Armortek

Great job. Superb attention to detail.

Hi Kent,
delicious work. A careful description of the details , as always .
Many thanks for sharing your work.

Thanks guys,

Glad someone finds my build interesting even if I am the slowest builder on the forum...
Four years of build and my Panther is still just a pile of metal

Kind regards
Kent

Hi Kent

"Four years of build and my Panther is still just a pile of metal"

Ah...but what a pile of masterpieces it is!!!! Can only imagine how real it will look when they all find therir way together.

Outstanding work as always.

kindest regards
Tim

Hi Kent.

Having read all your postings I can assure you that every single one has been very interesting and 99% of the time very informative.
As for suggesting you are the slowest builder on the forum so what its your model and you are enjoying it and at the end of the day a nicer way to look at it is surely you will have had the best value for money out of all the builders? and helped a lot of people along the way
Just my thoughts anyway.
Cheers Paul

Great source of information and shows what can be achieved with patience. Wish I could get four years out of a model but I have no patience at all.

Hi Tim, Paul and John

Thanks for your kind comments, coming from all of you #1 skilled builder mean a lot for me, thanks.

Let’s continue my "pile of metal"

Today something others has done before me and due to their posting here inspired me to do them myself as well, the forum as its best.
The torsion bars access caps (the "Kentish" way )

This is how the real thing looked like:



Please note the curved edges and the gentle edge bend, this is something the otherwise so good book “Panzer Tracts No.5-3” don’t show.
Also note that there was a sealing/gasket (don’t know the English word for this item ) made of rubber, to make the hull water proof.



There was a countersinking in the hull round the hole to hold the sealing in place as can be seen here in the photo from Sven Strobbe (thanks Sven) on the Celles Ausf G hull.



Those caps were cast so a cast steel surface they had to have.
Proof of that they was cast can be seen here in this photo of the inner side of a real cap:



The cast item numbers are visible.

I made the caps from 2mm aluminium, just cut them out with Mr Dremel.
Glue paper templates on the aluminium plate first.

Here is a drawing for them who want to make their own caps.
Just print it out and scale down in a Xerox.
For them who wish I can mail a pdf of the A4 full with 1:6th templates I used.



The screws are M2,5 countersunk slotted screws.
And the gasket I made from 0,4mm plasticard, made them as disc with radius 13,5mm and painted them black.

This is how they turned up in the end compared to a real one.




So happy how they turned out in the end and as I finish them just before last Christmas I put 2 of them in the X-mas tree for my own joy and the rest of my family’s despair…

Maybe overkill to have all 16 of them as they want hardly is seen behind all those wheels (except for the ones in front) but the feeling of having them there makes it worth the effort…I think…

As always thanks for looking
Kent

Kent
Another great piece of craftmanship you have shown there. I think well worth the effort even though as you say manny of them will not be seen.
Regards
Steve

Great work once again Kent. A simple part but so beautifully executed.

Hard to believe it was done with just a Dremel

And "gasket" is the perfect English word for that part

Adrian.

Kent,

Great work as always!

Just a word about what is seen and not seen,

Is it not the journey, rather than the destination, that gives us joy?

I enjoy very much our Wiik-pedia .

clever, and interesting as always kent, regards simon.

Hi my friend Kent,

and so the pile of perfect parts continues to grow. Excellent looking parts and finish. Love the gasket.

Keep them coming.

best regards
Tim

Hi kent
lovely job on those caps this is going to be the best pile of metal you can get great work .
regards ,,,,,,,,nick

Hello Kent, I have been following your build for sometime, quietly enjoying the attention to detail.

Super building skills...Mick