Pink Panzer

This is a small side project I did for a friend of mine who recently became a father and called his daughter Mathilda. "Not after the tank, of course," he said. Because he's a tank hugger and we do exchange tank trivia. The mother of his child didn't seem pleased with that, so an evil plan hatched in me...

A few day ago, I giftwrapped it and handed it over to the young father...

 

And apparently, it's been appproved.

 

For those interested, this is a 1/100 Zvezda model of the British A12 Matilda tank.

Of course, my inspiration comes from the legendary Girls und Panzer anime series.

Panther Camouflage and decals

In the meantime, I've added some camouflage to the Panther tank. The pattern was inspired by an example used in Italy in 1944 (stolen from an Osprey). So it's decals and done.

It took some days before I got to the decals, but the are now applied as well.

And by now the tank has got to the birthday boy!

I actually did some more modelling and painting!

Yes, it gets more unbelievable...

When I spray painted the Panther tank, I also went over two 1:72 Shermans I had assembled earlier for my US Army force for Chain of Command (look for a teaser at René's Paint-In blog, he's doing a great job again).

And three newly assembled M3 halftracks in different versions. I gotta admit I love those Plastic Soldier kits for ease and speed of assembly.

You won't believe it, but I also have three Stuart M5A1 sprues here that I just might assemble sometime soon. And a bunch of jeeps and a Buffalo.

Not making any promises though....

I actually did some modelling and painting

My appearance at Murphy's Heroes yesterday was a bit of a shocker. Not so much the fact that I was present, but the fact that I was carrying an assembled and painted 1:72 Airfix model of Panther tank.

This goes contrary to club myth that I don't ever paint any miniatures and as we all know you shouldn't let the facts come between a good story.

The tank is actually not for myself, but a proxy gift to my great chum Michiel, a tank hugger if there ever was one.

I had to assemble quickly to present the unpainted model at his birthday bash last Friday.

And this weekend I quickly snatched the opportunity to airbrush it. Yes, desert yellow is a cop out. But it's the thought that counts.

I even spray painted the tracks

Did some dark wash on the rear grids. And a highlight. Which makes it look presentable, doesn't it?

Oh yes! Almost forgot the decals...