swathdiver

Taking a break from my Tiger to do a basic rebuild and detailing of the PZIII.

First thing I noticed was the cupola was all wrong. It doesn't sit on the turret right and the hatch doesn't line up with the vision ports. First thing I did was remove the hatches by tapping them out from behind, then splitting the cupola in half. Now with better access to the underside of the top of the cupola I took the back side of a knife and began cutting away the plastic along the rim both from the bottom and top. Once the knife went through, the hobby saw blade was used to remove the hatch mount top. All parts were sanded and smoothed. Then took the pin vise and drilled the drain holes. Next came the mount for the top of the hatch to mount to. Dremel too and sandpaper to make it look right from the top! More pics to come...

Ohh, anyone read Chinese? How about this spare return wheel that I found inside the tank when I opened it up!

pattoncommander

guess you mount the wheel on a dolly to haul off the board for repair. Very thoughtful, like the spare screws all over my motors.

Panther F

Oh that's pretty simple to read!

"This one goes on the right side and this one goes on the other right side!"


Jeff

fv432

no it reads ; this one good,this one baaaad

EugeniRUS

No, it says: "Next HL tank is Sherman with VHVS"

swathdiver

More progress!

Tonight the jig was made for painting the road wheels. No more taping or airbrushing in tiny amounts to avoid the tires. Nope! Took a spare wheel, cut out the center, then took a piece of sheet styrene and glued it around the outside. This holds the road wheel to be painted. Use the opposite side of the jig to paint the roadwheel. Meaning, if you're painting the front of a road wheel, use the jig side that was the rear road wheel facing you.

Next I reluctantly cut down that great looking Ausf L barrel! Might take a little more off, more sanding to do.

The turret door view ports on the gunner's side are upside down. First punch out the door from behind off the turret, then cut the door in half. Next take your hoddy saw and shave off the view ports, clean up the surface and glue them back on the right way, just flip them around. Easy fix and doesn't cost $40 in metal doors!

Finally are some completed shots of the cupola. Notice the drain ports and how the hatches are now in line with the centerline and vision ports.

shadopilot

I paint roadwheels using a plastic circle template available at any office supply store. The template has many different sizes. Just tape off what you don't need and airbrush away! Quick and easy!!

bhop73

I do the same thing. It works for all scales since it's got so many holes too, which is awesome.

swathdiver

Update:

The gearboxes/motors were broken in and all the electronics have been installed. Attached is a custom wiring diagram for the lower hull. It's unique in that it features an onboard charge port and a cooling fan for the board.

The jack is a W.S. Deans, very small and compact! The fan is one of this little Novak's you can get from Tower, 25x25x10mm. Blows a lot of air!

XtraCrylix RAL 8020 paint has been applied and I even had some left over after spraying the whole tank! Thought for sure it would take more then one of those little bottles!

After two days of searching I finally found 2 fonts that would be acceptable to me for the turret numbers. Whew! I went with the one that looks more different from the original lettering then the other, it's pretty unique and you'll soon see why I chose it!

Next items to do are to replace a switch that I glued into the off position (don't ask!!!), make some custom brackets and storage racks and begin weathering.

pzrwest

What main board comes with the PzrIII S&S? the RX13 or the RX14?

swathdiver

Mine is the 13, I think people have had the 14 though.

pzrwest

Ok I just ordered my 1st HL PzrIII and was curious will find out when it arrives I guess

ArmChairGeneral

One of the best HL tanks, you'll like it !

swathdiver

Some updated photos:

First couple show the seal and base for the rear switches that seal the rear hull. I made it from .040" next time would be at least .060". Left group of switches is for the smoker and volume switch. Right side group is power and charge jack.

pzrwest

2 of the 4 pics won't show

swathdiver

Here's a shot of the gearboxes and motors being broken in with my favorite toothpaste! Next show the electrical junction and cooling fan. The foam tape was used to eliminate vibration, it has since been replaced with RTV.

swathdiver

Final Assembly and Painting!!! Whew!!!

This Ausf N belongs to the 1st Kompanie, 2nd Platoon of the pz.abt. 501 in Tunisia in 1942-43. Incidently right after I applied the top coat of XtraCrylix RAL 8020 paint I came across some photos that showed the tanks in GREEN!!! This was the same night I discovered conclusively that the 501 Tigers were painted Olive Green as well. Ohh well, haven't seen any pictures of this tank so it was shipped over and fought in 8020 and was a rare Ausf N with spaced armor mantlet!

The final markings will be applied over the weekend along with the weathering and cleaning rods for the main gun. Then I'll take it out for final shots and maybe some video of it with the Pershing.

This tank is being built to run, many of the detail items I left off or abbreviated to speed the process along and make the tank more durable when running outside. The gun could have been a little shorter, I covered the gunner port by mistake, the antenna was put in the right place but used the stock one for simplicity.

Plastic scouser

Nice work Swathdiver[sm=thumbup.gif]

Cheers Ian

ah64

Looking good!!

ArmChairGeneral

North Africa I presume
I like the font, not the usual and nice to see. If your interested in an easy mod to fix the short 75mm to have the heavier recoil mechanism and a more realistic look you can do what I did with my pz III N. Use a jewelers saw to cut off the bolted face of the base of the gun, you don't have to cut through the Alu barrel, just the plastic. Slide it forward and insert some plasitc sheet, be sure to bow it on the top and bottom and file/sand the corners flat to appear like in the pics:

swathdiver

I'd considered doing that but it didn't look right to me as that's not how the 75 looked with the spaced armor mantlet. I considered ditching the spaced armor but that would have required a lot of fabrication that I didn't want to do.

The font used for the numbers is "Afrika T Ubuntu". It can be found free online.

hdbeast

Great job swathdiver, I like the rear stowage, not to many have done this.[sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

swathdiver

Weathered and first runs outside.

The metal tracks out of the box were really tight. So I added an extra link which look cool for sitting still and photos but the left side kept popping off. The tracks were stiff and needed to be broken in too. After climbing some steep hills almost as well as my Pershing the tracks with little rocks and shells in them starting giving the tank trouble. A couple of outter wheels popped off too! More CA! After about 20 minutes of run time a link was pulled from each track and it ran noticeably slower. I'm sure they'll loosen up after a couple of hours of running.

The gun! Man does that thing shoot! I put in one of my strong springs and left everything else stock except for the shortened barrel, you cannot even see the round leave the barrel it shoot so fast. I nearly pierced a cardboard box from 3 feet, will have to pull out the Crony for this little guy!

Still have to paint on the crouching Tiger and custom logo on the back of the Rommelkiste, it's my wife's tank!

bhop73

Looks pretty good. I like the sag on the tracks... so the tracks have problems staying on when they're that loose?

swathdiver

Yes, that left side kept popping off when turning in dirt.

Here's a template to seal the rear of the hull. Make it at least .060" thick. You can then mount your switches to it for access from the bottom or top.