updates later on as I can.

    As always comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Here’s a few pictures of the Sherman’s.


    Lt. Kellner’s tank is on the left side. The other one is the tank that I built the extra turret for. It has the older style turret installed now.

    This one shows the two piece commander hatch and older style cupola. I have painted it ODG and it is ready to use now.

    The last picture shows the hull with the replacement older style turret installed.

    This shows how the Sherman’s are at this very moment.

    As always comments are welcome and even encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by and please stay tuned for future updates.

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    Tom Cleaver said 1 month ago:

    This is a really interesting project @lgardner, and you are doing some spectacular work here.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month ago:

    That's a great Panzer added to this project, Louis @lgardner
    All the work done so far is really impressive.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    Excellent progress on the Panzer, my friend @lgardner!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Tom Cleaver (@tcinla)
    Thank you Tom. I sincerely appreciate your comments. This has been a learning experience with the research I have been doing about not only the encounter, but the various units that were involved.

    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)

    Thank you my friends. It's always nice to hear from you. I sincerely appreciate everyone who is following along with this endeavor.

    Please stay tuned as I have another update coming up next !

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Here are some more pictures from the progress on the Panzer Mk IV


    The kit comes with individual track links. Here I have assembled a short run of spare track blocks that will be mounted on the front slope.

    The kit also supplied PE brackets to use for mounting these tracks. Here you can see what it looks like once they were glued in place. The late model J version did now have a welded on towing connector / pintle on the front slope. However the holes were there. These were used on the earlier versions, but since this is a late war tank, many things were done to simplify and speed construction. The side armor was modified much like a King Tiger and the towing hooks were actually a part of the armor on this version.

    I have since used a thin sheet of plastic card stock to cover the entire front slope. This not only looked better, but it was also easier and I didn't have to worry about filling any holes here.


    The upper hull was glued in place permanently, and clamped in place. It was left overnight to dry before the clamps were removed.

    The Toma screen style side skirt brackets were assembled... This was a complicated assembly, made up of approximately 20 parts per side.


    Here these skirt brackets were glued in place.


    I had to place the turret on the hull for this photo op session... It really looks like a Mk IV now !

    These are the remaining PE parts left that are necessary to make the screen style Toma side skirts.

    The kit also provides a section of screen material to make the skirts out of. You can see the kit supplied decals as well.


    These are the remaining parts left to be added. It is mainly OVM tools and the like. The parts will be painted and installed once the paint and decal work is completed.

    The entire model was sprayed using some of my dwindling Model Master enamel paint. 1943 Dunkelgelb... I wish they still made this stuff as it was fantastic.

    Here you can see the freshly painted hull...

    Followed by the turret. I'm really getting stoked now !

    Once again, I couldn't help myself, so I placed the turret on the hull again... Don't worry though, as it will be back off a minute later.


    The road wheels were also sprayed.

    Here you can see just how big the Panzer Mk IV was when compared to the M4 Sherman's/ The Mk IV is actually a larger tank...


    The rubber portion of the road wheels were painted using a dark gray color. Once dry, they were permanently installed. I'm happy to report that all of the wheels sit flat on the ground. The tank sits perfectly level and all of the wheels make contact with the ground.


    The individual track links were then assembled and installed. I use cotton bud Q-tips to make the tracks appear like they are sagging. Once the track has dried the cotton buds are removed. The end result looks really nice when done properly.

    This last photo shows how the tracks look when done.

    I couldn't be more pleased ! I know this is the older Dragon kit, and some people have had a hard time with it. Maybe I just got lucky, but it is turning out to be a very nice build so far.

    I have been doing some research on these late model J tanks. Most of them were painted at the factory in the "Late War" ambush scheme.

    I have found an excellent source that shows a 5 view illustration that is based on actual pictures of the real tank. This is exactly what was needed.

    I'll post the information about this soon.

    Now you can see how the Mk IV looks on the work bench. This installment has brought the project up to date now.

    I'll be spraying the three color ambush scheme next, so please stay tuned for a future update.

    As always comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by !

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    Stephen W Towle said 1 month ago:

    Lou, I've been ghosting and following your Panther build. Seeing and reading your "Eureka" moment with the Zimmerit. I believe it was a paste made from saw dust and cement? Your progress on this whole project/ journey has been inspirational.

    Mixing family history with YouTube and tank modifications/ model techniques painting has been productive to the N th degree. I have collected 3 Panther kits and your Zimmerit applications are now a must. I'm still a Kidd at heart and always get big eyes when entering either a hardware or hobby store. Keep up the good work and keep up being Lou. (@lgardner)

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 month ago:

    Tank looks great, Louis (@lgardner). The Pz IV looks really nice with the paint and tracks. I haven't had the courage to try individual track links, so I look for either rubber tracks or link & length when I get an armor models. Or better yet, I like armored cars with just wheels. Your journey in pursuit of a realistic zimmerit has been really fun to watch. Cheers buddy.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    Looks really awesome, my friend @lgardner!