panther question

According to Achtung Panzer, the tubular type, as you have, were blue. But looking at a restored example as seen here, they are green;

 The four lenses on the earlier type were green, so does anyone have a color photo of a blue one? I've seen lots of models with blue ones, but that doesn't mean it's correct....

Vintage photos appear as if there is not a cover over the tube;

General consensus seems to be that they were blue, but it's hard to argue a modern color photo, unless the part in this photo is totally wrong, or we have more than one variation of this type of convoy light.

Osprey's; Modelling the Panther Tank, has it painted blue also. A large color plate on page 56 of Squadron's Walk Around Sturmgeschutz III G depicts the light as a solid blue tube, without any covered divider as shown in the photo above.

Here is one on the back of a Hetzer;

So obviously there was more than just one type of the cylindrical ones, at least three!

Take your pick....

Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated.

panzer... as you are just finishing the same kit that I am just starting... and it's my 1st tank... any warnings?  Trouble spots I need to be careful?

Dont be tempted to add wings to the thing....

...Guy

Hi wing nut, I didn't really have any major issues with this kit. Builds up to a really nice panther. My only advice is take your time, there's alot going on in the instructions and it's easy to miss something small. Also make sure you use the special track links for the front drive sprocket, otherwise you might have issues. The only things that I had trouble with are the commander's cupola didn't want to sit flush on the turret roof, had to make the hole a little bit bigger, and the other tricky thing for me was getting the tracks to sit right because of the moveable suspension. Otherwise a great kit, these issues that I had were probably more my fault than the kit's fault. Good luck and enjoy the build. Oh yeah welcome to the dark side. I've been known to dabble on the wingy side of things from time to time. Last build was the old 1/24 Bandai messerschmitt 109e, fun but alot of work to make it presentable.

Dont forget that green is made by mixing blue and yellow, and yellow dyes are often unstable to light. So its possible that they were both green and blue in reality, but not by design.  

panzer88 wrote:

...and the other tricky thing for me was getting the tracks to sit right because of the moveable suspension.

Moveable suspension???  uh-oh

The torsion bars that you install in the early stages allow the suspension arms to move up and down like the real thing. If you glued them so they don't move don't worry, as long as you have all the suspension arms level that won't be a problem, it probably will make putting the tracks on easier.Oh yeah that old 1/24 109 was the Bandai kit, forgot to write that. If you have any problems or questions during your build feel free to ask, the build is still fresh in the memory bank.

Thanks panzer... I may take you up on that offer... A LOT .  I just checked all the axles and they look ok and I have no problem with anything making those tracks easier.

Hey wing nut, I just remembered something that will probbaly give a problem, the track hangers on the rear side of the vehicle(thing where they hang the spare track on the side of the vehicle towards the back), well they are molded too narrow to allow installation of spare tracks. I shaved and filed the insides of one and decided to leave the others empty. I didn't want to break the part trying to do the others, unfortunately I found this out after I had already installed them. Probabaly would be way easier to thin them out when not attached to the hull. You'll encounter this part on step 10 part C39, the part where the reataining pins go in is the part that is too narrow or fat to fit the spare links in, file or shave the inside carefully and you should be able to to get the tracks to fit.  I hope that this helps and doesn't confuse you, if you need me too I'll take a picture and show you the part I'm talking about.  

Thanks panzer.  I am gonna circle that on the sheet for when I get there.   I was able to free up all the axles.  The only thing I glued, other than all the torsion bar ends insode the hull,where where the travel stops(?) touched.  they came aprt real easy and the "damage" is impossible to see even before I put the track on.

vespa boy wrote:

Dont forget that green is made by mixing blue and yellow, and yellow dyes are often unstable to light. So its possible that they were both green and blue in reality, but not by design.

cool