Panther G #4 build

[graham pipe]

Hi Ed, excellent work!

Re. Counterbalancing the gun barrel, on my almost finished new build Jagdpanther (from Armortek spare parts stock), the poor little elevation motor was completely unable to raise or lower the gun due to its mass so I extended the internal breech by 4cm using steel tube then calculated the weight necessary to get the barrel to balance neutrally. This came out at 2.8 kilos. I then took an aluminium beer can - German lager, of course - cut off the top, supported it in a cat food tin to prevent toppling over or distortion and cast a weight by smelting and pouring scrap lead pipe of the exact weight. Whilst still molten and before cooling set in, I plunge inserted a 14 mm diameter Kettenkrad track pin as a "cast in" mounting spigot. The Krad pin was left over from one of the 3 real Kettenkrads I have restored. Once cool, the beer can was peeled off and the weight primed and painted white.

The spigot fits inside the 14 mm bore breech tube which is drilled and threaded M6 to accept a locking grub screw. It now works perfectly with no strain on the motor or brass pivot and leadscrew. Will be posting photos on my Jagpanther build log (part 7) this weekend.

Hope this info is of help to you and any other Panther builders.

Regards from Normandy

[Armortek]

Hi Graham,

I think that is good advise on some of the older kits (which do not already have a counter balance), but for all kits produced after 2020 we change our elevation mechanism so we no longer use a motor and leadscrew. We now have a linear actuator that could probably lift a small car.

Kian

[Ed Groenenberg]

Hi Ed, excellent work!

Re. Counterbalancing the gun barrel, on my almost finished new build Jagdpanther (from Armortek spare parts stock), the poor little elevation motor was completely unable to raise or lower the gun due to its mass so I extended the internal breech by 4cm using steel tube then calculated the weight necessary to get the barrel to balance neutrally. This came out at 2.8 kilos. I then took an aluminium beer can - German lager, of course - cut off the top, supported it in a cat food tin to prevent toppling over or distortion and cast a weight by smelting and pouring scrap lead pipe of the exact weight. Whilst still molten and before cooling set in, I plunge inserted a 14 mm diameter Kettenkrad track pin as a "cast in" mounting spigot. The Krad pin was left over from one of the 3 real Kettenkrads I have restored. Once cool, the beer can was peeled off and the weight primed and painted white.

The spigot fits inside the 14 mm bore breech tube which is drilled and threaded M6 to accept a locking grub screw. It now works perfectly with no strain on the motor or brass pivot and leadscrew. Will be posting photos on my Jagpanther build log (part 7) this weekend.

Hope this info is of help to you and any other Panther builders.

Regards from Normandy

Hello Graham.

When I did the test, the battery (12 volt) was not charged. When it is still showing a difference in speeds when going up or down,
with a charged battery (24 volt), I certainly will experiment with a counter weight.
I don't think it will be that heavy for the Panther compared to the Jagdpanther, unless it is very close to the tilting block.

Best,
Ed

[graham pipe]

Hi Ed,
Sounds like you might have solved the problem by charging the battery. But if you do need a counterbalance, then yes, the Panther has a smaller and lighter barrel so you would not need as much weight as my JP. Obviously, the closer the counterbalance is to the pivot point then the weight increases exponentially. Newton's Law of Physics applies here! On my JP, the balance weight is 4 cm past the end of the breech block. Any closer and it would have needed a lot more mass to counter the long, heavy barrel and muzzle break.

Are you using the new linear actuator as mentioned by Kian in his reply to my post?

Best,
Graham

[Ed Groenenberg]

Hi Ed,
Sounds like you might have solved the problem by charging the battery. But if you do need a counterbalance, then yes, the Panther has a smaller and lighter barrel so you would not need as much weight as my JP. Obviously, the closer the counterbalance is to the pivot point then the weight increases exponentially. Newton's Law of Physics applies here! On my JP, the balance weight is 4 cm past the end of the breech block. Any closer and it would have needed a lot more mass to counter the long, heavy barrel and muzzle break.

Are you using the new linear actuator as mentioned by Kian in his reply to my post?

Best,
Graham

Hello Graham.

Yes, it is using the linear motor, although I assume at the moment that it is a 24 volt model.

Best,
Ed

[Ed Groenenberg]

Today some misc. work was done.
I replaced the m3 countersunk screws that hold the final drive parts to to hull with m4 CSK's.
For me, the m3 do appear a little bit to flimsy for my liking. As I had bought a whole box any way
(I used these on the underside baseplate too), they came in handy.
Replacing was simple, I just did run the M4 tap thought the exisiting holes, no sweat at all.
Extra benefit, they only stick out 1mm at the inside.

Next job was to assemble the sprocket wheels, just a matter of cleaning all the holes to remove
the dried up cooling fluid and apply a tiny amount of loctite before inserting the heads.
After that the primer was applied, followed by a coat of Dunkel Gelb.

Off to the electronics parts shop to get 2 small wide range speakers, their diameter is nearly the same
as the inner diameter of the round air intakes. Each speaker will be boxed and attached to a base,
this base is then fastened using longer m3 hex head screws which go through the existing holes of the air intakes.

[Ed Groenenberg]

A bit of acting like a mad scientist a few days ago.
Why, well using a greenish fluorescent fluid in a bucked is always 'unusual'.

A week or so ago, I ordered a canister of industrial kitchen cleaner, basically to de-grease the road wheels.
After mixing it with water to get a 1:10 solution, the wheels were put in the bucket and left there for a few minutes
with a few shakes to make sure the liquid washed around the surfaces.

It surely did the trick, they came out very clean.
A few rinses of water to remove the traces and they were placed in the oven to get them dry quickly.
After cooling down, a coat of red primer was applied, following a coat of left over Rust-Oleum on the inside
and Dunkel Geld on the outside. (These wheels will be the flying saucer type).

[Ed Groenenberg]

Today being the Dutch national Madness day (aka Kings day), I had a day off.

Having assembled the 1st set of wheels, I taught it would be nice to see how it looks with a track fitted.

The manual explains to use Loctite to place the hubcaps on the wheels at the very end of the assembly process.
I beg to differ, why not use another solution, which allows easy removal of the hubs when needed?
For that, I used a simple solution, namely NdFeB.

NdFeB? What's that? It's the chemical formula for supermagnets........

So, what I did, is glued one inside the hubcap, and now is stuck pretty well to the locking screw & disk
to hold the wheel in place on the axle.

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi Ed.

I like that solution, good one. I am not too keen to loctite, but as I am some way off that stage, magnets are worth considering.

BTW which size of magnet do you recommend?

Cheers

Charles

[Ed Groenenberg]

Hi Ed.

I like that solution, good one. I am not too keen to loctite, but as I am some way off that stage, magnets are worth considering.

BTW which size of magnet do you recommend?

Cheers

Charles

Hello Charles.
I had 2 small ones left over, but I ordered some 15mm diam x 3 mm.
They should fit snugly into the space of the hub, and I used a 2K glue.

Best,
Ed

[Ed Groenenberg]

Some more painting was done on the main body.

Prepping was done to protect the already pained bottom part.

A few coats and the main body is now doen.

[Ed Groenenberg]

An update on the magnets I want to use inside the hubcaps, rather than glueing them.

The 15mm x 3mm are unfortunately to thick. I needed to file off a very little bit to get them inserted into the cavity of the hubcap,
but the hubcap then 'floats' a bit too much.

As 14mm magnets are not sold by the supplier, I will order some 12 mm ones, with a thickness of 1mm and 2mm.

[Ed Groenenberg]

Today I was in Best at the local WW2 museum where I made the first few 100 meters with the Panther.
The tank is far from finished, but I wanted to show my fellow club members the progress so far.

[Gary Rafferty]

Today I was in Best at the local WW2 museum where I made the first few 100 meters with the Panther.
The tank is far from finished, but I wanted to show my fellow club members the progress so far.

Hi Ed

Panther looks superb, looking forward to seeing it finished.

Cheers
Gary

[Vince Cutajar]

Nice one Ed.

Barrel elevation looks awesome also.

Vince