Ups, I forgot to say in my previos post, but yes, the glue works, at least for now. I have assembled/disassembled all wheels several times and everything is in their place.jee wrote:Looks great.
I assume te glue works ok?Edumardo wrote:More news!
For now I have glued three wheel axle brackets to see if they will hold in place with the glue I have used (revell contacta profesional, the blue one):
VK 16.02 Leopard
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
- HERMAN BIX
- Major-General
- Posts: 11179
- Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 12:15 am
- Location: Gold Coast,Australia
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
You know there were 'Pocket Battleships".................how about "Pocket-Panthers" ?? 

HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
- 43rdRecceReg
- Major
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- Location: North West Highlands, Scotland
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
HERMAN BIX wrote:You know there were 'Pocket Battleships".................how about "Pocket-Panthers" ??


But, yes, this truncated Panther is shaping up very impressively, indeed.


"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
thanks, sometimes a bit difficult to find the corrrect stuff here in Russia, but this is availableEdumardo wrote:Ups, I forgot to say in my previos post, but yes, the glue works, at least for now. I have assembled/disassembled all wheels several times and everything is in their place.jee wrote:Looks great.
I assume te glue works ok?Edumardo wrote:More news!
For now I have glued three wheel axle brackets to see if they will hold in place with the glue I have used (revell contacta profesional, the blue one):

Regards,
Jaap
Jaap

Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
HERMAN BIX wrote:You know there were 'Pocket Battleships".................how about "Pocket-Panthers" ??


Leopard hull is more like a Panther D or A than a G, i.e. the paniers are parallel to the floor, but it would be possible to jigsaw and do it like the buddy on the first page of this topic. Furthermore, my chassis is narrower than the Panther. Check this pics (achtung, spoilers!):43rdRecceReg wrote:, that's getting a bit close to 'Pocket billiards', HB.
![]()
But, yes, this truncated Panther is shaping up very impressively, indeed.I wonder, looking at the comparison of the two hulls whether it would just be possible to jig-saw the hull sides out of the existing HL Panther Hull, using a template?
The good news is that STL files will share with the community so you can 3dprint it yourself, but there is a long way to do that.
jee wrote: thanks, sometimes a bit difficult to find the corrrect stuff here in Russia, but this is available


Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
I left the construction on the redesign of the arm that holds the idler wheel. Well, it is now fixed in place but I had to improvise along the way. With the redesign I think I have totally succeeded, now the piece is more robust. I 3d printed with 0.1 layer height and 100% fill:
Once the holes were reworked with the drill, my first option was to glue it to the side and from inside the hull use a screw to give it more support but it has not held and has come off, so we have gone to plan B: metric screws 3 and 4 and nuts to hold the piece, with a small flat styrene plate to give more strength to the whole. The good thing about this option is that it is not necessary to glue the piece and in case of breakage I will be able to change it easily:

Once the holes were reworked with the drill, my first option was to glue it to the side and from inside the hull use a screw to give it more support but it has not held and has come off, so we have gone to plan B: metric screws 3 and 4 and nuts to hold the piece, with a small flat styrene plate to give more strength to the whole. The good thing about this option is that it is not necessary to glue the piece and in case of breakage I will be able to change it easily:

- Herr Dr. Professor
- Captain
- Posts: 5198
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Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
I had missed the blobby picture before. I am sure that was a frustrating and expensive goof, but I do see just a touch of humor in it. I make such mistakes on much simpler modeling processes. I do wonder, however, what the heavy pipe is, leading from the chassis on a curve to the axle shaft. Is it a brace? It looks like a sewage plumbing elbow from 75 years ago. I suspect I am missing something obvious, but my curiosity is never tempered by embarrassment.
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
Herr Dr. Professor wrote: It looks like a sewage plumbing elbow from 75 years ago. I suspect I am missing something obvious, but my curiosity is never tempered by embarrassment.



My model and the reinforcement for RC:
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
We had left the tank with the idler wheel supports ready, but with the left side of the hull unglued to have comfortable access and to test the right engine layout.
After a lot of measuring, centering, re-measuring and centering, I fabricated the right motor shims to put it at the right height (in the following photo you can see them marked with an A). Stacking styrene rectangles of 2 and 1 mm we give the desired height (9 mm). The shim closest to the lower front we finished it in bevel, because the screw falls practically in the front-belly junction and would not have where to hold:
Once this was done, I glued the left side and all the arm supports on the same side, and built some shims for the left motor in the same way as for the other motor. As I mentioned in a previous post, the space between motors is very tight, so I had to mount first the gearboxes without motor, and then the motors themselves. Aspect of the hull without tracks and without motors, both sides finished:
If you look closely, there is a "filling" in the form of styrene strip of 3 mm between the inner wall of the hull and each motor, to give solidity to the whole and stick to the measures.
And why stick to that particular measure of 3 mm? as I said before, the position of the motors and suspension is copied from Heng Long panther and in this the shaft protrudes exactly 27 mm. Therefore the motor is positioned so that the axle protrudes those 27 mm, aligning the drive wheel with the rest of the wheels and the tensioner. If you take a long shaft gearbox, you will see that the axle protrudes exactly 33 mm, which taken to my design is: 3mm filling + 3mm styrene thickness + 27 mm shaft.
Detail of the transmission cover, fastened with m3 screw. The nut fits perfectly between the engine and the side of the hull, without interfering with the "filler" strip:
What inclination did I give to the cover? Well, a lot of looking at visual references (panzer tracts panther/jagdpanther). It also serves to hide the axle bearing support, previously glued to the hull. As the piece has two rods in addition to the screw, I drilled the appropriate holes to fit:
After a lot of measuring, centering, re-measuring and centering, I fabricated the right motor shims to put it at the right height (in the following photo you can see them marked with an A). Stacking styrene rectangles of 2 and 1 mm we give the desired height (9 mm). The shim closest to the lower front we finished it in bevel, because the screw falls practically in the front-belly junction and would not have where to hold:
Once this was done, I glued the left side and all the arm supports on the same side, and built some shims for the left motor in the same way as for the other motor. As I mentioned in a previous post, the space between motors is very tight, so I had to mount first the gearboxes without motor, and then the motors themselves. Aspect of the hull without tracks and without motors, both sides finished:
If you look closely, there is a "filling" in the form of styrene strip of 3 mm between the inner wall of the hull and each motor, to give solidity to the whole and stick to the measures.
And why stick to that particular measure of 3 mm? as I said before, the position of the motors and suspension is copied from Heng Long panther and in this the shaft protrudes exactly 27 mm. Therefore the motor is positioned so that the axle protrudes those 27 mm, aligning the drive wheel with the rest of the wheels and the tensioner. If you take a long shaft gearbox, you will see that the axle protrudes exactly 33 mm, which taken to my design is: 3mm filling + 3mm styrene thickness + 27 mm shaft.
Detail of the transmission cover, fastened with m3 screw. The nut fits perfectly between the engine and the side of the hull, without interfering with the "filler" strip:
What inclination did I give to the cover? Well, a lot of looking at visual references (panzer tracts panther/jagdpanther). It also serves to hide the axle bearing support, previously glued to the hull. As the piece has two rods in addition to the screw, I drilled the appropriate holes to fit:
Last edited by Edumardo on Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:16 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard
As the cover protruded a little in front, I added this small curved piece with three m1 nuts inspired by the panther/jagdpanter. That's the thing about designing on a tank that never existed, I can take some licenses, but always based on similar designs for similar problems:
And finally the comparison between my tracks (67 links) and panther's (89 if I remember correctly):

And finally the comparison between my tracks (67 links) and panther's (89 if I remember correctly):


