'Sennelager' Panther camo - how much of the tank should I cover? Solved!

[Ballardian]

In the endless search for interesting camo patterns to apply to my toys I came across an very interesting scheme that had been applied to Panthers - from footage of the Sennelager propoganda film of '44 (the one with a large number of Tiger II's rolling across a hillside).
 It's quite a complex pattern of circles & irregular triangles & would be a challenge but for the existance of a stencil (produced by Uschi Van Der Rosten) in 1/48 (have seen his disc camo stencil of that scale applied to a WG Jagdpanzer IV & it doesn't look notably oversized).
 My question is; how much of the tank do you think should I cover (as I've never seen an image showing how much the pattern may have covered)  - the fact that Panthers of the period had the MAN/MNH disc style applied in several ways (to schurzen only, to schurzen & turret sides/back, schurzen,turret & hull sides & to the entire vehicle) has provoked 'too many options' brainlock!
 All advice most welcome!

[Ragnar]

That looks freakin' great!

[moiterei_1984]

  awesome! Just go ahead and give the whole thing that treatment!

[Suetonius Paullinus]

Complete awesomeness right there 

Cheers

SP

[Ballardian]

Cheers all, what I think I'll end up doing is to take it a stage at a time (schurzen, then turret, then the sides of the hull & if it still looks ok glacis/deck)  & see if a natural stopping point presents itself along the way. Annoyingly I've not found any pics of the entire vehicle with this scheme, so still unsure what the norm would be.
Fingers crossed & will post some pics as I go.

[Tim]

May I ask how you made that spray template?  Cutting a piece of cardboard or plastic?

And how far away are you holding it when you use your air brush?  Flush to the surface?

Lovely looking work.   I don't know anything about the scheme but it looks a little ambush-like and I suspect it is probably used on all surfaces except perhaps the wheels. 

[Ballardian]

Tim, the template is commercially available from Uschi Van Der Rosten, (uschivdr.com/shopping-categories/shop-paint-masks/) - I'm still waiting for mine to turn up (the pic of the schmalturm is from the site, used just because it give a clear indication of the effect. It looks like it's being used on a 1/35 E-50 kit, so probably Trumpeter).
 I'm assuming that its made from the same material as other stencils, usually a pvc type plastic with a low tack adhesive on the back. This pattern needs a hard edge, so would be stuck flush to the model.
 As they fit flush to the models suface you can hold the airbrush quite close (2"/5-6cm away) - I generally use a lowish pressure - about 12 psi & on previous use of stencils of this type this seems to work fine - just make sure that the stencil is well stuck down & your paint isn't too thin & it shouldn't bleed underneath.
 If anyone finds a more complete pic of a Panther (or anything else for that matter) showing the extent of the pattern I'd appreciate a link, many thanks.

Edit:
Have possibly pinned the pic down via Richard Hargreaves 'The Germans in Normandy' to Lorraine in September '44 - also that this scheme probably isn't an entirely 'new' disc camo (MAN factory applied t1 & MNH t2) but that someone at the MNH factory may have gone a little OCD & altered their t2 pattern, making it much busier with extra cutouts (perhaps the original application stencils were worn & they improvised).
 As to the coverage, it seems that the wheels, lower glacis, deck & turret top escaped application, leaving the schurzen, upper glacis, hull sides/rear & turret front/sides/rear covered - now I just have to wait for the stencil to arrive!