Armortek

Well its time i started my Panther build now that i have my universal hull.
The first thing to say is that i intend building a early G model as used in Normandy.

This is the tank i intend to build



The first thing i had to do was wait for delivery of this Panzer tracts book that had been recomended by Kent, Well worth the wait.



First job has been to add 5 mounting bolts around the idler mount, The bolts have locking tabs made from the thin aluminium tray that my Christmas turkey came in . A couple of other jobs carried out were a slight reprofiling of the lifting lug and adding the interlock. Because the design of the hull has been altered from the last production run of Panthers to make it a "universal" hull, the interlocks are now missing at the front and rear. Its a easy job to add the interlocks using a Dremmel, just some welding to add to finish it off.



This shows the front end, again i have reprofiled the lift hooks.
The interlock here comes as a machined recess, all it needs is a little detailing with the Dremel and some Milliput welding.




Final bit for now. The suspension bars have had there bushes added, as can be seen these bars have an extra set of bushings for the double torsion bar set up.



More to come later

regards

Steve

thats a good idea steve making changes before the hull is assembled, if i do another kit i will start that way, keep the posts coming, simon manning.

Hi Steve.
Yes looking forward to watching this one progress, your first Panther was very nice.
Cheers Paul

Good to see another Panther build here Steve!

Notice this new release has been improved with correct position for the shock absorber as well as for the rear lift bosses.
The edges at the end also look reshaped, I like that as it will save a lot of time for all of you new Panther builders.
Looks as my saga has been useful...(after all)

Happy new year everyone!
Kent

The next part of the build i intend to start is the rear plate. i first wanted to make the engine access cover the correct dia of 85mm as per Kents example. After a bit of searching around i found that i could produce this part from an old Tiger 1 drivers hatch, shown below is the supplied cover, the Tiger 1 drivers hatch and the cut and filled hatch ready for detailing.



The next photo shows the rear plate as supplied in the universal kit, lots of holes that will be redundant and so need filling. i have placed the various access covers in place and the exhaust system to see how it all looks. Notice the track tension adjustment covers, heater access cover and starter crack cover are to low when compared to the pictures shown in Kents build.



This photo shows the various access cover placed higher up along with some dimensions, I am not 100% sure all is correct and would appreciate some comfirmation before i commit to moving these items. I intend having a go at casting new access covers from white metal so the supplied ones are only shown for reference.



Steve

Hi Steve are you going to do the engine bay detail again

like your late tiger , that looked great

Dave Gray

Hi David.
Yes i hope to.
Steve

Well as stated earlier, i have had a go at casting my own access covers. I first made a plastic master and the a silicon rubber mold, next i melted some scrap white metal and ended up after a couple of goes with some very respectable covers. They still require clean up but i think they look prettey good.
Below is a shot of the plastic master, mould, castings after removal from the mould and a supplied cover.
Much better i think.



Next up is to cast the 2 smaller access covers.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Sorry missed your dimension request and as no one else has come to your aid here is what I have for my own build.

As you have the new batch and I have the old they might differ.
Notice that the bottom edge are square on your rear plate while my own are made with an angle (at least the photo seems to show it made that way).
So I give you the numbers from the pannier (underside store box) instead.



The new access covers will cover the track tension hole even if their location is bit higher up.

The rear plate look odd seen 90 degrees, here is how it will turn out tilted at 60 degrees:



Btw, nice looking access covers of yours

Kind regards
Kent

Kent.
Thanks for the dimensions, Just what i wanted. I have checked my dimensions against yours and found that i have 66mm to the base of the bins, I am glad that i checked before commiting to any corrections. I noticed that you have slightly extended the exhaust pipe and i guess this is where my error originaly started. When i marked out the rear plate i started by positioning the exhausts and then everything else followed from there.
Many thanks again
Steve

Some more work on the rear plate.

To neaten everything up i decided that the idler tension adjustment holes needed to be raised up so they were directly below their covers.
The first thing i noticed when i started planning how to do this was that the idler tension cup (CP0179) would stand proud of the rear plate when installed. See picture below.



This was not a problem for me as i planned on fitting a reinforcing plate to take the idler cup when repositioned.the picture below shows the repositioned tension cup sitting in the reinforcing plate.



You can see from the outside view how i have moved the tension cup hole the only thing left to do to complete this little mod is to fill the redundant part of the hole.



Regards

Steve

too good, makes me feel i've missed to much, regards simon.

Here,s a shot of the rear plate with the completed engine access cover installed. I have also installed the other covers to show how it all looks.



The tow brackets on the engine access cover are made from white metal castings and have turned out better that i expected. Below is a shot of the master and a spare casting. As you can see i produced the master as a 2 in 1 part, ie both sides of the tow bracket are incorperated in the one casting. From 2 of these casting it is then possible to produce both left and right tow brackets by simply removing the bits of the casting that are not required.



More to follow

Steve

Hi Steve,

Looking good!
Nice move on the tow brackets, the engine access cover turned out stunning.
Also all the other items on the rear plate looks outstanding.
I think you can say it was well worth the effort.

Kind regards
Kent

Has anyone got a photo of the rear Notek armoured guard and how it is positioned next to / bellow the left stowage box. Non of the photos i have seem to make any sence as the guard arrears to protrude from the side of the stowage box yet i cannot find any information showing a cut out in the box allowing this to happen.

Thanks

Steve