Building the PzKfw III

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:55 am

I have had the kit nearly a week and I am in the process of test building it before I strip it down and prime it.

So far I haven't had much to do other than bolt it together.

The only problem I have encountered, and it wasn't that much of a problem was the idler adjustment screw. Trying to fit the adjuster together there was no way I could get the spring on the screw and the attach the adjuster to the idler arm. The angle which the screw was at would not allow this. So a small amount of filing just to allow the screw to drop the angle very slightly did the trick and made it a simple job.

So far I have assembled the Pz III up to the upper hull. I did quite a bit on Saturday and spend most of yesterday working on it. In all I probably haven't spent more than 20 hours working on it.

I have now got to the point of fitting the upper hull and I have got to a point where I am having a few thoughts about the fitting of the upper deck. Do I used the brackets and bolt it up as it should be or do I consider fitting the rear half of the upper deck with magnetic door catches so that I can get inside without having to dismantle parts of the tank. I do intent to have it all working so getting batteries and other components in and out through the turret hole might be interesting.

I have put some of the shafts on the lathe just to clean them up and very lightly smooth the mating surfaces, but if I had to put it together with the list of tools it suggests, I feel sure I could do it easily.

It's a very nice kit and it has supprised me just how easy it has been to get this far.

Derek Attree · Post by **Derek Attree** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:49 pm

Hi Gary
That's good news I am going to finnish the Panther
before I start mine any chance of some photos in this post?
I am going to make the front section of the upper hull removable
The box area under the turret as I am planning to make a stug III fighting compartment as well from alloy plate and sheet.

Well thats this years big idea

Derek

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:17 pm

I should think I could manage to put a few photo's on here.So far I have been building and not worring about that side of things as it's coming apart again. I'll just have to pass all the pictures through photoshop to reduce the size as my D3 produces huge pictures.

David Brady · Post by **David Brady** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:10 pm

Hi Garry i am also building mine and found the hull goes together well, slight little hitch tho in trying to fit the bump stops brackets to hull, instructions say to use m3 Ã—10 csk and m4 Ã—10 hex with m4 nuts, the bottom hole leads to a dead end which is the suspension bar. both holes have no thred how did you fit yours

Thanks David

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:36 am

David,

Yes I thought that, the hole looks like it should have a corresponding hole in the suspension bar. Look inside, the plate is countersink inside. You need to put the bump stops on before assembling the chassis. I have found a couple of things which you need to look at what comes next before assmbling anything. Also if you run out of a particular fixing, go back and check, you probably put the wrong ones in somewhere.

Allan Richards · Post by **Allan Richards** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:13 pm

Hi Garry,

I am pleased to see that you are making good progress with the model. I saw it at the open day and was very impressed, its a nice combination of size and interesting features for me - very tempting. I note you are considering how to fix the top deck. I would strongly recommend seeing if it is possible to make the whole top deck removable. I have done so with the Armortek Sherman as the only access was through the turret ring and engine doors, which is not really enough. The top deck now slots into fittings I made in the pannier floors above the tracks, and is only held on by the turret through a centre post holding the turret in place as Armortek did with the Tiger. This way the tank can be dissassembled in seconds giving full access to the working bits. This will also help in major recovery situations as with the batteries removed I can lift the chassis without too much bother.

David Brady · Post by **David Brady** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 5:56 pm

Hi Garry
Thanks for the advice what fasterners did you use top and bottom as m4 will not fit through holes

Thanks David

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:33 pm

David,

I can't remember off the top of my head but I did scratch my head at first and then read and re-read the build booklett. You will also notice that the first part of the hull build show the rear plate in place but no fixings. That doesn't happen until you put the Idler adjuster on.

The top deck is in 2 parts so I was looking at my options, but I don't really want to trap anything in by making the top fixed and difficult for me to get at stuff. The rear deck may be enough as the front half is mostly a big hole. I also need the motion pack to see how things fit, but thats a way off yet.

David Brady · Post by **David Brady** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:16 pm

Garry,
Thanks for the reply bump stop brackets are on now i used m3 Ã—10 hex with m3 nut top and m3 Ã—10 csk on the bottom hole instructions say to use m4 Ã—10 dont know why i did not put them on first silly me

David

Lawrence Godson · Post by **Lawrence Godson** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 3:53 am

Hello to all builders!
I will be getting a Panzer III also and was wondering about all the detail parts. Any chance of getting closeup images of them so that we might be able to decide which aftermarket parts we might consider purchasing? (Note that Mike Stannard, for example, has a sale that ends this month.)
Thanks

PS I realize that I'm asking a lot---its easy to make requests such as this when you don't have to do the work yourself but it really would be useful to have pictures so that no one is put on the spot with giving an opinion and we can all look and decide for ourselves.

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:11 am

The kit includes a lot of Armorpax detail parts so a lot of it is covered. I personally will almost certainly be putting Steve Winstone's headlights on, machine guns and possibly one or 2 other parts. I really haven't go that far yet.

Grills over vents etc are not in there and there was some talk of these being produced by I think Mike, but that is about all I can think of at the moment.

Lawrence Godson · Post by **Lawrence Godson** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:07 pm

Thanks for the reply. Would it be possible perhaps to just list the Armorpax parts that are included?

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:11 am

This is the firsttime I have been on the forum since last week. Mad couple of days and then on Saurday the other half got me under her car changing brake shoes..... Metal to metal never a good idea.

From memory there is a fire extinguisher in resin, jack in resin and white metal, spade, turret doors and fittings, vison ports, axe, notek light. The detail parts pack is quite full.

I did manage to find a bit of time of the weekend to spend an hour or 2 working on the beast. I'm not up to all the lower hull finished, wheels and suspension in, upper hull on the way.

The only thing to I have had to put in the lathe was the MG ball. As I plan to have that moving I need it as free as possible, and it wasn't as free as I would like it.

TV was pretty rubbish last night so I sat and assemble a track. What a joy, compared with the tiger track, it was if the parts came out of the bag and flew together. I did 40 odd links in about 20 mins.

Before I get much further I need to start thinking about the radio control side of things. What I want in there and how it is going to be fitted. I intent to have the benedini water smoker in there. Got it in my tiger and it look pretty good. One of these days I'll try remembering to take some photo's. But it has got to come apart to be etch primed and the red oxide.

Lawrence Godson · Post by **Lawrence Godson** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:13 pm

Thanks for the reply!

Do all the tools have proper hold down latches or are some screw on brackets? Did you notice if tow ropes with proper latches are included? How about the "S" towing brackets and latching of same which should go under the jack block?
Sorry to be a pain and thanks again!

Garry Coomber · Post by **Garry Coomber** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:19 am

I haven't really looked very hard at the detail part, but I am pretty sure there are no tow cables and I haven't seen the towing hooks. There are clamps but again I haven't really looked. There is a jack block but it looked like MDF to me, but a small block of wood is not too difficult.

I am working on the tank and all the electronics before I worry about the fine detail, but I will be replacing some of the detail parts. I must also stop building and take some photo's .