The Official Armortek Forum - World leader in one sixth scale metal kits

You re an inspiation!

-Brian

Aw shucks guys, you make me

Thanks for the kind comments.

Haven't gotten to do much lately though. Work is crazy.

Did receive some of Tim Bowmans excellent track links, so hoping to get those added soon.

Happy tanking guys,
Bob

Happy Easter all!

Finally made a little progress. I received some of Tim Bowman's excellent resin track links in the mail. Thank you Tim! What a great addition! Also remounted all the other tools after painting the hull. Added some final painting details - outlining the zimmerit hits with concrete looking color and I think I'm done with that (are we ever "done").

Very, very nice Tim!

When I saw the first photo my impression was "wow, an unknown 1.1 Panther never seen before" until I saw the wood under the tank.

Nice touch with the outlined hits - oh how I admire you guys skills in painting. I myself am a waste of space in that part of the hobby

Those hanging tracklinks of Bob with their accurate guidehorns looks so much better then the kit ones.

Cheers
Kent

A few more details added recently. I decided to try and make a better intake screen. I machined a brass prototype using CNC. The jury is still out on whether I like it enough to make the other three. Once I recess it flush to the deck it will look better? It looks a little funny sitting on top of the deck. Also got the escape hatch painted, and a little more whethering done on the wheels.
Happy tanking all -Bob.

A few shots of the new early idler wheels. Can't wait to see how these work. Hopefully as good as they look. The center insert is resin from Tim Bowman's excellent mold.

Very, very nice!

/Kent

Bob,

Your workmanship is incredible. I hope to be home on leave in a few weeks, unless they cancel it again if I do get home I would love to come by and have a look at one of the models assembled. Would you mind? I have never seen one assembled and mine is still in the boxes.

Jim

Jim,
Thank you for your kind remarks. Yes ping me when you return on leave I would be glad to show you the Panther. Kind regards,
Bob

Hi Bob,

Just a small point of detail next time you take the tracks off. They are mounted the wrong way round. The tread bar should be nearest the ground when viewed from the front of the vehicle.

If you look at the design of each track link this makes sense as the supporting webs sweep up slightly to support the tread bar against rearward slippage as the vehicle rolls over the track.

Some museum vehicles have one or both tracks mounted the wrong way. Check out wartime photos.

However JagdPanthers very often had them mounted the other way round. I suspect, but have no proof yet, that this was to allow the JP to rapidly reverse out of ambush positions without slippage!

Great model. Kudos.
cheers Fabrice

Well spotted Fabrice!

But the thing is that Armortek Panther tracklinks has the chevrons made up side down...
And as the chevrons are quite eye catching mounting the tracks up side down is a way to have the chevrons correct.
That is what Bob and some others (including me) have/will do as making new chevrons is way too complicated.

Good observation regarding the JagdPanther. However the Armortek JagdPantherlinks is the same as the Pantherlinks so sadly no end of that problem.

Cheer¨s
Kent

Ah! Quite right. The Devil is in the detail, Kent.

But....having got out Tim's very nice resin tracks and my GRP (from the banks of the Volga!) Panther tracks and put them side by side with the Armortek's, I still feel the small error in the cleat orientation does not justify the much larger, visual, error of mounting the entire track the wrong way round.

The cleats will get worn away and weathered soon enough on running models.

At the end of the day, this just comes down to a subjective and aesthetic decision. I just hope Mark can indulge us with a new "corrected" casting when he next does a Panther/JagdPanther production run!

cheers, Fabrice

Kent, Fabrice.
Thanks for the observation on the tracks. I will try reversing them so the the cleats point the right way. Hopefully this will not have negative results when running the tank.

Here are some pix of the idler with a cast white metal insert. I slathered the insert with epoxy to give it a more rough appearance. The production inserts will have slightly thicker fins/ribs. This insert was made using Tim Bowmans resin mold. The mold is excellent for resin, but as it turns out not so good for casting metal. Most of the metal inserts I attempted to cast in this mold had defects from trapped air bubbles in the thin rib/fin sections. So I made a new mold for casting metal inserts. Hopefully I will have some photos of the results soon.

I machined the back side of the metal insert to relieve the weight some. This appears to work well. The insert is then bonded to the machined wheel using rubber cement.

I included some photos of the CAD models just for fun.

Hi Robert, great detail in the idler, and I like the metal insert idea,
I have had to cast the armoured visors this weekend, and used a product from the states,
(Delftâ„¢ Clay Casting System)
it uses two alloy rings, you fill the bottom one with a re-usable clay, then press in the item you want to copy, then place on the top ring and fill will clay, the rings pull apart and when the item is removed you have a cavity to cast into, I have used this stuff up to 1100 degrees, casting silver & brass; the visors I made by melting the hard alloy used on the hubcaps and other bits I did not use, it melts about 750degrees
regards
Jeff

Jeff,
Interesting concept-Casting in clay. Does this company have a website? I'd like to see more information about that process. For small one off parts it sounds like a good way to go.

How do you melt the brass you have cast?

Thanks for the information,
Bob