ARMOR - Panther (PzKpfw V) Group Build (any scale)

ive started my Dragon early A and ive orderd some Fiue model tracks
im heading for a Panther based in Italy with a Horizontal zim
what ive got are
Dragon Panther A Early
Eduard Barrel
Eduard PE set
FM tracks number 8 {i think} are there only the Two Panther tracks by Fruimodel???
and some Tamiya bits
i might try and fit the Tamiya Engine

ive got the Verlinden Resin Zim set for the Tamiya G but its
so im going to make it into a Pillbox (maybe)

all the kits ive seen on here looks great

Derek,
i see my new stuff is up too.
THANKS !
ed.

Domi: My apologies, I did your page then forgot to upload it.
It's up now.

I think you did the right thing, Frosty!

ah, adventures in modeling !
looks like this group build thing is motoring along.
as if anyone hadn't figured it out already, i posted my progress report as a separate topic... it's not 'cause i'm antisocial or anything, it's just that this thread is reaching the 300 page mark, and it's getting kinda hard to keep track (no pun intended) of it all.
feel free 2 check my thread for news of how my build is going !
hope i'm not causing more confusion to anyone...
if so, i most sincerely apologize !
frosty

Chris,
my Eduard barrel was too tight a fit in the mantlet cover too,
tho it fit fine in the breech face. i spun a #11 blade in the hole of the mantlet cover
a few times until the barrel fit snugly.
i was afraid to try to force it in w/o opening up the hole a bit, as
i did not want to crack the plastic.

All,
got my road wheels dullcoted and the mantlet cover on the turret.
i had some fit problems too, even tho the dry fit had looked promising.
(except for the troublesome 'rails')
once the breech and outer piece were in, i could see that the breech face
did not extend past the outer piece.
which meant it would not reach the back of the mantlet cover!
In fact, these pieces would not touch even if the rails were cut out.
so after shaving the rails, and the outer edges of the piece on the turret
(the one that gets the 2 'D' shaped zim pieces on the side)
i made a piece from .040 styrene to go between the breech face and the back of the mantlet cover.
a bit of sanding and trimming, punching and drilling, and all was well.
i took a few pictures and will be getting them ready for the group build site soon.

ed.

Hey Lizardqing2,
What make barrel have you bought, I,ve got a Jordi Rubio and an Eduard aftermarket barrel & they are both drop fits of the original tamiya part.
And yes I Know I,ve bitched about Eduard PE but their turned aluminum barrels are top notch with their all in one muzzle brakes.
Seeya. Gotter.

ALL ZIMMED UP
Got the rest of the zim on today went on a treat, the only problem I had was self inflicted. I glued the two end pieces, either side of the mantlet the wrong way round ( I was holding the mantlet oopside down.) I was about to start ranting on about Eduard again when I noticed my mistake . Eduard really do seem to have improved.[:0] (Their early sets were absolute rubbish, grossly overscale or just plain innacurate).I,ve not even looked at one for about 4years, that may change however as Aber (my favourite) are so much dearer.
I was able to rectify my mistake without to much fuss however & the turret and mantlet look great.
Kennethc. What about a Coelian with that spare hull, I believe Chesapeake Designs do a turret for this.
Panther Lehr I thought the Aber instructions were pretty good although I cannot for the life of me work out what assembly number 39 is for, or where it goes and how Aber expect us to make that complicated spring arrangement beats me. I wont be trying to make that chain link gizmo for the gun travel lock either as i don,t own an Electron microscope.
Im hopng to put all the turret together tomorrow & maybe make a start on the tool racks tools & spare track link racks.(Time permitting).
Thats all for now folks,
Gotter.
Ps There is a great picture of Panther G number 135 on pg 135 (strange coincidence) of German Tanks at War, by Bob Carruthers. ISBN 0-304-35394-9. This is distributed in USA by Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.,387 Park Avenue South, New York, 10016-8810. The zim in the pic looks spot on although the said tank is pretty dirty. (sadly no unit or location info is given).

If you can get it in, I'd say let it go. If you sand the hole too much it might sag and then you will have to superglue it by sight.

Just remembered something. Since this is the first time I have used an aftermarket barrel, what is the proper way of doing it up. I am assuming that it's basically the same as the kit one. I fitted it today and it's a real tight fit to get it to go in so do I need to sand out the hole some?

Kenneth, looking at the Squadron Signal In Action (Armor Number 11)

it has a good looking color drawing on the back cover and 3 pages in side the book.
first page is mostly text, and a picture of rear of a Berg w/ spade and w/ crane/hoist rigged.
next page is of interest as it has pic of rear w/ tow hook up AND:
small scale drawings of top, side, front & rear.
last page has drawing of exhaust and tow cable guide roller and two pics
of one vehicle abandoned in France.

Meanwhile, "German Tanks of World War II" by Hart & Hart
has about half a page of text and no picturees.
none of which would help much for modeling.

BUT!!!
in the list of FSM articles featuring Panther stuff is a few pics AND
the KILLER FSM Showcase on a Berg in the Apr 02 magazine.
this is done in 1/16 and is a 2 page spread.
interestingly, the builder cites the Hart & Hart book above for a reference, but i have yet to see what he could have used.

gotta go.
got home late from work having to do a bit of shopping.
now it's pushing 8 and i have not eaten or worked on the Panther!


ed.

I'm not getting email notifications :(

Thanks for the answer on the number of links per side :)

Which part number do I use to replace the barrel on my jagdpanther with bolt on mantlet for my DML Jagdpanther?

Finally got my barrel and grills. Both look great and can't wait to get them on my panther. Did'nt know the grill set came with other stuff like the gun sights. Nice little bonus. Won't get anything done tonite with the fire training but hope to get some of it on tommorow.

Yes Kenneth, it is the old Kingtiger. At the time I built it, it was my best. LOL That was many years ago, I brush painted the entire model. Nice hard edged ambush camo. LOL No weathering, other than the tracks. Thank Dragon for putting out a new kit. I will be waiting patiently for a production turret version to come out. The fact that theirs come with indy tracks and photoetched grilles, it will cost about 1/3 of a Tamiya kit with similar goodies. Gee.......which one sounds like a better deal?

ed,
Cool... Looking forward to any info.

All, Work is really cramping my style. I worked at home a lot of the weekend, fortunanly my model desk is right angled to my computer desk.... I can just set up a scene and hit render that gives me 5-10 minutes or so to clean up or glue up some parts.

I hope to get the other toolbox built tonight. I am building them from scratch, the first one went great but the second is being harder to come by. Thats usually how it goes with scratchbuilt stuff that you need more than one of. The first one is like whoa! it worked and the rest are much more difficult to get right.

"edit" Eric, Is that the old Tamiya King Tiger. I have a couple of those around just for paint and finnish test rigs. Great aren't they...

Roll on Ya'll
Kenneth

Hi gang.

I purchased the Shanghai Dragon G at my LHS, it was too good to pass up. I'm thinking of using it as a backup in case I can't get the zim to work out. I will be experimenting today on my old Kingtiger. Nice thing about the Panther- no zim! I hate to bush out, but if all else fails. Plus, I doubt I'll be getting anything done over the holidays, my brother-in-law's family is staying with us. Glad to see some people making progress.

Bill, I believe in an old post you said you had some Tamiya putty handy, I may take you up on it, my LHS didn't have any in stock. Let you know later when you chime in.

Eric,
thanks! the slips were not too bad on the middle ones.
easier to hide than fix!
they get dullcote tonight.
not sure what else i will do.

the tracks will need attention soon, i am running out of hull stuff. [:0]

the turret is almost done.

i have been bombarding Derek w/ stuff for the site.
it's a wonder he has anytime at all to work!

Kenneth - i have the 'In Action' for the Panther and another tank book.
i will see what they have for the Berg'

EDIT - ADDITION -
if anyone is looking for the FSM Derek shows on his site w/ the 'accurizing Tamiya's Panther', there is one here for cheap. no bidders yet.
i am not the seller. i already have a copy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3572266127&category=1140
auction goes for about 6 more days.
ed.

not much to report on my end unfortunately , opened my box with parts twice over the weekend, had a look at the instruction sheet for the pe then put everything back in the box. yes thats what i think of the aber pe set instructions, i'm starting to consider just using the grills, barrel and tracks (*maybe* the skirts too but i haven't decided on if i want skirts at all) and do the rest oob..... what realy got me was a small drawing on the back...it says reworked kit part but doesn't say which kit part , i spent 1 hour trying to figure out what i was looking at exactly then gave up only to find out after the part in question was the jack i had alread completed. there are a few other "reworked kit part" in the instructions i haven't figured out what they are yet exactly.

*edit* as far as CA goes it tried it a bit to get a feel for how to use it , i got 2 kinds thin....this stuff is scary , super liquid and it dries almost instantly, i can only imagine the mess it would make if i knocked over the bottle. i also got thick ca which is realy thick and easy to apply in tiny quantity, takes about 45 seconds - 1min before you can't move the part anymore this stuff i like but the work time is kinda long maybe i'll have to buy some hardener or accelerant or whatever they call it maybe i'll give the medium stuff a try too but so far thick seems prety good

We haven't caught the 1/16 tiger thread yet...Keep posting!!!

Hey guys, my build-up on my Tamiya late-model G is going about as expected -- painfully slowly! I'm glad we've got until February.

Anyway, so far I have pulled the wheels off the sprues cleaned them up, and then started working on my Friuli treads. That's it! Yes, I will have to use the holidays to do some catching up.

I've plans to paint this critter as one of the Panthers in the 5SS Panzer Regiment, the organic panzer regiment of Wiking, and am waiting for some references about that unit to arrive.

Happy Panthering! By the way, this thread is getting way out of hand! I wonder if there is any limit to thread size on FSM's server?

Ed nice job on the roadwheels. I haven't tried the sharpie method yet, but maybe I'll look into it. I agree with the assessment on the middle roadwheels.

derek, Thats what I was thinking. Or a munitions carrier (Berg without the winches)

Need to source some good drawings and photos though...

Kenneth

Kenneth: Maybe you could turn that spare G hull into a Bergepanther.

Chris, Man thats strange about the gap. I have Tamiya's JP and Panther G late and both fit like a glove. Glad you got it worked out.

Derek, Great job grafting the DML wheels onto the Tamiya axles... I was wondering how that would go.

Peter, that figures. You don't even want to know what I did to get a better cupola. I could almost kick my own . Its like this... I have the directions for tamiyas steel wheel panther but not the kit. well it comes with a very nice cupola with sep vision blocks ect. Hobby Lobby has the late G, so I figured hey they got to be the same...so I mulled over it until I convinced myself it was the right thing to do and I bought the kit. 37$. Now I get home and open it up and much to my dismay...yet no suprise it isn't the same and the Tamiya cupola isn't much better than the DML one. However since I wasn't happy with the fit of the DML mantlet to the turret I decdided to swap turrets all together. THIS MODEL IS GETTING EXPENSIVE!!!!!! So now I have a gray hull, brown turret and a perfectly good Tamiya G less a turret.

SOOOOO anyway....thats how my weekend went! Didn't get much construction (destruction) done.... As soon as I get a digi cam I will post some pics.

I am excited to see what others are doing. Back to work now...

God Bless
Kenneth

Derek, Chris, you seem to be doing fine! Good looking stuff so far! I'll be finishing my Zimmerit tonight. Pics tomorrow, I hope!

Gotter,
thanks, i will have to have to find some medium CA,
because i found the Zap-A-Gap (green bottle) to be fast
and the Zap Thin (pink bottle) to be faster!
The 5 min epoxy led to a different problem.
Fortunately, i am out of PE Zim !!

oh! THAT towing pintle!
yeah, that piece does seem to come a bit short.

i plan to start puttying up the gaps next.

my hull top & bottom went together w/ just a bit of fiddling.
seemed to be catching on the front left corner.

Derek,
i am getting red x's for some of your pics too.
also, i can get to your pages w/ the '1', '2', '3' links on the main page,
but i can not move from one to next w/ the arrows at the bottom.

Chris,
i got into some mischief trying to get my mantlet cover and breech face to even touch!
after shaving the edges of the piece nearest the turret and then shaving the 'rails',
i decided that i would make a piece to extend the breech face.
so i cut it out of .040 styrene and punched a hole for the barrel,
and drilled a hole for the locating pin.
mocked it up before bed, but did not glue.
looked ok.
not sure what happened.
after all the test fitting when you had your problem there,
i was not expecting any trouble.

ed.

HULL SURGERY REQUIRED
I had to perform minor surgery to get my hull halves to fit.
I too had to shave about 1millimetre off each side under the glacis plate.(minor erk no biggie).
Gotter.

ok thanks everyone for the info, Ill find a srap piece and see how the paint holds up on it,

Thanks also for the info on doing the Zimm

Timbo

WHAT GLUE?
Wildwilliam
I used "Grip" medium C/A glue. What I did was slightly bow the brass piece inwards and glued a bit at a time. The reason for bowing the panel was so that I had acces to the next section to be glued without having to lift the brass and risk bending the part. I find that this is by far the easist way to attach large pieces of brass, (be careful not to bow the part to mutch).
I filled all the gaps in the zim today. The gaps where the glasis plate meet the hull sides was tricky. Because the gaps are quite wide I used milliput. After it had hardened a bit I sculpted the zim pattern into it, it dont look half bad. I also used the same method to "finnish off the zim on those "hooky" bits at the upper rear sides next to the stowwage boxes.
The rest of the joints looked ok but just to make sure I filled all the crooks and crannys with liquefied milliput, (including the "X,s"on the face of the stowwage boxes. I,m gonna prime the hull tommorow so I,ll see how well it all worked out.
Anyhoo I,m off to zim up my turret before I send you all to sleep.

Yours, Gotter.

P.s When I say "towing pintle I mean that "doohikky on a round plate with bolts on, under the jack, where the zimmerit don,t come up to but does on every picture I,ve seen.

Peter:
take a lok at the "generic"sets, you should be able to get ubit markings and balkencruz at least. They also have a set of generic outline #s.

I will be adding to the zim saga.