Early Panther Ausf G Idler Wheel

[Kent Wiik]

Hi all,

Has mailed Dave at Armorpax and he is now considering making an accurate Panther track link - but not now as he has his hands full with making M2 parts.
Urge others with the same interest in having this white metal spare track links done to express their needs to Dave so he don’t think I am the only potential customer of them
An accurate Tiger1 track link would also be nice now with all those Tiger kits sold and being built.
7 of them round the turret + a bunch of them at the front...

Cheers
Kent

[Tim Bowman]

Hi everyone

I finally got around to finishing my engine access cover. The mounting bolts will be evened up this weekend. plus I did some other detailing I've been procrastinating on. Starting to think about camo pattern. : )

I know the starter posts are not correct but I'll fix later.

The center piece for the idlers are texture and I will be putting cast numbers on one of them this weekend then into the mold. Still waiting to hear back from a machinist on the main part. My texture is not as good as yours Kent but I referenced as many real photos as I could find and did my best.







kind regards

Tim

[Dale jordan]

Amazing workmanship Tim . I can't wait to see the camo!!!. Tim has your right hand fake weld cracked .. Where your side hull plate meets the rear plate ???? Dale

[Tim Bowman]

Hi Dale

Good eye. It's along and horrific story but I'll make it short. Several months ago my Panther had a spill off the stand that it's on in some of my other photos. 18" off the ground onto concrete. Bone headed, Rookie move on my part trying to adjust radio settings while Tank is sitting on it's tracks. (Usually, I had it on blocks) It launched off the stand with one track at full throttle in a hard left turn. Made quite a sound at 11:30 at night as it contacted the garage floor.

Good news. It actually sounded worse then it was and damage was minor. Some suspension had to be reworked and the right hull side separated. I had to re-fasten it as best I could. The gap is what is left. I'll fill it.

OK, it wasn't short after all.

I won't make that mistake again though!

regards,

Tim

[Kent Wiik]

Hi Tim,

I just love to watch your photos of that truly amazing Panther.
The zimmerit is spot on and I simply love that tank and the work you put in to it - awesome, and a huge source of inspiration for me not coming quite so far in my own build...

I am convinced the idlers will be stunning and I can´t wait to see them.

Cheers
Kent

[Tim Bowman]

Thanks Dale and Kent for the comments.

I needed a break from work today so I finished these up. They are part of a multi-piece design I did to save some cost on these idlers. These parts are the center piece of the idler that will be bonded to the main, machined wheel. They slip around the hub center and the spokes line up with the ones on the machined parts.(per drawing). The end result is a descent representation of the real thing but not 100% accurate. It's a compromise.

I attempted to make one of them sort of rougher then the other that way when mounted, I can choose which side faces out. Working on grease fitting plugs tonight and they will be a separate, removable part. Sorry for so many photos.





Regards

Tim

[Allan Richards]

Tim,

Your doing some splended work on your model. Are you intending to run the model over some muddy terrain or keep it static, with perhaps the occasional run. I ask because if you want to run it over muddy ground a lot of this work will soon be covered up, I can say this from experience.

[Tim Bowman]

Hi Allan

Thanks. I appreciate the experienced input. I definitely plan on running it. Maybe I'll just keep it to dry, dusty dirt and not the real wet, sticky stuff. If it happens to get muddied up, it won't bother me.

Kind Regards

Tim[/i]

[Kent Wiik]

Wow Tim!

That idler will be a masterpiece - absolute stunning!
That cast surface is spot on.
Not 100% accurate? My friend, not even my eyes can spot were you have cut corners.
Very, very well done!

Can’t wait to see an all finished one.

Cheers
Kent

[Tim Bowman]

Making progress. Like a herd of turtles, but progress.

Fist step, fit proto machined wheel to cast hub-centers. Thankfully, it fit perfectly.

Next step, machining the slots/openings around the perimeter. Hopefully I'll muster up the courage to do that this week.




With grease fitting and some quick primer. I couldn't wait to see what it looked like.





Regards

Tim

[Kent Wiik]

Absolutely fantastic!

That idler is one of the top 5 1/6th tank parts I have ever seen.
It is hard to see that primed one of yours is not a 1/1 relic - stunning!
Your skill in this is amazing.

Cheers
Kent

[Dale jordan]

Outstanding workmaship Tim . Plus It should be nice a strong as well . Dale

[Tim Bowman]

Thanks Dale and Kent. By the way Dale, this is the stand it drove off of.

I had to mount one today and see how it looks. Began machining the openings around the perimeter of one of em.







TIm

[Kent Wiik]

Very, very nice!

Your photos are candy for my eyes
Has now that mid photo as my new screen background.

One tiny thing - the inside of the loaders hatch was painted Dunkelgelb on zimmerited Panthers.
Engine- and storage bin hatches (not so frequently in battle open hatches) had the red oxide inside.
Sorry Tim, just my rivet counter eyes noticed this...

Yours and Bob´s Panthers are the finest 1/6th rc Panthers in the world!

Cheers
Kent

[Tim Bowman]

Slots completed on one and painted. Hope to complete the left idler this weekend and give them a spin! I left more material between the slots then originally planned because the removal of so much was making me nervous.(strength wise) They still look OK and with tracks on you don't really see much of them anyways.











regards

Tim