Converting HL Panther "G" to a Late "A"

Post by **dgsselkirk** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 4:00 am

You thought those were tough!

Now working on the travel lock. But first put on the periscope covers using the soldering iron method again. Make your little part and apply soldering gun to brass to make it sink into plastic until you get it to the right depth.

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So, on to the travel lock. I want it to move up and down so first drill it through from both ends. Do it SLOWLY and watch all the time that you are going straight in. I do a little bit from each end at a time rather than one end then the other. Don't ask me why but it seems to work better...

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Then cut the lock from the frame

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for the rod I use my old HL antennas they are a fairly strong steel and work quite well in any applications where you need a small rod.

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Then I added some detail with the frame pivot lock bar (hell if I know what the real name is!) On the real thing it looks like it releases the travel lock from the frame. It has a small chain so you don't loose the pintle when you open it. quick mount to test up down too. Also in this shot you can see where I cut the "V" notch into the guide arm.

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Still quite a bit to do. I want to put some details on the chainlink piece that actually locks the barrel in place. Talk about over engineering a part! They could have just done a piece of curved stell over the top but noooo lets use something that looks like a full machined drive chain!

The HL ventilator that goes under the travel lock is not even close to what it looks like and it's going to be a bitch to scratch build. Stay tuned!

hotte8487 · Post by **hotte8487** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:20 am

Nice work Dean, I'll watching further on...

ALPHA · Post by **ALPHA** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:10 am

I "was" going to say travel locks are a breeze to do....but you took it to another level

...the person responsible for that added level of difficulty ...is the one that greets you when you wake...and gaze into the mirror

....It's at that time you should pat that fella on the back

....and tell him GOOD JOB

ALPHA

PainlessWolf · Post by **PainlessWolf** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 4:46 pm

Dgsselkirk,
Good morning. Schumo has that chain and mount for those Panther gun barrel locks for sale out there. I saw it on Axel's site back when I was working on my Panther G. The price was crazy so I modded the existing mount like you have done. Excellent job!
regards,
Painless

jeff1101 · Post by **jeff1101** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 2:38 pm

Bravo! well done!

I especially liked the way you made the driver/gunner hatch stops.

Post by **HERMAN BIX** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:50 am

Ahh, the degree of difficulty marking system eh !!
Well, on the travel lock......Mr Selkirk performs a triple summersault with inverted pike & a twist on entry

Thats a 9.9

My guess is that a rigid band would be affected by turret position, gun position(elevated or depresed slightly) and a chain system can cope with that & be made to line up & tightedn.
'Rigid' brand pipe chain vices do exactly that, allow for inconsistent diameters etc and still tighten up.
Guess is all I have though

Post by **dgsselkirk** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:34 am

Thanks so much for the kind words guys, it makes me want to do more and more but at some point you gotta stop on one item and move on or you go crazy!

Having said that I decided to do a little more on the travel lock. I want to simulate the chain more so I added some little round pieces of styrene to simulate the pins between the links and using a really sharp xacto I cut some groves in the links and opened the V notches where the the lock handles connect.

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Then I decided to make the frame look proper and used some brass .8mm bolts I have for the plates that screwed into the hull

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Next it was time to tackle the ventilator cover. I had been humming and hawing how to do this but decided to make it out of styrene. It took 2 tries to get a shape I was happy with and the right size by eye balling pictures, the travel lock and the tank hull.

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Also in looking at the pics there was a small rain guard around the ventilator so I soaked some thin styrene in glue and shapped it till I was happy. You will notice I painted where the ventilator was going to go black ahead of time as I figured it might be tough to do it later.

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Now, I got so into making this ventilator cover that I forgot to take pics as I went along! But basically I got the shape to where I was happy. I added the front rounded piece and some small side pieces as on the real one and sanded and rounded them off to the main part. Since the real thing is cast I started adding Tamiya putty to the top to get the slight curve and thickness right. The nice part about that putty is if you spread it around as soon as you put it on it will somewhat smooth and self level. so I put on 2 layers to get the center built up. I then ever so gently drilled the 2 depressions that are above the rear legs.

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Post by **dgsselkirk** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:42 am

O.K. one more of the ventilator cover from the other side. This pic is kinda neat as the brass periscope cover is reflecting in under the ventilator cover!