Panther G (July 1944 version)

[David Brady]

That's the spirit Alex, time to get your order in.

Cheers

[Jerry Carducci]

If I only didn't already have 13 Panthers/ variants in 1/10 scale....

Soooooo tempting indeed.

Jerry

[SeanO'Hara]

I've waited about twelve years to get a Panther G. Things like work and family got in the way. Next April I retire so the announcement of production in 2022 was heaven sent:)

It was meant to be!!!

[Armortek]

Well, we are back at work again after our Summer Break and thought I would provide a short update on the progress of the Panther G. It was a bit of a busy week last week, so no photographs to tease you with, but will take some in the coming couple of days and post them this week.

- Production of the entire hull is now 85% completed. Still pending are the travel lock assembly, machine gun armour, and several bent metal parts - (tool holders, exhaust brackets etc)

- The running gear is also pretty far along, although due to late arrival of the material for the Idlers we have not started on them yet. They will probably be pushed back to the 3rd week of August

- Raw Material for the Turret has arrived, so we will start production on the turret parts this week. This will keep us bust for a while.

- Sample castings finally arrived for the Engine grills - they look very good and are a perfect fit, so the go ahead has been given for the production castings

- Sample castings for the tracks also arrived - our previous die cast tooling was no longer viable, so we have had to have new dies made. Hence we had to run a sample off to check. Parts passed inspection and, and we have given the go ahead for production.

- The revised roadwheel sample also arrived. Now good to go, so we have ordered the production quantities.

- Our etched plate supplier had sadly gone belly up. We will need to source a new supplier and restart the ordering process.

That pretty much covers the major items - photos to follow later this week.

[Armortek]

Some photographs taken today ....

A couple of the grills on the engine deck - these are all new castings and have turned out really well.

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As noted earlier - we have started work on the turret - the part below is the Turret Front. First op on a 3AX mill is complete - it will need another op on a 5AX to add the angles

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Sprocket centres - all complete. These are a new design as mentioned earlier - there will now be 2 removable sprocket rings. Machining on those is scheduled to start mid to end next week. With 4 rings per tank and 2 operations per ring, they will be running for a while

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The validation build at the moment. Awaiting some updates on the manual before we progress further.

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A few other updates
- we have found a new etched sheet provider
Now negotiating the delivery time for all the etched parts - for some reason they don't agree that they should drop all their other work and focus on us.
- Driven gear blanks have been sent off for gear cutting today. Hopefully have them back in 3-4 weeks
- Sample torsion bars arrived. We can now get the suspension all built up.

[Jae-seung Roe]

Great to see some update news with pictures. The grille detail does look great indeed!

[Armortek]

On Friday (yesterday) we got delivery of the Panther rear bins and the mudguards.

Very please with how both have turned out - especially the bins that are a massive change from previously where we machined them out of solid aluminium.

We have ordered some spare bins, so you want to upgrade your panther let us know at sales@armortek.co.uk.

Left hand side and right hand side rear bins:

And as mounted on the Panther G

Front mudguards with the insert:

[simon_manning]

very nice, a nice upgrade, regards simon.

[Alex Easten]

Looking great, I'm back in the game, order placed!

Cheers,

Alex

[Armortek]

Torsion bars going in

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Double torsion bar setup on the Panthers

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[Brian Ostlind]

Is the double torsion bar a scale detail or some other purpose?

[laurent ROSSET]

To my knowledge, the double suspension bars system was intended to provide an optimal hull stabilization allowing relatively high speed travel over undulating terrain. So the Armortek is (as usual) a true functional 1/6 scale Panther.

[Armortek]

To my knowledge, the double suspension bars system was intended to provide an optimal hull stabilization allowing relatively high speed travel over undulating terrain. So the Armortek is (as usual) a true functional 1/6 scale Panther.

Yes - that's correct.

Here is a video showing the torsion bar set up on a Panther

[Armortek]

A few more pictures of the Panther G ....




Track tensioning system ..... pretty much the same as on the Tiger 1, Kind Tiger, Jagdtiger, ....

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First and second bump stops. Very happy with how these have turned out. The first bump stop is still missing a flange which should be ready this week.

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Some details on the rear plate.

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[Armortek]

Turret starting to come together now.
Side plates should be on by the end of next week