Dragon’s Early Panther G with Zimmerit (kit 7252) – complete

At long last the Panther is done.

After completing the camo pattern I found the colors were way too contrasting. The yellow was way too bright compared to the two saturated dark colors, so I sprayed a sandy acrylic mix, diluted with satin varnish. More layers were sprayed over the lower half of the vehicle to simulate the road dust.

As LSSAH was being reformed and reequipped from early April I kept weathering to a minimum apart from the bent front fenders, the dust, a few scratches and a slight bend on the side skirts.

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Building a 1/72 Panther – Dragon’s early G with zimm

A word of warning here – this kit is not something you would use for a quick build. I found that the hard way as you would find out below.

Due to the zimmerit being molded in the kit parts the hull is comprised of new parts. Whether the “smooth” Panthers fit OK I am unaware as of now, but this one certainly had issues with a bunch of shims required all around the front and back to make gaps go away. You can also see the large gap around the ball MG mount – still not filled here…

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Dragon’s Panther G, Early Production w/Zimmerit, kit 7252

I got the kit in 2010 as a replacement for a lost package – I had won an “Achtung, Jabo!” pack with 4 figures, which never arrived for whatever reason.

Actually this was my first Dragon tank and I was eager to open the box and see what’s in. DML didn’t fail to impress. The number of parts is rather large due to sprue sharing with other Ausführungs and even with the Jagdpanther.

Onto the images (click to see larger images). You get sprue A, which is wheels and side armor screens.

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