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

[Juggernut]

Hmmm....a test fit of the upper hull onto the lower hull has revealed that the upper hull does not fit as well as it should.  I think I've determined that the fuel tanks in the sponsons protrude too far out and are causing the issue.  I'm fairly certain they're located per the instructions and the locating tabs on the tanks are in the slots in the sponsons but the fit is tight up against the radiator fan housing.  Since the fuel tanks are most likely the offenders here, some judicious sanding of these fuel tanks is in order.  I started this process but it's going very slowly because I can't afford to sand away the sponsons while thinning the outside surfaces of the fuel tanks.

[Uncarina]

On 6/15/2021 at 4:55 PM, Juggernut said:

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.

Tim, did you attach the plates with Tamiya extra thin? If so you can reapply some around the edges and the original glue will soften so you can remove them. I’ve had to do this many times .

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Juggernut]

1 hour ago, Uncarina said:

Tim, did you attach the plates with Tamiya extra thin? If so you can reapply some around the edges and the original glue will soften so you can remove them. I’ve had to do this many times .

 

Cheers,  Tom

I did use extra thin but I was able to get them painted on the inside with only minor difficulty.  My biggest issue right now is the fit of the upper hull to the rear plate.

[Juggernut]

More progress....  I am at the point where I am installing the driveline from the engine to the transmission.  To accomplish the task, I needed to install the transmission airflow lines before I install the drive shafts and PTO.  I found absolutely zero photographs or descriptions of what these lines looked like and how they are routed in the Panther G without the crew heater installed.  To be honest, I couldn't find anything on how these lines are routed, with or without the crew heater.  Anyway, I had both end points and just needed to determine the routing.  So, armed with that information and having test fit the drive shaft, I got an idea of how these lines MAY have been run.  For one of these lines, the Trumpeter part was a help, for the other, not-so-much.  Fortunately, Trumpeter gives you some very appropriately sized sprue from which you can create new lines.  After having done this and adding my customary hose connections and clamps, this is what it looks like:

 

 

 

The Power Take-Off (PTO) is a decent piece of plastic directly from the kit and is made up of several parts.  Having said that, there's always room for improvement so I decided to improve upon the kit part after having primed and painted it.  I added pump B nuts (the pressure lines will be added when the pump assembly is ready to be installed.  I have determined (through examination of several photographs of this rascal) that there are two pumps in the one housing; one side goes to the drivers side and the other goes to the radio operators side and power the hydraulic steering and brakes.  I'm not sure I'm entirely correct in that conclusion but it's an educated guess that nobody in the world will probably be able to tell is incorrect, even if looking at it.  Anyway, below is a shot of the PTO (and pump assembly) in progress, it still needs some tweaking, added parts, and fine tuning before I call it done and shoehorn it into place.  The pump portion of the PTO is out of focus at the top of the photograph.  Sometimes, I hate macro mode without having a closeup lens.

 

 

Before moving onto the internals, one of the last steps on the rear plate is to add the stowage bins.  These are made up of three parts, the box front and sides, the back and the hinged top.  Looking closely at the kit parts, it was apparent that the clasps used to secure the hinged lid to the bin itself were missing.  WELL, we CAN'T have that!  So, I dug out some small brass tube (1/16" if memory serves), and flatted it to an oblong shape with a pair of handy-dandy needle nose pliers.  I also removed the stem that these clasps attach to as they're molded onto the bin and wouldn't allow me to install the clasps so those were removed with a Mission Models chisel (these things are super sharp and work really, really good).  I made new "arms" from sheet plastic and glued the ovals to the arms with CA glue.  Then I glued the tops to the bins and then added the clasps to the bin tops and then glued the arms in place using plastic cement.  The lower half of the clasp is by Trumpeter, the upper half by me.  During the process I lost one of the brass tube ovals so me being the lazy SOB that I am, I just told myself, this one's going to be broken (I've seen photos of these things broken on in-service vehicles) and just glued a strip of plastic in place for the arm.  I then decided to beat the bins up a bit and carved some dents into them using the trusty Xacto knife and #11 blade, followed up with some sanding to blend the edges and a little filing to accentuate the dents.  During this process, as you can imagine, I broke through the plastic wall of  the bin.  No worries! I just filed out a hollow hole and filled it with rather thick sheet plastic glued in place with CA and then filed/sanded that to shape as well.  As a final bit of damage, I filed lines into the two sides of this bit of dent to resemble a tank that backed into something with distinct edges (like a steel box beam or H beam).  We'll see what this looks like under a coat of paint...more work may be required on that.  Anyway, below are the photos of the left and right stowage bins.  Since these tanks were only operational between September and December of 1944, photographs of these bins on the representative vehicles weren't extensively damaged and I didn't want to over-do the bashing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Juggernut

[Uncarina]

Tim you are taking this build to the extreme! I love it.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Juggernut]

23 minutes ago, Uncarina said:

Tim you are taking this build to the extreme! I love it.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

Thanks Tom, appreciate the support!  Don't know if I'm going to meet the deadline for the IPMS Nats or not....  If not, there's always the AMPS show next year.

[Juggernut]

And so it begins......tedium, volume 1.

 

 

There are 85 shells in this pile, 82 of which are supposed to go in a fully laden panther G tank...50% Spgr 42 (High Explosive) and 50%  Pzgr 39/42 (Armor Piercing).  Well, with what Trumpeter provides, you'll not get a 50/50 mix as there are only 30 Pzgr 39/42 and 55 Spgr 42 rounds.  So, there will be some expended rounds in this model although I've prepped 82 of the 85 (removed sprue attachment points and mold seams), I'll probably only use 65-70 rounds.  I can see a tank in battle expending 12-17 rounds rather quickly.  Probably will be mostly HE stuff.   For the unused 3  rounds (85-82=3), I cut off the projectile end and drilled out the shell and voila, an expended round to be placed in the bin in the turret basket of the tank.  Decals are provided by Trumpeter for both the Pzgr and Spgr rounds.  I think I may paint all the round cases to resemble parkerized steel instead of the usual brass...  During this part of the war, the parkerized cases were apparently more common than the brass ones.  I may throw a couple brass painted ones in just for the effect.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Juggernut

[LSP_K2]

OK, dumb question time. On some of what I assume are the later Panthers, they have a squared-off lower chin mantlet. I've only ever seen this, as far as I can recall, on the steel wheeled versions. Did that mantlet design ever show up on the Panther with the rubber rimmed wheels?

[N.H.71]

Yes it did also show up as well on the Panther G‘s with rubber rimmed wheels.

Picture source: Wikipedia/NARA

 

Regards

Nils

[Juggernut]

None of the steel-wheel Panthers I've seen have the reinforced "chin" mantlet...  As far as I'm aware, the steel-wheelies were all made by MAN in September of 1944, just prior to the chin mantlet being implemented.  If you have a photo of one, I'd like to see it.

[LSP_K2]

15 hours ago, N.H.71 said:

Yes it did also show up as well on the Panther G‘s with rubber rimmed wheels.

Picture source: Wikipedia/NARA

 

Regards

Nils

 

Excellent. Oddly enough, I have gobs of reference on the Panther, but sorting it all out is a pain, especially since I'm no where ready to tackle the big 1:16 scale kit now anyway.

[LSP_K2]

5 hours ago, Juggernut said:

None of the steel-wheel Panthers I've seen have the reinforced "chin" mantlet...  As far as I'm aware, the steel-wheelies were all made by MAN in September of 1944, just prior to the chin mantlet being implemented.  If you have a photo of one, I'd like to see it.

 

The Trumpeter 1:16 G kit (with steel road wheels), has the squared off mantlet, is the reason I ask.

[LSP_K2]

4 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

Excellent. Oddly enough, I have gobs of reference on the Panther, but sorting it all out is a pain, especially since I'm no where near ready to tackle the big 1:16 scale kit now anyway.

 

[Juggernut]

19 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

The Trumpeter 1:16 G kit (with steel road wheels), has the squared off mantlet, is the reason I ask.

 

Ahh,  Yes, you are correct that it does come with the chin mantlet but it also comes with a bunch of other stuff that the steel-wheeled versions never had such as the Infrared Sight and even that is not complete.  To their credit, they do give several options that may or may not be used on a steel-wheeled panther.  Another such option is the warm-air heater on the left side of the rear deck.  Unfortunately, all the trunking that goes with it (on the interior), it sadly missing.  Had they included a lot of these options in the early version (and not called it that), and also a spare set of steel wheels, one could've made almost any version of the Panther G (excepting the steel wheeled version).

[LSP_K2]

The bottom line (for me) is the ability to do the rubber rimmed road wheel version, but with the square chin mantlet; easy enough to scratch that particular detail, so I'm good.