Paul's (tricky) Normandy Panthers in 1/35 & 1/16

[monica]

nice work with the bins,they do look good,and worth all the time,

[tr1ckey66]

Thanks guys


Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the bins done and maybe some front fenders.


Cheers


P

[tr1ckey66]

Got the front fenders done yesterday. The way these are constructed really feel like the real thing. Where appropriate tiny bolts are used and strengthening beams under the fender echo the real thing. Each bolt you see here has a tiny nut holding it in place underneath and all this needs to be soldered. The hinges for the cutaway fender (this cutout is to allow the front towing shackles to move freely) are again working items as can be seen in the photographs.


The left hand fender...





Working hinge..





Both hinges and the underside showing the tiny bolts and strengthening beams...





Finally I bought some after rmarket RC motors which have more torque and better scale speed. I soldered on the necessary wires and crimped on the fittings to connect to the RC.





I'm waiting for some new pinion gears to fit to these new motors.


Tomorrow I'm continuing soldering and move on to the small but important side fenders


Cheers


Paul

[tr1ckey66]

Still soldering on!


Finally got the front fenders, side skirts and rear bins completely finished.


The work done since the last post:-


Soldered the clamps onto the bins. Again, these are workable items and were rather frustrating to put it mildly! Still they are on and they do work. I've shot the bins with a match for size comparison and I hope this illustrates how soldering such items, and keeping them freely moving, is a bit of a challenge.


Here's the bins...








The side skirts and front fenders...





A close up of the side skirts...





I deviated from the Aber instruction a little here. The instructions would have you attach the schurzen hangers to a modified kit part. I thought this would be a weak point so I made attachment points from brass tube and soldered them on - much stronger! The brass tube is inserted into the kit's upper deck (unseen).


And attachment points for the front fenders...





I've just noticed that the joint on this needs a bit more work!


But which Panther to model?


Whilst working on all this brass etch I've been turning my attention to which Panther I want to depict.


My criteria were:-


Early Panther G (obviously)


Normandy campaign


Preferably in the British/Canadian sector


Good photographic reference available


A bonus would be if it had interesting features.


Now several Panzer Divs spring to mind when applying the above filter but I've narrowed it down to these vehicles.


First up 12SS Panzer HJ


Panther 308 formally 126 of HJ











This tank was eventually captured by the allies but not before it had been in a few fights. On the turret's right rear there's a rather large piece of zimm missing with what looks like a square weld patch underneath - evidence of repair?. This kitty has been in the wars! Formally of the first company, tank 126 was, at some point, handed over to the 3rd company and renumbered 308.


Panther 135 of HJ


This a really familiar subject, as anyone who has built the Tamiya 1/35 early Panther G will recognise.











This tank was also captured by the allies and the ref photos are excellent.


Another very recognisable Panther G in Normandy this time Pz Regt I./24


Not the same tank as above but the same unit and features...





Note the tube for the barrel cleaning rods has been moved to the rear deck, also spares wheels have been bolted to the rear 3/4 of the turret and finally spare track is hung from the turret. These Panthers however operated more in the American sector.


Finally a 9SS Panther Hohenstaufen








At this moment I'm going with either of the HJ vehicles and I think '135' is in front but I'm still a little undecided.


Anyway there's still time to mull on that there's plenty to be getting on with!


Tomorrow I'm going to take a break from soldering and make some alts to the upper deck. The molded plastic bins need to be removed as do the driver's and radio op's hatches (these will be replaced with working versions).


Till then...


Thanks


P

[tr1ckey66]

Open tank surgery


Took a break from the soldering yesterday and did a bit of work on the Panther's hull.


First up I removed the front moulded-on fenders in readiness for their brass etch replacements.





I then removed the moulded-on rear stowage bins from the rear hull plate and filled the subsequent holes with plastic card, ensuring this was perfectly flat.





Then came the removal of the driver's and radio operator's hatches from the deck. Once these we're cut out I created a 'lip' for the new working hatches to sit on. This was done by marking a hole slightly smaller than the hatch openings and cutting this out of plastic card. This was then stuck to the underside of the deck.





And then the new hatches were prepared for fitting.





I'm a little unhappy with the hatches at the moment. These hatches are cast in resin and as such have small variations in plate thickness. This results in the hatch laying unevenly on the deck. I think I'll probably rebuild these hatches using plastic card and take the fittings from the originals. In this way I can ensure the hatches lie flat on the deck.


Finally I prepared the left hand radiator fan cover for this 'early' G type Panther. The Tamiya kit is actually a later type Panther G with the raised left-hand fan cover for the crew compartment heater which wasn't present on the early version.





Next up - reworked hatches and a look at Zimmerit.


Cheers


P

[Guest]

Great work so far Paul, you're definitely putting in the hours on this one! 


You could always save yourself some work by posing the hatches open?

[tr1ckey66]

You could always save yourself some work by posing the hatches open?

The hatches won't take that long to do. I may even get them finished tonight. The time to do this is a mere 'drop in the ocean' compared to the time required to solder the photo etch!


Glad you like the build so far. Will you be joining us?


Cheers


P

[Snowman]

Excellent stuff!! O.o B|

[tr1ckey66]

Did a little work on the hatches last night. I've fabricated new hatches from plastic card, a process complicated by the need to laminate 2 weights of card to get the thickness of hatch required to sit level with the deck. All i need to do now is remove the fittings from the resin items and fit to the plastic card replacements.








Or is it?...


I had a nagging doubt in the back of my mind whilst doing this work, and this doubt proved to be correct - the hatches are now too thick. You can see the problem in the comparative photographs below.








Essentially, the Tamiya hull is too deep to simply fabricate hatches of the same thickness.


There are 2 possible fixes:


1. Raise the lip inside the holes for the hatches to reduce the height to the deck. This will be incredibly difficult to do


2. Rework the entire removable section that contains the hatches as indicated below





I think I'm going to go with the latter option but this may be a weekend job now!


Till then


Cheers


P

[Guest]

wow!


Magnificent work so far Paul  :x :x  

[tr1ckey66]

wow!


Magnificent work so far Paul  :x :x  

Thank you Polux.


I'm enjoying the build.


Cheers


Paul

[tr1ckey66]

Complete driver's and radio operator's hatches


Hi everyone


Well, this area of the build certainly took longer than I anticipated!


To recap, I decided to rebuild the Wecohe hatches and part of the deck to resolve fit and scale issues. I finally finished this area today and the results can be seen below. I built the deck with 2 weights of plastic card and detailed it with bolt holes and the rebates for the hatches themselves. The fittings from the original Wecohe items were removed and placed on to the new plastic card hatches. I did rebuild some of the detail, again in plastic card, simply because it was easier to do this.


Because the items have rounded edges lots and lots and lots of test fitting went into this part of the build and i'm happy enough with the results..














Next: Hull texture and Zimmerit!


Cheers


Paul

[monica]

real nice detailing on this,looking very good,liking what and how your doing it, 9_9

[Guest]

That is some cracking detail on those hatches.

[tr1ckey66]

Cheers Tony/Monica


I'm trying to keep a fairly brisk pace with this build but unfortunately tasks such as this one just seem to take an age.


Cheers


P