Well I think I am pretty darn close to blasting a coat or 2 of paint on the exterior finally !
Got ambitious last night after recieving What I consider kind of critical stuff for this model as it is going into competition in the spring , ( rivets, bolt heads , wing nuts and the gunze sangyo cast surfacers) from Model Point less than 4 days after my order was placed !
I had these items on backorder from Greatmodels for over 4 months and finally just gave up on them . I was hardly expecting them to arrive as soon as they did from MP so needless to say I was pretty fired up !
Still on the to do list is a few welds here and there and those nasty little clasps on the rear boxes, I just could not face those last night nor today .
This first picture is of the forward crew hatch ( they use this on the real tanks to get access to the transmission ) Poor photography but those little spring deals next to the crew covers were some challenge to pull off !
The next 2 are just the usual bad photo fare you have all come to know and love from my crummy camera , but they give you the basic idea .
Feel free to post any comments ( including negative , if you see something not correct lemme’ know )[8D]
I think this cat is going to be a contest winner. Your PE work is very good. One thing that will kill your chances in competition is the grab handles. Take a look at your engine compt access door grab handle. You’ll see how one end is higher than the other? Judges live for the day when they see that. If your in the running for 1st place against another guy, those things will take you down. I see you are using the PE track hangars on the hull rear. I did the same, I dutifully installed the pins and chains over the track links. However, I lost points because I didn’t use the PE tubes for the tool stowage on the hull front. Those have a hole in the tube with a pin and chain set up as well, and the judge picked right up on it.
Just sharing some “bruises” I took with my Panther in a local comp. Your build looks great, LOL my friend!
Steve I see what you mean on the grab handle ,… It looks much worse in the picture ( doesn’t it always ? ) will fix that for sure .
I did use the PE tubes on the front for that towing shackle hook , the upper one for the Towing cable mount I used copper tube instaed of ABERS suggestion of plastic rod , as I wanted to solder the whole assembly together and not risk any breakage during painting , moving it from here to there ETC .
I also have to get a plastic or brass tube of 15mm for the heater intake on the rear left side , I botched the kit supplied one up when I removed it ( razor saw ) to put on the screen .
That solderiing idea is a good one, I’ll have to look into. Hey buddy, one other thing you might want to check out. I ran into the same thing when I used an AM barrel. On both my DML Panthers, the turret became nose heavy because of the barrel weight, and, because the race ring interlock has quite a large tolerance, it pulled a gap at the turret rear between the hull. I see in the photos that your’s is doing the same. I solved my dilemma pretty easy because I didn’t open the loaders hatch, so I just installed 2 1/2 ounces of sinkers in the bustle. I don’t know what you can do, if you’re going to show the turret interior. Maybe shim the race ring lock tab on the turret ring??
I have to drill out the underside of the gun mount as it is interfering with the seating of the turret , Ahhh,… the fun of kitbashing I am sure there is plenty of counterweight for the barrel from the resin assemblys , you should feel this thing when lifted !
WOW !!! Nice work indeed. I have been wanting to do the same to one of my panther G’s I have everythingexcept the springs.How challanging are the springs??
Shawn I know what you mean man, when I added the fruil’s to my Panthers, I thought the hull was going to collapse! I ran into some "clearance " problems on my Tiger build. I can’t believe the incredible interior work you’ve accomplished on the build. I can’t wait to see her wearing her painted finish.
great progress
i’ll have a look in my Panther books, but the machine gun ring was removed on the 24th January 1945 and changed to a new type (its like a single post) they added the foilege hoops in March 1945 and starting in October 1944 the rear idler was the large type
i have scanned the ariel line drawing for you
Edit
I dont want to be hated by posting this, but the hoops were the last changes
Soldering it ,…is really cut and dry ,… I soldered one end of the copper wire , to the brass kit part … twisted the other end around the mount wire , bend accordingly , solder to the other brass part and it is done .
CA glue I would not even want to imagine what would happen !
