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

[LSP_K2]

Yes, I've seen that Panther, and he is "going to town" on it, as well as you are. Not really directly related, so please forgive me, but I just received this is the mail yesterday, and it was well worth the wait, at least in my opinion.

 

[Juggernut]

No worries at all....  Does that book cover the interior of the Pz IV series?  I'm not a huge Pz IV fan (hate all those little road wheels).  Do they make a Panther book too?  I could swear I saw a Panther book that looks remarkably like that.  If so, I may have to acquire it.  I guess I'll Google and see what I can discover. 

 

Here's  couple more shots of the transmission.  The rod "nub" on the clutch lever will be removed and a new section will run all the way forward to the linkage to the clutch pedal. 

 

 

Below is my attempt at adding the little actuating arm for whatever it does...  I formed a sort of clamp from strip styrene for the forward attaching point for the rod.  A Modelkasten bolt head rounds off the clamp installation. The aft attaching point is a section of styrene rod that I drilled out.  The spring is stretched sprue that I wound around a small diameter copper wire armature (the same diameter as the actuating arm). I slid the rod through the styrene clamp, slid on the sprue spring and then slid the rod through the aft attaching point and I  terminated the rod where it meets the gear shift handle.  I don't actually know what this actuating rod does and I can't see where it actually goes so it gets terminated at the aft end of the handle. I held my breath while winding the sprue around the armature praying it didn't break...I was actually surprised that it didn't!

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Juggernut

[LSP_K2]

Yes, there's a Panther book in the series, and it too is quite excellent. As to interior stuff, I'd need to check, as I've only really flipped through it a bit, but from what I see, I was impressed. they also do one on the Tiger that I now seek, but all I can find is the softcover version of that, which is actually quite frustrating to me.

 

I suspect the rod is a detent release of some sort.

 

[panzerrob]

Hi all,

 

I can recommend these 2 books:

http://www.theresearchsquad.com/index.php/books/

Although the are for a Panther Ausf. A the offer a lot of info which is usefull for a Ausf. G too.

 

With regards,

Rob

[Juggernut]

5 hours ago, panzerrob said:

Hi all,

 

I can recommend these 2 books:

http://www.theresearchsquad.com/index.php/books/

Although the are for a Panther Ausf. A the offer a lot of info which is usefull for a Ausf. G too.

 

With regards,

Rob

 

Thanks for the recommendation.  I have the first volume of the two and you are correct that there's a lot of info that can be used for the Panther G as well.  I'll get the second volume a little later.

[Juggernut]

Some more progress today (actually last evening).  I primed and painted the transmission (RLM 66).  Just a base coat right now.  I also added a few things like the shock guard and a metal plate next to the radio operator on the hull.  The photos show all the progress to date, fitted but not cemented in place.  So far, everything seems to be fitting ok.  I may have to tweak the shock cover a little bit and replace the brass attachment fitting at the top, with a similar piece made from plastic card.  My next challenge is to add the cotter pins to the shock mount nuts.  I've successfully drilled a #80 hole in the castellations of the the nut so now comes the challenge of creating the cotter pin.  My first instinct is to use stretched sprue, doubled over and threaded through the tiny hole (so there's a loop at the top and two halves out the other end).  We'll see how this goes. 

 

My plan is to clear coat the transmission this evening, apply the shift pattern placard (decal) and then give it some weathering.  Maybe I'll flat coat it first then do the weathering?  I need to do some highlight and shadow (aka washing/drybrushing) to make the details pop.  I also decided to  forego the casting details on the transmission that can't be seen when the hull top is cemented in place... As I said previously, I'm not going full David Parker on this vehicle so what you'll be able to see of the interior is going to be limited to what was actually removable on the vehicle (transmission cover in the hull roof,  turret, engine and radiator grates).

 

Anyway, hope you enjoy a little color variation rather than just the red-brown primer color.  The steering/brake rod on the top of the transmission and the radio operator seat pan are the Trumpeter parts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front shock guard and metal plate for the radio operators protection.  As you can see, I sawed off the nut that secures the shock to the mount on the hull (on the real vehicle....)  The brass tang will most likely be replaced by a plastic card duplicate.  This tang is sandwiched between the shock strut and the attaching nut.  The metal plate is just 0.020-inch plastic card with 0.030 x 0.040-inch standoff strips between the plate and the hull with bolt detailing added to the plate itself.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Juggernut

[LSP_K2]

Excellent.

[Juggernut]

Well, the cotter pin experiment is a success.  I did have to enlarge the hole to a #76 drill to get both legs through.

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Juggernut

[Juggernut]

Some more progress last evening....milestone.  I got the firewall in the vehicle. 

 

First shot....I've added the lubrication lines running to the front of the vehicle.  This shot is from the radio operator's side.  I used 0.020-inch styrene rod for these which may turn out to be a mistake when I attempt to put bends in them to connect them to the lubrication ports mid-tank above the floor.

 

 

This is how they currently sit at the point where they come up through the floor and connect to the lubrication points.  This is going to be a FUN job (sarchastic).

 

 

Same set of lines on the driver's side of the vehicle...fewer swing arms on this side (forward of the turret) means fewer lines....

 

 

Firewall installed (FINALLY), with the right, rear shock installed.  The white dust specs are actually plastic shavings from having to use super glue to get the firewall to sit tight against the panniers.   Trumpeter is known for having "sagging" panniers and this model is no exception.  You can see my cleanup of superglue through the the lubrication lines right in front of the firewall.  That's what created all the plastic dust.  Ugh..what a pita.

 

 

Below is a shot of the left side idler wheel adjustment screw.  It's pretty nicely done (by Trumpeter but for a nasty seam that runs right through the screw threads) but probably won't be seen once the plates are installed above the fuel tanks.  But I'll know it's there.  Since most of the engine bay on either side of the engine will be covered by plates, I saved myself some aggravation and omitted the lubrication lines aft of the firewall.

 

 

The engine compartment where the engine will fit (I hope).  I've still got a little work to do here (not including touchup painting) to replicate the throttle linkages that  run up the rear side of the firewall and then out to the engine.  All-in-all, not bad and the Panther G specific air duct tubing really sets this engine bay off.... Too bad it'll be mostly covered up when the Engine is installed...how much remains to be seen.

 

 

The back side of the firewall.  You can see that the superglue I needed to use to get the panniers to meet the plate has fogged.  That's not a huge issue and will be corrected with a layer of red-brown primer...good as gold (well, almost).  The box between the firewall and the engine wall is one of the fuel tanks.  Again, this won't be seen after the plates (note the lip around the periphery of the area where the fuel tank sits.  You can also see the nice seam running through the idler adjusting screw...and that's after having been cleaned up as much as I dare (without losing all the detail on it).

 

 

The engine bay aft end with the rear armor plate temporarily installed.  You can see my measurements at the bottom of the plate on the r/h side.  Since the hull sides aren't completely vertical, I had to file off some material from the rear plate sides so that it would fit snugly.  Had I not done that, the rear plate would not have fit or it would've popped the superglue seam at the firewall.  I had to take 0.040-inches of material off the upper sides of the mating surfaces and tapering down to .010-inches off the bottom end to get it to fit.  Those knockout pins are SOB's as they're larger than my largest punch and filling them in requires a lot of effort.  Milling them down is not an option though so I'm left with only one choice...fill, sand, prime, fill, sand, prime....

 

 

The outside of the rear plate noting the unrealisticly uniform (in my opinion) weld beads that exist on either side of the plate.  These will be removed and replaced with magic-sculpt with more "haphazard" weld bead.  Trumpeter gives you the entire idler adjusting mechanism so should you choose, you can leave the covers open and show off the detail.  I have not decided whether to do this or not.

 

 

I started assembling the roadwheels.  These aren't actually that bad.  There is some cleanup involved (as one would expect) but they assemble very easily.  There are a LOT of them!  That sentiment is only tempered by the fact that there are more  track links than anything else and I've got that in the "still-to-do" column.  Ugh....  I haven't glued the dual wheels together yet, preferring to keep them that way to ease painting between them. (a lesson learned from making that mistake on several Panther, Tiger I and II models in the past). 

 

 

An overall shot of MOST of the roadwheels with the two larger idler wheels I stole from my early Panther kit.  The roadhweels are approximately 2.5" (~64 mm) in diameter.  These are the largest roadwheels I've ever assembled!

 

 

Last for today is the edges of the roadwheels.  You can see where the sprue gates attached to each wheel (4 places on each wheel).  Some played nice and snipped off flush, most did not and required Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill the holes left by the sprue gates.  That was a chore...  Hope you're enjoying my trip through this gigantic tank build.  I certainly am but not looking forward to another one for some time.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Juggernut
forgot to add the last photo.

[Uncarina]

You have Mad Skills! Daring to add all of those lube lines. The nerve! What is so cool about your build (and the others going to town with these 1/16 kits) is the faithful attention to interior and exterior details. We will always know it’s there. 

 

I feel your pain with the sprue divots. Not sure if you have one but the single blade sprue cutters (I use DSPIAE cutters) really helps with the brittle plastic.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Juggernut]

Thanks Tom.  The thing about the sprue gates leaving divots is I discovered that in a lot of places, the plastic is actually hollow through the sprue attaching to the wheel.  I’m not sure if that’s a result of the pressure put on by the cutter or if that’s a molding issue.  My guess would be the latter.  On most occasions I’ve clipped a part off the sprue with a generous portion of the attaching plastic left in tact.  While filing said nub flush, there is a small, hollow channel in that sprue gate that sometimes impacts the part and sometimes does not.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Juggernut

[Juggernut]

Wow, it's been a month since I've updated this thread!  Progress is continuing; slowly but I've reached a minor milestone, the engine has been assembled.  This is no small feat as there are loads of parts that make up this monster and some fit better than others.  They all fit but some need a little "tweaking" to be able to sit just where they need to.   Since this engine is very similar to the engine in the Tiger II, I added some of the details that David Parker did as shown in his book on the Trumpeter King Tiger build.  Most notably, the valve cover identifiers LINKS and RECHTS (left and right).  You can see the left side in the photos but the  right side is hidden from view.  I added these using Archer Fine Transfer Resin Casting Markings.  They're 1/35 scale but the smallest size alphabetical details are just the right size.  In examining this engine vs. the one David Parker built for his King Tiger, it looks like  Trumpeter paid attention and added a LOT of the details that David manufactured for his engine...Thank God!  There is no way I was going to scratchbuild all the details he put into his engine.  Especially when it can't be seen under the air cleaners which I have not yet installed.

 

On to the photos....  These shots are of the assembled engine (most of it) with a coat of Tamiya fine grey primer overall.  After this dries, I'll shoot it with Panzer Grey and then start the arduous task of highlights and shadows.  The trick here is that knowing while most of the engine won't be readily visible once installed, I still need to "accent" the highlights and shadows for those IPMS judges with flashlights.

 

First up is the left side of the engine (as viewed when it's in the vehicle).  Each part you notice on this engine was more than likely made up of at least two separate parts...it took a long time to get the engine to this stage. The other views are at rotations counterclockwise around the engine (detail shots not included).

 

Hopefully the next time I post, this engine will be dark grey with a lot of highlight and shadow but with only minor weathering as these vehicles were relatively new (~60 days of non-combat use) when they were used and abandoned during the Ardennes Offensive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[O.W]

beautiful engine, specially the tubing. I had some bad experience with those parts, CA glue won't stick and paint peals off afterwards.

[dodgem37]

Great show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Juggernut]

5 hours ago, O.W said:

beautiful engine, specially the tubing. I had some bad experience with those parts, CA glue won't stick and paint peals off afterwards.

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.