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

[hotte8487]

Good job Dean, I'm very impressed. But how will you prevent, that your side skirts not fall down during use? That would be a great pity. Do you have already an idea?

[HERMAN BIX]

Nothing worse than your skirt falling down eh mate

That would have to be one of the most useful series of pics to date. The basics on getting the plates in the correct position, and height with mounts that are not to much over complcated is a bloody bonus mate
I have some brass here from K & S engineering , Chicago and now I have the dimensions & methodology

[dgsselkirk]

Good job Dean, I'm very impressed. But how will you prevent, that your side skirts not fall down during use? That would be a great pity. Do you have already an idea?

If I impress you that's good!

Once we have gone to paint and then re-mounted everything I am going to squeeze the U brackets shut a little more so the plates are snug but not too snug that they can't come off with a good jolt. I actually hope that once in a while in the middle of a battle one or 2 do pop off. I will have to test it as I go along in the spring.

Enough playing with brass So now I want to address the HL road wheels ridge issue. I see some different methods tried by lots of people usually involving putty which I wanted to try and avoid so I choose styrene itty bitty strips and some knife work. So first here is the pic showing the ridges that everyone talks about.

Panther A 212.jpg (65.33 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

Take a new xacto knife blade and snap the the tip off. I use this to scrape the paint off so we are gluing directly to plastic.

Panther A 213.jpg (49.11 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

I am using .020 x .030 strips of styrene

Panther A 214.jpg (57.92 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

Sorry these are a little blurry. So using Tamiya extra thin glue I dab a little on the wheel and dab some on the beginning of the strip and wait 30 seconds till it gets a bit tacky and then using the curvd tweezers I start putting it into the groove

Panther A 215.jpg (47.87 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

It takes 2 strips with this method so started the next one

Panther A 216.jpg (44.77 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

Let these dry OVERNIGHT!!! if you start on them any sooner the styrene will still be soft and it will mak a mess. Then using the knife with the broke off tip start scraping away any ridge that is left and rounding the new white styrene into the wheel.

Panther A 217.jpg (54.73 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

And finally a little sanding and gentle filing making sure not to hit the bolt heads and you have a more realistic road wheel.

Panther A 218.jpg (62.15 KiB) Viewed 3947 times

I will be using Mr. Surfacer to give it the proper cast surface look it should have and this will also blend everything in together to make it seamless...

[ALPHA]

Good job Dean, I'm very impressed. But how will you prevent, that your side skirts not fall down during use? That would be a great pity. Do you have already an idea?

If I impress you that's good!

Once we have gone to paint and then re-mounted everything I am going to squeeze the U brackets shut a little more so the plates are snug but not too snug that they can't come off with a good jolt. I actually hope that once in a while in the middle of a battle one or 2 do pop off. I will have to test it as I go along in the spring.

Enough playing with brass So now I want to address the HL road wheels ridge issue. I see some different methods tried by lots of people usually involving putty which I wanted to try and avoid so I choose styrene itty bitty strips and some knife work. So first here is the pic showing the ridges that everyone talks about.

Panther A 212.jpg

Take a new xacto knife blade and snap the the tip off. I use this to scrape the paint off so we are gluing directly to plastic.

Panther A 213.jpg

I am using .020 x .030 strips of styrene

Panther A 214.jpg

Sorry these are a little blurry. So using Tamiya extra thin glue I dab a little on the wheel and dab some on the beginning of the strip and wait 30 seconds till it gets a bit tacky and then using the curvd tweezers I start putting it into the groove

Panther A 215.jpg

It takes 2 strips with this method so started the next one

Panther A 216.jpg

Let these dry OVERNIGHT!!! if you start on them any sooner the styrene will still be soft and it will mak a mess. Then using the knife with the broke off tip start scraping away any ridge that is left and rounding the new white styrene into the wheel.

Panther A 217.jpg

And finally a little sanding and gentle filing making sure not to hit the bolt heads and you have a more realistic road wheel.

Panther A 218.jpg

I will be using Mr. Surfacer to give it the proper cast surface look it should have and this will also blend everything in together to make it seamless...

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....Wouldn't running a bolt through the center and spinning the wheels on a drill been faster??????????????


ALPHA

[dgsselkirk]

Funny you should mention that Alpha, I thought about doing that and actually experimented on an extra wheel but just removing the ridge made the angle too steep going in towards the center of the wheel if I explained that right! It just looked too concave...

[ALPHA]

Funny you should mention that Alpha, I thought about doing that and actually experimented on an extra wheel but just removing the ridge made the angle too steep going in towards the center of the wheel if I explained that right! It just looked too concave...

Doing it sober helps

Seriously though dgsellkirk...plastic powder + crazy glue in that gap...spun in a drill...with a dremel on slow with a round bit is pretty fast

ALPHA

[hotte8487]

Good job Dean, I'm very impressed. But how will you prevent, that your side skirts not fall down during use? That would be a great pity. Do you have already an idea?

If I impress you that's good!

Once we have gone to paint and then re-mounted everything I am going to squeeze the U brackets shut a little more so the plates are snug but not too snug that they can't come off with a good jolt. I actually hope that once in a while in the middle of a battle one or 2 do pop off. I will have to test it as I go along in the spring.

Me too Dean, I'm waiting also for the spring to check my Tiger 1 and may be sort out any problems which do not occur in my basement.

[hotte8487]

Nothing worse than your skirt falling down eh mate

That would have to be one of the most useful series of pics to date. The basics on getting the plates in the correct position, and height with mounts that are not to much over complcated is a bloody bonus mate
I have some brass here from K & S engineering , Chicago and now I have the dimensions & methodology

Nothing wrong with having the schurzen come off, here is a photo of mine doing just that! I hit something (I think the edge of a tree during combat, and the plate came off the mounts, it then was shed a few seconds later. After battle, I went out on the field and picked up the pieces that were shed.. Don't get me wrong, they do not come off easy, but they are not hard either.....

And exactly this is the problem, to see at your second picture EF; your skirt part hangs down only at one side and so you could drive over it and if you have bad luck, it will be damaged. And that would be pity.

[dgsselkirk]

Well guys, had to take a week break to get my tanks ready and organize our club get together but back at it now. It was time to tackle the zim. I really love working with this stuff. I know the kits are a bit expensive but having done all kinds of putty and burn zim, this is just soooo much easier!
It took some fitting and cutting and re-use of small pieces since this kit is made for a Tamiya G so there are some things that had to be adjusted of course.

First I had to replace the back tow pull points

Panther A 219.jpg (41 KiB) Viewed 5010 times

So here are the pics of the zim pretty well finished up except for the lower one side.

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Notice how the zim "bends" over the edges of the sides as per the real thing. This is done using a heat gun CAREFULLY just warm it to the point it flexes and then push it down with fingers. Yes, it;s a little warm but the results are much better than if you use a tool. You can just "feel" when it bends down right.

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[ALPHA]

8 pages deep....and we're only up to Zim application????????????? ................Just kidding dgsellkirk....We all know you had your hands full planning that Cool Club ShinDig

Clean ..Seamless application by the way .......she's really coming along

ALPHA