Another Trumpeter 1/16 Panther G Build - Steel Wheel - ONE MORE CORRECTION...DAMN TRACKS.

[O.W]

16 hours ago, Juggernut said:

Are you by chance referring to the Tiger II engine?  If yes than you’d be in for a treat as all the tubes and lines in the Panther kits are styrene and there are no issues with glue and paint adhering to them.

Yep I'm referring to the Tiger II. I,ve build the Jagd Tiger and the Henschel turret, the Porsche turret in my stash....

 

[LSP_K2]

13 hours ago, O.W said:

Yep I'm referring to the Tiger II. I,ve build the Jagd Tiger and the Henschel turret, the Porsche turret in my stash....

 

Any photos you could share?

[O.W]

https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-CjtMBG/i-SRnvgK9

[O.W]

Tried to post my first picture here, but accidentally aded a link to the whole gallery

 

enjoy the pics 

 

[Juggernut]

8 hours ago, O.W said:

Tried to post my first picture here, but accidentally aded a link to the whole gallery

 

enjoy the pics 

 

Nice work!  

[Out2gtcha]

MOST excellent work! That engine really came out a treat

[LSP_K2]

12 hours ago, O.W said:

Tried to post my first picture here, but accidentally aded a link to the whole gallery

 

enjoy the pics 

 

 

I did. I like the Flak 38 too. (I have a real weakness for the Flak 38.) Thanks for the photos. Sorry about the thread wandering.

[Juggernut]

No worries Kev, just as long as we don't start discussing wall paper patterns or something like that....  That's a little TOO off topic

[Juggernut]

Here's a few images of the painted and slightly weathered engine (mostly heat rust on the exhaust pipes and shrouds).  Engine is RLM 66 with a dark grey (almost black) wash, highlights, silver clamp details (kit parts), a coat of clear flat and pastel rust.

 

 

 

[Juggernut]

A little more progess....  Got the engine into the engine bay and added some plumbing (kit parts), the header fuel tank (my term), and the coolant tank.  The strap on the header fuel tank was added after the fact when I discovered it on a photograph that I have in my archives.  The first photo is a shot of all the knockout pins that need to be filled before installing it.  Since I wasn't sure how many would be visible after I installed the rear plate, I filled and sanded them all.  I filled each one with a plastic disk cut from my Waldron punch and die set (the largest size) and filled the remaining area with spot putty.  Once sanded and coated with Mr. Surfacer 500, these aren't visible at all.  Pesky sanding dust gets everywhere....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Juggernut]

Here's a little discovery I made while at the rear of the vehicle....  This piece does not belong in a Panther, any version as far as I can tell.  The instructions have you place it in the cylindrical opening in the header fuel tank (see last photo in the previous post) but in all the photos I can find of Panther D's, A's and G's, this is nowhere to be found. 

 

 

Below is the instruction shot of the offending piece.  If you're building this model (either version I believe), you can omit this trunk.  I originally thought it might have been a leftover part of the submersible system from early Panthers (if they had one...not sure on that) but from what I can find, not even the earliest ones had anything resembling this and by the time the Panther G rolled around, it would've been long dropped anyway.  The "Y" trunking leads to no place...it just hangs out under the two tanks.  I then thought it might be a duct for air so I rather naively added rubber tubing connectors and clamp details as you can see above...all for naught.

 

What I concluded is that Trumpeter has a copy of David Parker's King Tiger book and while they were designing and tooling the engine parts for the Panthers, they included this trunking which IS on the Tiger II (and connects at the "Y" to the sirocco fan at the back of the engine) but the Panther does not.  So, after spending time assembling, filling seams, priming, painting, detailing, installing it, I discovered it wasn't needed at all.  The single tab at the top is the only physical mounting location for this trunking assembly so it wasn't hard to remove.  The thing which is too late for me to do anything about is on part P18 which has the notch for this trunking in it.  This didn't exist on the Panther either but since I've already installed it, there's no way I can go back and fill it in now.  Oh well, this will be one of those "Ooops, lesson learned" opportunities. 

 

If any of you are building this kit or are contemplating building one, leave this trunk out and correct the divot in piece P18 (it should be flat).

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Juggernut

[Juggernut]

Some further progress - Engine parts put on and the rear plate secured in place....tight spacing.  Air cleaners, coolant hoses, clamps with aluminum tape clamps with styrene fasteners superglued in place.  You can't even see the throttle linkage I scratchbuilt and placed on the firewall...it's there, someplace. I added a weld bead around the coolant tank where the hose connection is.  There's some bracing to add to the coolant and header fuel tanks that secures to the rear plate but I can't install that until I get the hull top out and find out where it sits in relation to the rear plate.  I also added a little wear on the fuel tank filler cap and some scratched off paint where fuel filler nozzles might be in contact with the scupper.

 

 

 

 

I am SO tired of primer red-brown....  Next up, radiators, fans, and main fuel tanks.  Hope you enjoyed this short update....it took way longer to build it than it did  to show pictures.

[Uncarina]

Great work Tim! Very crisp painting. Good catch on the Y-fitting. I think I added it in my build, but that’ll be our secret! 

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Juggernut]

On 6/13/2021 at 10:26 PM, Uncarina said:

Great work Tim! Very crisp painting. Good catch on the Y-fitting. I think I added it in my build, but that’ll be our secret! 

 

Cheers,  Tom

Thanks Tom.  If you did add it, I won’t tell.  As far as I know, your vehicle was an experimental version shipped to a unit and they were testing a possible intake trunk before it was shipped.  LOL…

[Juggernut]

More progress to report....  The cooling fans and radiators are in.  Excuse the plastic dust all over the parts.  An unavoidable consequence of leaving too much sprue gate on the parts and then filing it flush to avoid holes in the part proper.  This will all be cleaned prior to final assembly and weathering.

 

Left side radiators, cooling fans and ductwork.  I'm not entirely sure that the ductwork is accurate for a Panther G.  I have one photo of the ductwork and I'm not sure if it's a Panther G or the Panther II from here in the U.S.  If it's of a Panther G then the ductwork that comes with the kit is for a Panther A as I've seen this very ductwork in photos of the Panther A rear deck.  Oh well, It's too late to be overly concerned about it.  Left and right side radiator interconnect lines got my rubber hose and clamp treatment as you can see.

 

 

Right side

 

 

AFter completing the radiators, fans, and ductwork, I moved on to the rear plate accessories.  First I had to "improve" the exhaust outlet boxes.  The weld seams between the various plates of the box are not rendered very well on the kit parts so I needed to remove the area in the kit parts that "represented" the weld beads....poorly.  Then I mixed up some magic sculpt putty and went to town.  The photo below shows the results...all-in-all, I think it came out pretty well.  Note the oblong access panels on the rear plate...more on those at the end.

 

 

As i said earlier, the kit weld beads between the rear and lower side plates was way too uniform and just looked meh.....  I had previously removed the kit weld beads and now was the time to add my magic sculpt versions.  I think I may have made them just a tad too large but it's nothing that's out of the realm of possibility (in my opinion).

 

 

Last up is the engine access plate.  This guy needed some rework and details.  I had to fill knockout pin marks on the fitting as well as remove them from the outside of the circular plate itself.  I drove myself bananas creating chain attachment points for the tow pin (or whatever this contraption is).  In the end, I think it came out decent so I'm happy with it the way it is.

 

 

Ok, the access plates on the rear plate...right.  In my haste to attach these things an be done with them, I neglected to paint the backsides of them.  So, when you look down into the engine compartment from above, you can see circles of bare plastic...ARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!  This is going to take some REALLY creative painting to address this.  God I hope I don't screw up what I've already done.

 

That's it for today.  More progress coming in the days ahead.  I'm down to about 60 days before the IPMS Nationals.  I hope this is going to be done in time.