Panda Hobby Panzer 38-t r/c Conversion

[c.rainford73]

Keep up the good work, Carl! I'm pretty sure when Otto Carius first went into Russia during Barbarossa that he was a panzermanner on one of these. ;o)
regards,
Painless

Yes I know we all love the big equipment ( as I personally do) but the majority of the most productive offensive campaigns the Germans ran were with the small panzers.

I think that's what we forget as we see the big heavy stuff-- we forget that the little tanks were always the most effectively used armour at the beginning of the war during the blitzkrieg. Speed and mobility.

Give me a Tiger or Panther tank any day over this little runabout but it will be cool to see it running in the yard.

[c.rainford73]

I was reading an article online about one of these early Panzers as I've been doing a lot of research during this build.

As it goes....

The commander was complaining about losing one of his crew members during a battle as a result of one of the rivets or bolts becoming jarred loose as the result of a hit and it was the Bolt or rivet that killed the crew member.... Not the shell or round that hit the tank.

Poor guy

[c.rainford73]

Tonight I make more progress. This kit is just so well designed it's hard not to have fun installing it. Everything fits like a glove as long as you follow the instructions. I have focused on the turret tonight.

I've fitted the gun assembly from the kit.

The servos for recoil, elevation and traverse.

The fiber optic cable for the turret machine gun.

I've fitted the ACU upper hull control board under the turret. A very tight fit in the turret but I assembled it in two parts so you can remove the top half to gain access to all the electronics inside the turret

[c.rainford73]

Underside of upper hull mechanical complete. everthing is clearly marked in the instructions book and labeled on the plug ends!

[c.rainford73]

Lower hull control board MTC-2 mounted in provided lower plate. Motors connected. Again everything is numbered and matches instructions.

[c.rainford73]

One last post on the mini panzer 38-t build until I finalize the paint and purchase the mini lipo battery and a radio and receiver. Figured I set him up next to his "big" brother for comparative reasons. It's amazing how much larger the Panzer III is than the Panzer 38t

The build continues.....

Thanks for looking fellas

[c.rainford73]

I've had a rather nice weekend with no work finally...

I wanted to test the paint job I was going for with my Panzer III project. It has the same dunkelgelb base coats and then I added dark grey. Some chipping and a filter as a guide to laying out the paint on the Panzer 38t.

So my preliminary results are here. No chipping filter or weathering of any kind. Just raw paint as I tried to stay as true to the original tank I'm modeling this one after.

With such a small canvas it's easy to make a mistake so I had to be extra careful.

Now to weathering and chipping

[Tiggr]

Very nice work Carl.
Following along for the final touches.

[c.rainford73]

Very nice work Carl.
Following along for the final touches.

Thank you Mr Paul

[Soeren]

So nice . And it is really running ?