Pulled the trigger on a Panther...
 

After Leong shot holes in me with his at the last NEAD day, I've been thinking about getting a Panther.

So it's Tamiya and the AAF Museum. ;)

Anyone have Jentz' Panther book?

Is it worth the $45 or is there enough info out there online? I have a sizeable library on Tigers, but almost zero when it comes to Panthers.

Jeff congrats on the Panther. It is the best German IR battle tank by far. I have about 5 books you can borrow including the Jentz/Doyle book and the Spielberger book, which is superb. Don't forget I still have your Stug book. I will finish it soon. I will compile list for you of Panther reference books in my library.

You will love the Panther build. It is a great runner out of the box. The old issue with the tight sprocket clearances should be resolved by now. No real need for fancy motors or metal tracks. Bearings are a nice touch, but not all that necessary. Eliminate the two slipper clutches (elevation & traverse), throw the plastic elevation arm away and get or make a metal one, eliminate the loose barrel with a sleeve or two wraps of tape, eliminate the "Y" harness, cover the TUs after you lube them and seal them off from the outside. Watch the clearance for the sponson stowage. They can rub on the underside of the turret overhang during traverse. Call me when you can't find the hard to get parts. You have the number.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1988565

Jeff, you're going to have a ball with that one! It's VCO's favorite and trust me, she can shoot holes in most anything with hers.

Excellent choice, sir. Welcome to the Panther platoon! Will we get to see its maiden battle in May at Danville?

Awesome and congrats on getting the Tamiya Panther! ;) You will love it!

And "Germanys Panther Tank" is priceless. I think it's all you need and that's about what I paid for mine too.


Looking forward to the build thread! :cool:





Jeff

Thanks Gentlemen!

I'll take you up on the Spielberger and whatever else you have Bob, but I'll probably buy the Jentz/Doyle (especially based on Jeff's endorsement). Spielberger's leans towards variants, but Jentz is more towards the main ones, correct?

I don't know why Panthers haven't caught my eye, my static stash is lousy with Tigers, Pz Is and 38(t) variants, but only one Panther among the pile.

A big part of the decision is to get the cupola for figure sculpting, so now I'll have all the main tanks covered.

In terms of the build, it'll be like my others, stock everything in terms of the guttywuts, but twisted, modded and dented otherwise. I'll be scouring the refs for interesting zim, but I'm not sure what the G had. I'd really love to add some some AA shields, so I may not even be building a G, I really don't know yet. Of course Octopus camo would be top of the list, so I'm all over the place, but the order isn't even 12 hours old. ;)

Wasn't the barrel slop corrected in the newer kits? I'll address the arm with sheet metal. I just made an aluminum arm to make the DX6i truly self centering, so I have the practice. Is the space tight in this one? I eliminated the Y on the Pz IV for room but then realized I just voided the replacement warranty if it ever failed.

Leong, in terms of Danville, I wish. This thing will get built soonish, but the bench is swamped right now.

check the last 2 PM's i sent see if those will work for you

I never heard that one on the barrel but the later kits addressed the track/sprocket problem.

Daryl Turner makes a sleeve to fix the barrel situation. It's about 5 or 6 bucks and glues inside the mantlet. I do believe the SCHUMO resin mantlets do not need it.

The space is pretty plentiful but it does have a huge speaker, so replacing it with a smaller unit would free up more room.





Jeff

For the IR battler the Panther tank is pretty much "there" right out of the box - you need only minor tweaks to get it going, and replace parts as they wear out. Due to the way the tank is designed with a front mounted drive sprocket which bears the brunt of frontal collisions, I have a set of Impact gearboxes on standby. Thankfully I have not needed to use it yet. Although I also have a set of Impact metal tracks, the plastic stock tracks have held up manfully to the rigors of Danville so far.

If you were a modeler though, you might find Tamiya's offering somewhat lacking. The bulk of researched Panthers I could find were not configured like this late G. Many did not have the flame suppressors on their exhaust, nor the add-on crew heater on the engine deck, or enlarged chin mantlet. You would have to buy a JagdPanther gun mantlet parts tree to get the regular exhausts and standard crew fan grille. The Panther G also does not come with PE engine grilles, even though the Tamiya JagdPanther comes with it. Tamiya also skimped on accessories - no jerry cans, not even crew, or a cupola mounted machine gun, which was pretty much de rigueur for the late war period so serious the Jabo threat was. Aside from the commander's hatch, none of the other hatches open.

I've made some minor aesthetic upgrades that aid durability - such as swapping to a cast metal rear tow pintle and cross pin, as well as purchasing metal tow shackles recently (the plastic ones were getting chopped up pretty bad running into rocks).

Edit: Oh, and if you happened to make an extra of those DX6i return spring arms, I would like to buy one off you too.

I have had the Panther for 3 years and the Jagdpanther for a year never a problem with it and DT sleeve works great the Shumo mantel I had first got was not a good mold it was thicker on one side at the bottom so did not use it .

jimmy

That was a bit of butchery: aluminum flat stock, a hacksaw and a dremel. I'll be glad to walk you through it, but I'm not duplicating it.

There are a few parts to the kit to do it correctly, unfortunately Horizon is no longer sharing them. Even if I casted the other arm, there's 3 pins, a spring and a spring catch necessary. I pieced it all together, but it's not pretty.

Thanks for all the tips guys!

Let us know when you get that bad boy in your hands!


We like to look at pretty pictures, not so much for the articles. ;)





Jeff

For purchasing options...where did you get the various parts you mention? Impact? Jagdpanther tree and the pintle and tow schackes?

You can purchase Impact products from eBay, or Mitosal.com. I am not sure if any of the other mainstream RC tank vendors stock their products.

The tow pintle, cupola AA gun mount, and AA gun comes from Axels Modellbau. The manufacturer is Schumo-Kits.

The tow shackles are Aber products. I bought them from an eBay seller in Virginia.

The JagdPanther parts were graciously given to me by Dana Lowell while we were at Danville. He refused to take payment for it, so I owe him a beer. You can probably order the parts tree easily from your local hobby shop since you're in Japan.

Just got the tracking info, should be here Friday afternoon. :)

Coincidently, wife and kids are leaving for the weekend around noon on Friday. :) :)

So, I'm thinking clear the bench, coffee by day, Guinness by night and I could have it done by Sunday afternoon...

Have fun! :)





Jeff

Congrats!!!!!

I've been going back and forth in my mind on a Panther or a Sherman. I have the tiger so a Sherman makes sense from a "home" battles point of view but my heart has been Panther, Panther, Panther ever since I saw how nimble Bob was with his. I'm also a big fan of the idea of painting an assault camo pattern on one from a modeling perspective. I have one in HL but truthfully I'm trying to nearly give away my HL's (Sherman, Panther and KV1) even though they are new with metal upgrades as I lack the electronics savvy to make them useful for battle. If anyone is interested I will give you a great deal!

Maybe I should reach out to the Museum as well with a Panther in mind. I can be the weak link in a "bad news bears" Panther duo ;)

Congrats! I can't wait to watch your build thread.

That's how it was for me after fighting cleong with his against my JS-2. It was cat and mouse, only I was like a three legged mouse tied to a stick.

AAF was just under $800 shipped for kit.

Here's a link to the ETO page for Panther:

http://www.etoarmour.com/products.php?ViewCategory=20

Just about everything is in stock as usual. I've built 2 Panthers, one Sov and one late G in process, and a Jagdpanther. You'll love the way they run and fight.

If I did panther...I think it would be an F or an early G with zimmerit just to look differnt. I look forward seeing to what you do.......

scott

I spent a lot of time on that page about ten minutes after I ordered the G Sunday night. I'm just waiting to I get the kit to see and decide how far I'm going with PE. I'm leaning towards the full Aber, but need to see the kit and figure out what would survive.

Scott, no zim is not an option. I thought I'd have to stretch the boundaries of the G to do it, but I see the earlies were zimmed, so I'm good. I like the crudeness of the scored-box pattern, but the really good ref pic in the Jentz book is a horizontal pattern on the G.

I have a ref of a Berlin G that is gorgeous, a dark PZ grey with green patches, but no zim. I need to flip through my Panzer Colors and find the octo pattern, but I'm sure that's not over zim either.

I hear ya on the F, but I'm not going through the gun changes on this one. After the StuG, Ketten, 34 and more recently the Kubel conversion, I'm looking forward to just following directions. Besides, I've got the Schwimm and 38(t) to twist my yarbles.

Maybe your build will ignite my interest in finishing my Tamiya Panther. I need to paint it, install the electronics and then all the finishing touches.

I have looking past this for a long time, even started working on another Sherman. But I do have 2 HL Panthers that are slated to be an F and an Early G with zimm.

Yep... the Panther and Sherman are my 2 favorites. Beside SP Tank Destroyers! ;)





Jeff

I found this document off one of the UK tank forums:

https://attachment.fbsbx.com/file_do...tsLmUUdH6FYl5U

I can't vouch for its accuracy but it seems pretty comprehensive and has value in just the photographs themselves.

I have seen a Tiger II in the Octo, but have not been able to find any Panthers in that scheme, not saying it didn't happen, just have not been able to find photo evidence. I really like that scheme and have wanted to do a Tiger II or Panther in that scheme as well. I hope you find some photos!!! Another Panther I would like to do is a Late A from Grossdeutschland with zimm and a cool three color scheme with yellow tactical numbers.

Thanks for the parts sources. The link doesn't seem to be working. Any way to post the actual file or the link to the forum entry?