Panther 18

[Chris Hall]

I think the last time we at Bovington we were get funny looks photographing the rear of their Panther. I am sure they wouldn't be to pleased to see visitors disappearing underneath the vehicles

The people at Bovvy are unfailingly nice and helpful - they actually like people who are knowledgeable about their babies ! I’m sure that, if you ask nicely, they’d be happy to oblige.

I ran my old Panther underneath the Bovvy Panther once, with no problem. So you could always fit a GoPro

Best wishes, and Merry Christmas,

Chris

[Chris Hall]

There’s a page on Facebook called TankHistoria that’s always worth a look. This photo may help:

2FFEE80F-67FC-4B5C-9D85-32681F701B0A.jpeg (59.02 KiB) Viewed 1420 times

[Kent Wiik]

Does anyone out there have a decent picture/photo of fittings "1" in the above?

This photo might help.
Those are hull drain plugs.

Merry Xmas!

[Charles A Stewart]

Merry Christmas Kent.

Thanks for photo, helps a lot.

Cheers
Charles

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi Folks.

Just a small update, to wet to do outside stuff, so I am doing jobs on the Panther that an be "safely" done in the house. Here is one such task, fitting the brass bushes and masking the suspension housing.

Brass bits masked off.

Question time (you're are not getting of that lightly). On one of the above bars the smaller brass bushes fitted flush, on the other bar they stick up between a 0.5-1mm. Anyone else found this and is it/will it be an issue?

And no, I did not hammer any of them home

Cheers for now, looks dry tomorrow so some painting, maybe. Happy New year to you all, take care.

Charles

[Malcolm.Plumb]

Yes Charles
I had the same problem with a few of my holes.
Just used a 12mm reamer to clean the holes out a bit.
Only the larger holes though.

[Charles A Stewart]

Evening all.

On and off, spent the week fixing the access hatches in place onto the belly plate using my home made template:-

Cut out template in place, some adjustments were required.

So far so good (well by my standards, anyway).

Will add the drain hole fittings next, once they are done I need to clean up the paintwork, touch up with filler as needed

Take care all.

Charles

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi Folks.

Hope one and all are enjoying the weekend.

Not so bad this end, only 1x tap broken in the pursuit of installing the smaller(x6) "Torsion Bar Adjustment" covers, please correct me if I have the definition wrong, always keen to learn

Still here we are at last, I hope, all the underneath stuff fitted & filled :-

Nice coat of paint too.(Sorry about the shadow)

We now look to move on to section 08 of the build manual.

Take care and have a good week.

Charles

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi Folks.

Hiding inside the house again, I know "wimp", still its warm and dry.

Now the suspension bars are in place I can look at the hull sides. Today I made a template(which seems to have worked) and have marked out the RHS covers.

Next job drill & tap for the screws

I hope I have got the covers the right way round, could be if not.

Cheers all.

Charles

[Malcolm.Plumb]

Nice Charles

You will find that you won't be able to put all the covers on in the same orientation as per historic photos. Only a couple will be in the wrong direction I think.
They will foul the bump stops.

You did find the same I take it?

[Charles A Stewart]

Thanks for the heads up Malcolm, I will dry fit those units and take it from there.

Cheers
Charles

[Charles A Stewart]

Evening all.

Taking cover "again" as another area of low pressure moves over us, We haven't suffered too much save a broken fence here. Touch wood(pun).

Thank you Malcolm, I place the bump stops on the left/port side and an see where you mean.

I am going to keep the covers on the right/st'bd side as is, except disc 2, they cover the screw heads. That left/port side though, I think will need work and some filler

Still, that's the joy of adding extras.

Place your bets Gentleman.

Cheers and take care.

Charles

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi folks.

hope all is well and good with all of you.

It certainly is here, rain &wind,wind & rain and I am still building in the house . Somewhat warmer than the garage. Have though been able to get a bit of painting done during the milder spells, definitely not in the house!!!

Not too sure how long I am going to get away with this arrangement as the model becomes heavier and heavier and not to mention the other half

The next task will to be assembling the upper hull, square it all off, make sure the deck fits properly, then add some welds to the lower hull.

An addition (PS HP photo copier 168%. Other printers are available and differences may occur.)

Section 4 of the build completed, I hope

Grooves provided for Milliput welding. Being underneath a good place to practice.

Take care all.

Charles

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi All.

Just a short update. After fettling the upper half of the hull and getting to fit, not to bad in the end. I added the deck to check that it fits OK and it does.

Birds eye view, screws fit holes, which is nice.

I will be adding the crew heater system, it gets cold up here!!

The attachment of the crew heater means I am moving away from the Houffalize Panther that I originally thought to represent. The next question, Has anyone got a spare Panther gun mantel with the "chin"?

That would be suitable for the 2022 Panther, I should add.

Take care and enjoy the weekend.

Charles

[Chris Hall]

The ‘chin mantlet’ wasn’t a universal fitment. So it’s perfectly OK to have the crew heater with the earlier mantlet.

And the earlier version of the Panther kit that had the chin couldn’t have recoil. I don’t know whether that was because of the mantlet design, though ….