Matt, much appreciated, removing those bolts from the CMD turret was a necessary evil in this case. Happy they weren’t too bad to restore.
Reorganizing airbrush station today. Too much clutter and unused space.
Called in an engineering consultant.
He advised adding three small cabinets.
Still sorting etc…
Sorted
Realized, I hadn’t deep cleaned my Paasche VL in ~three years, maybe four! Just needle wipes and flushing with solvents. I’m impressed by the old workhorse VL. So the VL got the yearly tear down and cleaning.
With that done turned to an airbrush that I hate, the Harder-Steenbeck Evo. Likewise did full maintenance on it. Used beeswax aka Paasche VL tricks, to plug up the H/S’s thread leaks. Cleaned and polished the needle loaded it up with lube, loaded the trigger with lube and finally the trigger feels smooth 
. I think some of the finicky clog issues were a tiny bit of clear acrylic Aqua Gloss in the color cup in the O-ring grove. Look forward to trying this one again…on something that doesn’t matter much.
Even labeled the Humbrol & Revell paints.
Saw a tin of Humbrol “Gray Tank color” aka Panzer Gray which reminded me of this beat up build from the mid 1970’s.
I think “repairs” are due along the lines of a strip and repaint, new tracks, new tools, new main gun, new MG, new antenna & mount, new head light, Armor Research Company engine deck screens and Zimmerit but no scratch building or small photo etch.
I think it might be interesting to…
see what slapping basically just aftermarket parts can do for ancient beast.
The other option would be to rip the old JP apart and go all 1970’s Tamiya Tiger one with scratch building, small PE and all the previously mentioned aftermarket.
There will be ample opportunity in December.
Thoughts?
Steve, I have a couple of Takom Panther A kits but I haven’t built one yet.
FWIW - opinion…
Talked with two modelers that built Takom Panther A’s and saw them up close. They had difficulty with fit. The kits have a good reputation online for fit. This gives me the impression meticulous part clean up (no burrs) is critical for Takom Panther A kits.
I plan to pitch the link & length tracks in the trash and replace them with QuickTracks. These work and will snap together securely in ~45 minutes and don’t need clean up. They are also easy to install and look better. The link & length need guide teeth glued on etc.
The instructions seem small and hard to read from what I recall. Will probably do photocopies and enlarge for easy readability.
Takom sort of went 1970’s with the two halves of the muzzle brake. I’ll look for a 3D printed part to replace that.
My impression is Panther A’s should have zimmerit since production dates were August 1943 to May 1944.
HTH
Started weathering the white metal Sector35 Panther D tracks with VMS Track Black 2.0
If you decide to complete the project, it is a given the final result will be excellent.
You seem to treat each of your models like the ship of Theseus. It is not enough to have the model. It must be maintained in excellent condition and updated as necessary. Even if, some day, nothing of the original model remains, continuity is preserved in living memory.
Also, if you ever build a Takom Panther and decide to throw out the tracks, we can do another trade. One of my Panthers is missing tracks. Adding 400 guide horns does not bother me. 
Your inspirational Panther thread has me wanting to start one. I have looked at aftermarket for the Takom; zimmerit (ATAK) and tracks (R-Model).
Would you recommend staying away from this re-box?
If anyone knows what 267 Panther model Max Wunsche used would also help me out?
Doug, I appreciate the confidence, it’s not likely anyone could make that gray JagdPanther worse or less accurate 
^ Sitting on a cement block as bridge with trees out of focus in the background it looked OK back in the day in black & white.
Speaking of JagdPanther’s saw this on YouTube a running JagdPanther.
^ I like the drybrushing on the bolts! Tad heavy on the Raw Umber oil wash on the wheels but excellent filter of Tamiya Flat Earth! (Nothing like jokes from the Panzer Police.)
I’ll happily send the Takom link & length Panther A tracks your way. Hopefully, in spring as I need to build an ausf A model.
Ship of Theseus indeed, seems to be my theme in both hobbies!
If VIN number remains, same car in Wade’s World. Daily driver for 25 years (white RS Camaro) had nearly 400,000 miles on the original driveline. Has well over 400,000 miles now. Restored, new performance drive line, suspension, etc.
Steve, thank you! Sounds like a good plan and choice of aftermarket.
Panther builds are fun! There’s enough diversity to be interesting but not so much as to be overwhelming.
I’m not up to speed on Max’s tanks but here’s a few pictures I found while looking for information.
I can see how that gray Jagdpanther came to be. In movies and on television, German stuff is usually some shade of gray. Sometimes, the gray used is rather light. A Jagdpanther is a German vehicle so it should be gray. You had some gray paint that looked close enough and used it.
The base model looks decent. You painted the detail bits and tracks. You did some effects painting. It is not horrible.
Most Jagdpanthers in Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion 654 had grid zimmerit as used on the restored vehicle you linked. I personally prefer ridge pattern zimmerit but should probably do a vehicle in grid style just for variety.
Indeed the influences of watching TV in black & white!
Painting Panther Precariously
The seal in a precious bottle of Floquil Railroad Antique Bronze failed. I discovered an almost dried out clump of paint. Normally, paint like that should be trashed but this is nearly irreplaceable.
The Floquil Railroad Antique Bronze was reconstituted with Xylol in a spare Tamiya bottle.
Discovered once again it had turned to paste and the plastic lid of the Tamiya bottle buldged upward. Apparently, Xylol is a little too hot 
for ye old Tamiya lids.
So the paint is being resurrected again, this time with Mr Color Leveling Thinner.
Guaranteed clogs and carnage putting this mess into an airbrush…so naturally the Paasche VL will do the task and do it flawlessly without clogs or hiccups.
Of course this mess just needs to be filtered to removed all of the potential problems.
Freshly filtered.
Be sure and use a CLEAN Fresh pipette for mixing and transferring. If one reuses the pipette used to move the paint from the bottle to the filter, one will contaminate the filtered paint!
Why are the tracks getting Floquil Railroad Antique Bronze after the VMS Track Black 2.0 Pro?
Some spots are missed. Yes can can be fixed etc. I like the VMS Track Black 2.0 Pro as a base to build on and like thin coats of Antique Bronze over it.
After painting be sure and toss everything contaminated with paint. Reusing old pipettes is a sure fire way to contaminate clean paint and get clogs etc.
Mr Color Leveling Thinner works great with Floquil Railroad colors better than Dio-Sol actually.
Edit - another wrecked lid…
Filters for paint rock…saved that Floquil Rust too…
Fresh squeeze (red arrow) and filtered paint suitable to airbrush.
Yes, I know the tracks had manganese and didn’t rust, it’s just part of color layering that I like.
Filtered the rust paint, and applied wash, followed by a wash of Floquil Dirt & a wash of Gunzy Sail.
Hope to finish tracks late to night & install.
Oh man that’s a lot of extra work with that paint! I know those Floquils are near and dear to you but that’s really going the extra mile. That paint looks like oatmeal. I know your Floquil supply is like rare vintage wine, but personally I would ditch that rust and find an equivalent AK Real Color to stay in the lacquer happy-zone. I know AK doesn’t make “rust” but finding something close would certainly reduce your drudgery. And who wants drudgery in modeling? Indy track links are bad enough. I hope you get to use all of your paint Wade. Hobby on!
Matt, you’re right of course.
The rust was well past expiration, hardly worth the hassle. Paint filtering proved very effective removing the “oats”. I’ll call it an “experiment” finding the capability of paper filter & Mr Color Leveling Thinner.
These are suitable replacements colorwise but very slow drying.
I’ll probably get some Tamiya Lacquer “mixing grade” Red & Yellow paint and see how a home brew rust works. Tamiya lacquers dry fast.
Finished weathering the tracks. Burnished gun metal pigment where the wheels ride on the tracks. Hit the wear spots on the track teeth with sand paper and track link exterior.
Hope to install tomorrow and gloss coat tank for decals.
Hey Barney
for those interested i am about to post on Missing Lynx the story of Wunsche’s 055 and its now confirmed loss on 8/9 June including the loss photo
and yes on 8/9 June he still had the same 267 as the one seen in the March photos
and Barney for a little hint while no one has known for 50 years what the front looked liked i can now tell you that it had the slot for the MG in the glacis and not the Kugelblende and that it had the TzF 12a gunsight but with the TzF 12 rain channel
so she cannot be any earlier than 7 Dec
as such she is a second week of Dec 43 MAN assembled 267 Bef Panther
it might be out by the end of this week
certainly by Xmas
cheers Neill
Neill, greatly appreciated! 
The community will greatly benefit as a whole from your kind willingness to share this information.
Thank you!!!
Side notes & Detour
We had a chaotic weekend with very little progress on the Italeri Panther D.
Friday Kali started acting funny, not eating and trying to hide. Saturday morning, we found her injured, hidden away in the model hobby room stash closet on top of a stack of kits buried in a hard to reach corner.
My wife found her, I moved stuff and we made an emergency vet visit. In short, the vet found an injury on the bottom underside of her tail that was badly infected. Shaved, lanced, drained, cleaned and full of antibiotics and pain killers she had a very hard day yesterday. Today’s she’s doing very well and a full recovery is expected per the vet.
So the hobby room had to be resorted again.
Kali’s happy and recovering. Today she tried to snatch a hamburger 
patty out of my sandwich so things are getting back to normal.
These kits plus a TriStar Pz IV C will be the on the road builds next time around.
Worked on cobbling up side skirts & a set of brackets from left over parts. Started installing tracks.
Inside faces of wheels will get weathering after tracks are installed.
Whoa. You are all in on German stuff. 
The jerries are in the front, he Allies to the left side. I couldn’t get a good picture due to bad lighting.
Lots of Evil Empire AFV’s (Axis & USSR) in those stacks.
The “ready rack” has some diversity.
Hopefully next year will add some British Steel to the display shelves to help keep a lid on the Evil Empires clique.
In addition to Russian and modern stuff, I see you are also purchasing a lot of newer models.
Are you finding modern models better (by whatever metrics you consider better) than older ones? I am definitely experiencing a trend to ‘more complicated’ but not a trend to ‘more fun’. ‘Accuracy’ is still a horrible mine field.
Hey Neil, thank you very much for that info. I will certainly be looking forward to your article.
I started reading Waffen-SS Armor in Normandy and this clarified a couple of incorrectly labelled Wunsche’s Panthers pics.
