21st Panzer Division Panther

[Greebo]

Thanks to Lyric1 for finding me the info for this skin.

On the 6th April 1945 this Panther was one of 22 collected from the M.A.N. factory in Nuremberg by crews from the 21st Panzer Division. They were immediately sent north of the city to defend against the approaching US 12th Armoured Division but were soon forced to retreat back the way they came. At the end of April this tank was employed in the defence of Munich but was captured intact by American troops at the Karlsplatz. It was later transported to America to be displayed in the Patton Tank Museum.

[Devil 505]

Beautiful work.

[lyric1]

 

[FTJR]

I was in Karlsplatz last week.. :0

Nice work as usual

[Nefarious]

Looks great!

[bangsbox]

great FN work Greebo!!! I have been praying for greener German GVs that better match our awfully green maps

[Greebo]

Thanks guys, glad you like it.

Most German GVs were painted dark grey until 1943, dark yellow (light brown) until the end of 1944, then green or whatever paint could be found through 1945. On top of those base colours red/brown, green or dark yellow could be painted on to make a disruptive scheme. The problem with making predominately green German GV skins is finding a decent photo of one from 1945, the German schemes often don't show up well on b&w photos of the period. This particular tank was abandoned in the centre of a major city and later ended up in a museum so was extensively photographed.  Between us Lyric1 and I found about 20 photos of it taken from lots of different angles and a colour movie.

[oboe]

Its beautiful Greebo - are you using the normal map to create the surface corrosion/unevenness?  Or is that from the model itself?

[Greebo]

I use the normal map to represent mud and rust unevenness where I can. I just copy the mud and rust layers into the normal map, turn them white and use a low density eraser tool to make these layers more uneven. I also use a low density airbrush tool to create a layer with lots of individual 1 pixel dots all over the skin. With the opacity turned down this gives a pretty good rough armour effect. Normal effects are useful for tanks with zimmerit paste as well.

The Panther shape has issues that prevent me doing that in some places. For example the left and right armour skirts are mirrored in a way that means a normal map bump is a bump on the left skirt but also a dip on the right skirt. There is no way to get round this so I leave the skirt area blank on the normal map. Other areas are not mirrored but are reversed so to prevent bumps looking like dips I use an inversion layer on the normal map to un-reverse just those areas.