Wanting to build something for our club's 2nd Banana contest in February, I looked way back in my stash and found the old 1/35th Trumpeter Centauro kit.  I bought it at a show many moons ago with grandiose plans of a diorama at a check point during a training operation in the Italian countryside.  Needless to say it kept getting pushed back in the closet until I forgot I even had it.  With a little research I turned up an operation the Italian Army participated in called PRIMA PARTHICA in 2014.  Basically the Italians sent 15 of these Centauro's to guard some dams near Mosul, Iraq.

The kit is built pretty much straight from the box.  After a coat of Tamiya grey primer I used Ammo by Mig acrylic paints for the base colors.   I free handed the camo pattern with my Iwata airbrush and toned down the interface points with a filter made from grey enamals

I roughed up the rubber tires with a Scotch-Brite pad and then dry brushed them with Life Colors Tire Black and Mig's Earth acrylics.  I tried to muddy them up a bit with pastels and white glue mixed together.

I added stowage from an old Custom Dioramics set, antenna from stretch spruce, and some Coke and MRE boxes from Mathos Accessories.

I used the tried and true method of a black oil wash and highlighted with a dry brushing of all the raised surfaces.

I made the base from a piece of wood from Hobby lobby.  I put a border around it and mixed up some Woodland Scenics Smooth It.  This product dries to an almost concrete color on its own, but I elected to paint the seams a littler darker for contrast.  After it was dry (about 2 hrs) I etched in a hexagon pattern.  I printed off a name plate and unit insignia on a color printer and glued them to scrap pieces of balsa I had.  Once glued, I hit them with a gloss clear coat.

For an older kit, I was happy with the fit and final look of the machine.  This is the 1st kit I finished this year and I spent about 40 hrs total on the  effort.  It felt longer, probably I spent too much time on the base and fusing with the stowage.

I'm looking forward to the next club contest.  Proto-Types and Paper Panzers.

Thanks for looking - George

PZKPFW MKV Ausf A PANTHER

This is the 1/35 Tamiya Panther Ausf A done in the Hinterhalt - Tarnung (ambush camoflage) scheme. I find this to be the most interesting camo scheme of WWII. There are a couple of variations to this scheme, and I chose to go with the dotted pattern of Olive green and Dark Yellow over the base color and the Olive Green and Red Brown splotches. It is intended to emulate the sun shining through foliage. 

 This is also my favorite AFV of WWII. Here she is from the left.

And another shot from the right. Enjoyed building this again after so many years.