Kent`s Panther build

[Kent Wiik]

Hi all!

New chapter in my Panther saga.
Lets continue with my pile of metal... remember this one?



As on a real Panther Ausf G looked like this:



And who me and Mr Dremel turned out to become like this:



Well not that close to the real thing but back then they had to do.
Then Tim made a good looking set in resin equipped with rubber pads and then Steve Winstone made them in brass with spring working absorbers:



Very nice! So I got me a set.
What an improvement from the kit ones, me like!
Thanks again Steve for making them.

After some time feeling them in without bolting them in place I spotted some areas that with a minimum of work might become even more accurate.

Steve Norris has already described how to reduce the thickness of the central part to get a better clearance for the tracks and I did the same.



The real thing had 5x2 steel discs so I removed 1x2, this also meant the spring had to be cut a bit and the pit for the internal thick guide disk had to be made deeper.
With the bumper plates a bit shorter the bump stops can now be bolted to the hull side in a lower position and now get an ever better clearance to the track links.

Some chemical metal was added to the mid section sides to rounding up the edge.
Rounding up all edges in general and made the water drain slits a bit deeper.

All of this done with Mr Dremel and the set of four took me 3 evenings and a weekend to make, well worth it I must say.
This is how they turned out with new cast surface applied and painted TS-3:





Very pleased with them and now I have items I could only dream about when I tried to customize the kit ones back then and all of this thanks to Steve (and Tim).
Casting brass parts myself I will never get the skill or equipment to make therefore guys like Steve in my eyes is such an asset to our hobby.

One thing…you guys making a very late Ausf G please note that in late spring 1945 the rear pair of both the internal rear shock absorbers and the external rear pair bumper stops was deleted (among a bunch of other items) due to speeding up production cutting corners and cost, so you only need the in front pair for your Panther if you go for historical accuracy.

As always, thanks for looking.
Kent

[michael hilton]

Hello Kent, brilliant work, I know you keep a watchful eye on everyone's work. I follow your detailed build with much enthusiasm.....Mick

[Paul Decker]

Hi Kent,

Super workmanship and eye for detail. I noticed that your Panther and some others I have seen on the Forum have textured surfaces that looks like real armour plate. As one of the newer members trying to improve their building skills one mistake at a time, I wonder if you could discuss the techniques(s) you use to make those realistic looking textured surfaces.

Paul Decker

[Kent Wiik]

Thanks Michael and Paul for the kind comments.

Paul:
Many moons ago in 2007 I had the same question as I wanted that rolled steel texture for my Hetzer.
Back then no one had done it on a metal 1:6th tank so I did some trial and error work and found a way to get a decent looking result.
I posted all about it here on this forum but somehow the posting has not survived the number of upgrade the forum has had since then…
(sadly the same has happened to the early posting in this saga as well)

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... ?f=10&t=32

On the positive side all my posting I have saved on my hard drive so here is again “my way” of making the rolled steel texture:

¤ Clean the area
¤ Prime it with etch primer
¤ With a fine Dremel tool make dimples



¤ With a little bigger Dremel tool make random grooves horizontal and vertical
(let some of them criss cross)



¤ With an even bigger Dremel tool make deeper random dimples



¤ With a used brush apply putty (I use Tamiya putty) mowing the brush up and down



¤ grind off most of the dried putty and if needed apply some more and after drying sand off again.



¤ Clean the area
¤ Apply self etching primer
¤ Apply the top paint/cammo

Here is the result seen on an area of my Hetzer:
(click on it for a bigger photo)



Please note there are other ways to make this texture, for example using Mr Surface, but this work fine for me even if it is time consuming.
Just remember what ever technique you use make sure you try it on a test area first and become safe with it before you go “hard core”.
Also note that the rolled steel texture was rougher the thicker the armour plate was.
Thin plate (~30mm) such as the belly ones had a very sublime texture while a thick front plate can look quite rough.

For the rougher sand cast texture seen on many items such as the MG blende, mantle, exhaust guards I use Mr Surface 500.

As always, thanks for looking.
Kent

[Nick Farrugia]

Hikent
I have not seen this post before very interesting and the final look is great ,thanks for posting
allthe best ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nick

[Paul Decker]

Hi Kent,

Great stuff on armour plate texturing. Thank you very much for your help and references. I can see that I have a long way to go, but with your help I now have direction and am on my way.
Best regards.

Paul Decker

[Kent Wiik]

Nick and Paul thanks, pure pleasure to hear you find my post interesting and make my effort worth while.

Paul//
Regarding the torsion cover cap A4 pdf file I have sent you a pm.
(I need your email address so I can post it to you.)

Kind regards
Kent

[Kent Wiik]

Hi all!

Today an item on an item I am very happy to have.
It is my early style idlers made by Bob Morey, one of the finest aftermarket items I have ever had the pleasure to own.
(I believe Tim also was involved in making this good looking item)
But today we shall only focus on its hub caps.

The idea with Bob’s idlers is to use the kit hub cap CH0309.
The same hub cap was used on both the early style and the late style idler the Armortek kit is equipped with.
This is how a real one look like:



And this is the kit one:



Please note that the real one has 3 levels and the kit one has 2 but Bob kindly make a third level to my pair on his lathe.

Comparing the 2 photos above you can note that the hub in the middle is to large on the kit one and the middle circle is to low.

That hub in the middle is not there for no other reason then looking good, no look here on this instruction drawing it is there to protect the bolt that hold the idler to the idler shaft.



Here are some other observations and measurements in 1:6 the real thing has:





Please note the 4mm that really makes the hub to stick out, this I made from a 2mm aluminium ring + a 2mm aluminium disk bolted to the hub cap rear centre.

On the outside I reduced the centre hub to 15,6mm and removed 0,5mm of its high.
All of this done with my best friend Mr Dremel.
Did also add 0,5mm in height to the middle ring made up with Chemical Metal.
Some cast surface, gas cut welding edge look, primer and TS-3 and this was the end result:







Well worth the effort I think.

As always thanks for looking
Kent

[simon_manning]

as always kent thanks for posting, superb clear information, and as said before "interesting" keep the saga going regards simon manning.

[Robert E Morey]

Lovely work Kent, as always! I always view your Panther posts with some trepidation though. You keep modifying things that nag me till I change mine! LOL. Now I need to remake me hub caps! All the same, I enjoy your eye for details!
Keep up the great work!
Best regards, Bob

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Absolutely fantastic! I particularly admire how you not just get every measurement right, but also the textures - even the cuts!

Cheers,
/Chris

[Kent Wiik]

Thanks Simon, Bob and Chris!

Glad someone reads my saga and finds it interesting.

Bob//
Sorry my friend but I have a lot more in the pipeline...LOL

Kind regards
Kent

[Kent Wiik]

Hi all,

I have had a number of mail regarding questions about how I did my rear engine access hatch. Strangely my post in this saga on page 5 from feb03 2010 didn’t survive the forum upgrade so sadly today’s posting is just old news for some of you

Please note that I did not scratchbuild a new hatch but used the kit parts and changed/remade them. I don’t know if the new edition of the Panther has the same kitpart as my first edition kit has so keep that in mind please.

This is a very interesting item full with nice things as welds, chains, nuts, etc.
The more you look at it the more you find.
And gladly there is just one of them on a Panther...

The kit parts compared with the real thing reveal some items both to be made and customize.
As I have paid once for the parts I decided to remake them instead of made new ones.
If I had proper tools then making new parts would have saved time but hey who is in a hurry here?

This is how the kit one would look with the 2 starter device pin that was not included in the kit.



Look rather decent but the plate is to thin, small and shall be lowered 6mm on the rear hull plate to be accurate.
The tow bars are also to thin and has a wrong shape.

This is some photos of the real thing:







Please note that the starter plate and tow bar is not centred with the tank.
The Panther engine was installed 25mm to the right because of some items for the engine cooling system.

Also note that the nuts in use was not castle nuts but ordinary nuts with a locking pin (no locking bars here) as with the exhaust covers showed before in this saga.
Also here I didn’t make those tiny pins…(no tools, no patience…)

A new aluminium plate was bolted to the kit part and the “old” holes came to good use.
As Mr Dremel served me well here he earned his place in the photo…



More work in progress



Also the cover for starter port needed some attention with its shape and thickness.



Here is one of the photos I got from Saumur and that one reveals that the plate edge was angled and had a notch, 2 absolute must have I think.
Also note the shape the starter device pins had, new ones was made from a 6mm aluminium rod.



Well after a long time and some surface treatment (rolled steel) the end result was this:







And compared with the real thing I am satisfied even if this work took some time.



Next thing will be to make the tow bar with its pin and chains and all of that is still on page 6:
(scroll down a bit)
http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... 1&start=75

With this end result:



As always, thanks for looking.
Kent

[Steve Norris]

Hi Kent.
Your rear starter plate still looks superb even after 2 1/2 years
Regards
Steve

[Kent Wiik]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your kind words, much appreciated.
Hope to finish my Panther in the next 2,5 years...

Kind regards
Kent (the slowest builder in this hobby )