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&rsquo;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 &ldquo; field repair look&rdquo;.</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&hellip; hmmm&hellip; more snow is coming.</div><div></div>

I did a little work on my Tamiya mantlet and for some reason, found the camera in my hands.











~ Jeff

I took some time off to go to Vegas this past week, so not much from me.

I took one of the resin castings I bought I tried to improve it. I skinnied up the output gear housings and doubled up the bolts that hold the casting together. Definately a work in progress.

Pictures show a stock unit, and then what I have tried to do.

Cheers

that looks real nice. i have an "F" that i might do this to. good job!

Thanks. I was always afraid to run it in the bushes with the old, brittle hangers, these are easy to make and put on and much more forgiving so I can be more agressive outside now. It was like this fix transformed her from a shelf queen to a rough and tumble fighter.

I completed a little more of my Jagdpanther today.

Anyone know where I can get some lettering for serial numbers, other than start robbing from other model kits? I need something for my mantlet mod.













~ Jeff

Pah,
I really like your skirt hanger mods. I bought the side skirt kit for my PZ IV probably from the same manufacturer as they seem fragile. I was planning on replacing the parts with angeled brass, but may go with the plastruc. Thanks for sharing.


Jim

Hi Panther F try model railroad shops for the letters https://slatersplastikard.com/plastikard/alphabets.php
http://railwaymodels.tripod.com/
or if not just cut the numbers from the sprues in the tamiya kit

Cheers Ian

There is some silicone putty out. You mix the two parts together, and it has the consistency of plastecine. You can press this on existing letters, and in about five minutes the stuff hardens to a silicone mold. You can then use resin to duplicate them.

I was going to look through some model kits and put together an alphabet and number row using sprue tabs. I was then going to use this silcone to make a pattern of this so I could then dupicate casting numbers out of resin.

1sgt

One more step I forgot to mention. The end cap on my hanger was made by cutting a section of the angle &ldquo;iron&rdquo; with some scissors. I just sliced down the angle and got a flat bar 1/16 inch wide. This I cut into small sections and glued on the end. <div></div><div>I had thought of making them out of metal, but that seemed to be more expensive. The low cost of this solution was part of the appeal for me. I think this used about four cents worth of plastic and maybe a penny in glue. I have enough material in one package to do several tanks.</div><div></div>

Thanks for the links! I may do some model box diving after-all, at least this time.










~ Jeff

A few more pics of the lower half ... or at least what I'm showing.











~ Jeff

Nice, I like the mix of road wheels.

My fix worked great in field testing yesterday. Today it's snowing again.

I like the skirts, they give the tank that 1940's look.<br type="_moz" />

Jeff, I shave numbers and letters off old kit sprues that the parts are removed from. I always save them if they are the right size for this kind of work.

Yeah, the Final Production Panther G came that way from the factory (M.A.N.) of September 1944 to March ~ April of 1945. The gummigefederten Stahllaufrollen were mounted at the last station and were originally designed for the Panther II, except for the hubs and the exact same wheels were used on the King Tigers too.

Thanks MAUS45 for the tip. I'm spending biggest part of the day searchin'. []










~ Jeff

Jeff, did you use a Tamiya Tiger II road wheel for the steel wheel?

Those are WECOHE aluminum wheels.











~ Jeff

Thanks for the info. I am going to try using a set of Tamiya Tiger II wheels for a Panther G I am building.

remembers me to the ardennes december '44 on the battle of the bulge

very nice panther man !

Thanks karl47, I was inspired by your Panther build thread. Arracourt was the time and place I modeled this Panther for.

Oh and it's not done. I did some more weathering on it yesterday. Someday I will get those steel wheels on it too.<br type="_moz" />