SNFF 2012-1-22
Here is a small project I did this week to repair the Panther. <div></div><div>The Panther had skirts when it was first finished ( factory finished, not model finished ) and she got out for a few pix with them on. The skirting was a kit I picked up online. The kit I used was made from a stiff, hard plastic so the hangers were kind of brittle. I ran it outside a few times and broke off several hangers bumping sticks, branches and I’m sure a rock too, or two. By last week I could only put two skirt panels on one side, and none on the other.</div><div></div><div>So yesterday, with snow blowing sideways outside, I thought it was a good day to fix the Panther. I dug around in my material bins till I found some 1/16 inch, 90 deg. ABS stock. It is close enough to the kit hangers in size that it worked very well. The pix show an extra kit hanger, white plastic, next to the ABS stock I used to replace it. I cut sections and glued them together with some plumbers ABS cement. This acted like, and looked like, welded steel angle iron. I then painted them and glued them on the Panther with CA glue. The skirt panels are not glued on and can be removed at any time.</div><div></div><div>Each piece was cut to length using eyeball engineering, although all sections were made bigger than stock so I had better glue contact with the tank hull and better contact with the skirt panels. I did not replace the kit hangers that are still on the tank, they can be replaced later quite easy. The mix of types and non standard lengths also give it a “ field repair look”.</div><div></div><div>I like this repair, I think my fix is stronger than the kit system because the ABS has some flex to it and will not just snap off. The angle iron look also gives the tank more eye-candy. Best of all, I did not need to buy anything to do the repair, I used leftover material from another project. Now I am looking at my Jagdpanther and thinking of scratch built skirts… hmmm… more snow is coming.</div><div></div>