This vignette came about as a way to test our newest laser etched zimmerit sheet and at the same time, to try to reproduce a photo I have seen in books since the 1970's.
I have always liked the look of the "abandoned" Bergepanther in a French town. I think it has to do with the used look of the vehicle with the broken off zimmerit and the angle at which the photograph was taken.
The zimmerit set is designed to be used with the ICM kit. I didn't make any notes about construction issues with the kit but I can offer a general review and describe what I remember as being challenges in the construction.
In my opinion, the kit compares well dimensionally with the Dragon and Tamiya kits. Really, nothing stands out as looking incorrect to me. What I did find out regarding the hull is that the plate that covers the driver and radio position is too large for the opening. The same is true for the engine hatch on the rear deck. The parts are oversize very slightly and normally wouldn't be a problem to sand a little bit to be able to drop into their recess' but they both have rounded corners that are tricky to sand evenly. It was a little scary to attempt to hand sand the front hatch to fit but I managed to do an acceptable job of it...I think. I didn't try to sand the engine hatch, as I lost my nerve and just left it ajar and added some clutter around it. If the tank is abandoned, then surely someone would have been looking at the engine at some point anyway. I think a separate mg flap would have looked better also. I don't remember any other problems with details or fit of the parts.
One thing I thought to photograph was how I dealt with the roadwheels and tracks. The bottom of the sponsons are included in the casting of the bottom hull. That means they hang over the top of the roadwheels and make it hard to paint the roadwheels and attach the tracks. I decided to cut them off and glue them back after I was finished installing and weathering the tracks. It was a safe modification to make because it is the underside of the upper hull and not likely to be noticed if somehow, something went wrong with the cutting. That was something I wish I had thought of when I made my "Combat Artist" vignette using a Dragon kit, which is designed the same way.
The photo shows the parts cut off and some half rings of plastic tubing around each axle stub inside the hull. I cut the "C" shapes and glued them to the axles, trapping them to the hull but allowing them to be positioned differently if I wanted to put the tank on some uneven debris.
Speaking of the tracks, I found them to be troublesome to assemble and stay glued. The links seem to be made of a sort of pliable styrene in that, they don't necessarily melt/weld together when liquid cement is applied. They seem to adhere but with a little handling, they will randomly break apart again. It seems there is some resistence to the liquid cement and therefore, I had some trouble getting them to manipulate around the sprockets and show some weight sag. I did overcome the problems and they weren't impossible to work with but they did take some time to get looking right.
The other photo I thought to take shows the parts being primed with aerosol paint. I believe this is khaki. I've primed my last few tanks with a variety of colors, without it really making much of a difference. I've used flat black, red oxide, light grey, steel and dark bronze. The reason I chose this khaki color is that it seems to me to be very close to the wartime RAL color for German equipment. I'm using color chips from the Tomas Chory book and an actual helmet for comparison.
The color is a little bit lighter than the helmet but I thought I would allow for scale and I knew I would be staining the paint with weathering washes and it would end up darker.
I did spray the inside of the hull black because I hadn't decided if I was going to leave any hatches open a bit.
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