Panther A Conversion

[HERMAN BIX]

Thats a piss cutter !!
I too had a similar 'education' from a couple of German ex-pats back in the old country.

A huge accountant, looked like a very heavy set Christopher Lloyd from back to the future fame(he was not an accountant during the war), and the production manager of a place called Masport (Mason and Porter)Ltd(made mowers and things like that) who turned out to be a very senior member of the Fallschirmjäger that dropped on Eben Emael and then Crete.!
Heinz Buschmann(sic) I believe was his name(will have to check)and I recognised him from a documentary that showed on Tv some months later.

Both were engineers in their other lives .

As an apprentice engineer with more than a passing interest in the War, meeting these Gentlemen was more at the time than I had words for.

Mr Estnische , brilliant work on blending in the hull plates.
The drivers vision cover was an issue I was deciding on as well.
Fair call not to need it working !
The rear stowage bins I want to make out of sheet brass, as I feel that the right look of damaged sheet metal will be more realistic than heated-deformed plastic, but the jury is still out on that ...............

[Estnische]

Wow! Eben Emael and Crete, and survived! I too would have been in awe. I've just listened to the WW2 Podcast, covering Crete in detail, and read the Sven Hassel book based on Eben Emael. He was a lucky one.

Always wondered about Masport as they sponsored a rally Escort in the '70s.

[Estnische]

Moving on to the turret now. It’s the bit I thought might be hard work.

The chin mantlet is the feature that tells you it is an Ausf G. I could have bought a resin replacement mantlet outer from one of the German modelbaus, but by modifying the existing one I know it will all work with the existing barrel and mantlet inners.

The Ausf A didn’t come with the debris shield from the factory, so it had to go. I dismantled the mantlet into its parts and applied some super glue debonder to remove the shield. I was aiming to delete the chin without removing too much material, so I wanted to accurately profile the existing plastic. I made some profiles from plasticard in a circular shape.

Using the profile cards I made a series of cuts along the chin and then joined them up.

That left me a rectangular hole where the chin was. I had several attempts at bending a piece of plasticard to the correct curve but they never worked. Eventually I found a piece of cheap plastic vacuum cleaner tube that was the correct radius and glued it in, using the profile cards again to line it up.

There was still some filling of the joins, and then I stippled some Tamiya primer with a brush to give it the correct cast finish. It was the first time I’d used that technique and now I realise I should also do the cupola and MG Kugelblende.

[c.rainford73]

Beautiful job I'm really impressed

[jarndice]

I have a memory of Eben Emael,
In the early 60s we were on exercise at the Belgium Airbase of Bierset just outside of Liege,
After two weeks of working and flying with our Belgium Para hosts we had the weekend free so a couple of us took an Austin Champ out to the Fortress to see what it was like.
Not a great deal was to be seen, it being the weekend the gates were locked so being a hot summers day we drove into the Village for a beer,
The lady behind the bar was a bit wary of us until she realised that we were not German Soldiers but British,
Free beer and then we asked if she had been there when the Fortress fell,
She grabbed my epaulette and dragged me out of the bar to stand right in front of the building and she pointed at the area around the main window,
It was clear that at sometime in the past the centre of the building had been rebuilt.
Her English was as good as my Flemish but it became clear that after the Fortress fell the area was occupied by the German Army and she as a child was expected to help serve in and around the bar,
One day for FUN a "Stug" (It took a lot of hand gestures to explain what she meant)was driven up to the front of the bar and fired a round right through the front and out through the back, nobody was in the bar at the time but that did not make any difference to the lady and she hated the Soldiers from that day on.
It is very easy as a soldier to forget the effect of war on civilians especially children,
It was a timely reminder in a village that had seen the true horrors of war.
Shaun.

[Raminator]

A solid 10/10 on that mantlet, Estnische. A beautiful effort, mate.

[HERMAN BIX]

Jeez Mr E..........you make a hard task look simple thats for sure.
I'm lucky to have a Pantiger mantlet I have checked that will fit, so once I get going , should help save effort and allow me to use a complete 'G' turret on another Pantherturm bunker, this time for me !

How is the work going on the 'paniers' under the rear-upper hull ?

[Estnische]

Thank you for the nice words my friends.

Herman - it's a little bit 'two steps forward - one step back'. I didn't think it through when I butchered the hull. I thought it would be out of sight behind the tracks and now I'm having to make up for my impatience. But the overall structure seems OK. I just need to work out where to incorporate bracing and that will depend on the new gearboxes, smoker motor, speaker and switch locations.

I'm inspired by this photo on Christian's website - but I don't know if I can be that tidy and thoughtful.

Anyhoo, I'm off to Mt Panorama tomorrow so I will forget about it for a week.

[HERMAN BIX]

Ahh the Mountain !
One carton per day remember !
Hope it's dry

[HERMAN BIX]

Well, no, it was wet !................So Mr E, I guess you look like an old tea-bag now !!
Soaked from the inside AND the outside

Once you dry out & sober up, let us see how this project is going eh