Martin's Jagdpanther

[Martin Hofmann]

Hi all Jagdpanther builders, here comes my new project.
I got these beautiful tank from David Brady from England. At this place again: many thanks for this great JP and thank you for the great procedure of delivery.
Here comes the first photos.

[Steen Vøler]

congratulations Martin

Look forward to watch your upcoming pictures of the build

[Robert E Morey]

Martin
Congratulations on your new addition to the family. The JAgd will be awesome, esp with the steel tracks! You got a lot of extras. I look forward to seeing the build.
Bob

[Gerhard Michel]

Hello Martin,

congratulations!

I am already curious about the driving behaviour of your steel track links.........

[vincent hung shu yue]

Hello Martin
Congratulations you get the Jagdpanther. Referring to your steel tracks, just a little tips, put a 2mm thick spacer no the driveing wheel and the driving teeth to wider the distance. And this will be perfect match .
Enjoy your built.
Regards
Vincent

[Gerhard Michel]

Hello Vincent,

this idea I also will test next winter after the driving season. The bigger problem I see in the extremely tight traction of your track links on grass grounds which will cause removing the track links from the drive train (idler, road wheels) when turning slightly. Tableturns are surprisingly not so difficult. Hard grounds (bitumen e.g.) cause not any problems.......

[vincent hung shu yue]

Hello Gerhard
I Had modified two panther's driving sprockets . And will have a field trial later time . But it is raining all the days . And will post the vedio see what it would be on grass . It ran smoothly on wooden floor and the track links did not jump. But can not put the track on my upgrade motor Jagdpanther, not enough power to run the heavy track links. For Armortek original motor, no problem at all.
Regards
Vincent

[David Brady]

Hi,

Looking forward to the build! all you need now is parts from Steve Winstone to to complete the ultimate jagdpanther

Cheers

[Martin Hofmann]

Hi Steen, Robert, Gerhard, Vincent and David,
thank you for the warm welcome here. Vincent: i have ordered some spacer of 1,5mm between the sprocket and the body. The sprockets are coming new: a steel track needs steel sprockets!!!!
And David: i ordered very much parts from Steve Winstone!

[Martin Hofmann]

after hundreds of screws and nuts i prepared the casting parts to look like casting.

[Gerhard Michel]

Hi Martin,

in my opinion steel track links don't need steel sprockets. My other 3 'steel track links models', the Jagdtiger, the Königstiger with Porsche turret and the Königstiger with production turret (none from AT, therefore here no pics) also use aluminium sprockets and exchangeable tooth rings from the same material. Steel sprockets / tooth rings will wear the expensive track links prematurely. At my tanks the sprockets / tooth rings are the 'wearing parts', and the track links are spared.

[Phil Woollard]

Good point Gerhard, the sprockets on the real thing were sacrificial and therefore easily changed regards Phil.

[Paul Wills]

Hi Martin,

Its coming on nicely, you've put some work into those engine fan covers, it shows some great patients

Paul.

[Martin Hofmann]

Hi Gerhard, Phil and Paul,
the point is: if you have 86 tracks and only 17 tooths per sprocket the frequency of intervention is approx. 5 per teeth!!!! So it is good to make the sprocket ring out of steel and change the sprocket ring easily - i will screw it to the body. Photos from lasercut ( done ) and machining are on the way.
In the mean time there are the next photos of the fan covers.

[Gerhard Michel]

Hi Martin,

I now use steel track links for about 7 years, combined only with aluminium tooth rings on the sprockets. Till now I had only one time to change worn out tooth rings, and that only because they had a wrong tooth form.



At the left hand a tooth ring of my Königstiger, at right hand a workpiece to be fitted.




Now I use pointed teeth which give best driving results in heavy grounds:



IMHO these pointed teeth were also attempted by the Wehrmacht