Jagdpanther HL with Tamiya upgrade

[xrad]

OK..you guys are up and running again..sort of....at least I can get my fix.

Started on welds. found a great source for Milliput in USA...FRPGames. Ordered and two days later at my door!
Pics are OK, welds look better in person. Will look better primed.

Key to getting milliput in seams:
1) Clean seams well first. I used a lacquer thinner
2) use a wet finger to push milli into seem
3) scrape off extra
4) use a tool to make welds marks

Found a good color (I think, but probably not dark enough) for the primer: Testors all purpose spray enamel 1203 gloss red, followed by Testors Dullcoat.

Green stuff is Squadron green putty. Super stuff, sticks to anything (not glass, but sticks to aluminum with oil on it) and gets rock hard, easy sanding. Good for hole filling, but NOT for working with your hands or even touching. too soft and too sticky. And the fumes are really bad. Don't put it where you don't want it.  works great.

[xrad]

Final primer coat.
Final gear assembly. Chose 11 tooth Novak pinion. Set motors with 2.5mm allens w/ lockwashers and 3:1 reduction gear set to tammy gears with 3mm allens and lockwashers.

Next: assembly.

[Mackem]

Nice job on the weld seams, if you are doing a dark yellow base coat I would give the welds a coat of red brown first to help retain definition.
The periscope guards on the HL jagdpanther are too thick. File them down from the inside edge until they are about half as thick as they are now, they will look much better. Keep the pics coming, your hybrid Jagd should be a great runner.

Cheers
John

[xrad]

Great idea for the welds, plenty of small nooks for contrast. waiting on a rust kit which has some good colors and texture. From all the pics I have seen, not much rust on any German tank even after being in a bog for 50 years. But I kinda like the look of a worn vehicle.

As for the periscope guards..yeah, your absolutely right. I knew about that but I am too lazy to go the extra mile. I even left the topfblend too big. I was going to do all the bolt heads and get really detailed. But I am going to save this detail work for the Stug conversion or a second JP ( will have IR, too). This JP is more of the prototype conversion for me so I know waht to do for on the next one.

This pic is my favorite. I can hardly tell if it's real or a model....

If it is a model, is a club member?

[xrad]

Tanker Update:

Started some painting by hand. Have to save up some for the airbrush cause i just bought a set of High detail tracks from RCCOmmand. Man, they are NICE. open guides, closed pin holes, curved pin guides and other detail like the originals. Set came with 5 spare links, which I thought was unusual. Nice to have even numbers.

Played around with some rusting ideas. Bought 'Rustall' 4 bottle set. Lots of alcohol diluting a brown stain , which seem oil based. And a black stain, which seems water based as the two don't mix well. Wierd...

Also came with dulling paint which I did not try. And bottle number four contains some dirt from California. wow... grains are too big for my taste. So I started using some NON sanded tile grout. Had a box left over in my basement from guess what...a. tile job! enough for a thousand tanks..or one full sized one.

Anyway, much f'n around to get the proper effect. This is what I did:

1) Paint color you want first.
2) use liberal amount of #1 bottle brown around rims and screws.
3) have a cup full of fine powder(tile grout..brown is best) and use a large brush to dab it into the wet brown stain on the wheels
4) restain with bottle #2 black, liberally (cause most of it evaporates leaving the stain color)
5) restain with brown as needed (took me three or four rounds of steps 2-4)

Tracks:
1) tracks took several heavy coats of brown #1 and one of black #2
2) threw them (gently) in big plastic bag with California dirt and some grout
3) gently shake and work mixture around (can't have too much dirt!)
4) let dry and sprayed a heavy coat of testors dullcoat to help hold it all together
5) then round two of Brown #1 to restain the links and dirt that was not dark enough

Let it all dry. Pics make everything look more red than it really is !
Maybe I will need to do some more......I dizzy from the fumes......

[xrad]

OK. Someone in this thread said adjusting the Impact torsion rods is a PITA. He was right, I admit it. But that's part of the fun. Found that the angles of the arms I used was Ok for the middle, just had to tighten up the front three wheels and rear two wheels. If the middle is to stiff, she rocks and looks funny. There is enough play that the tank seems to rock easy enough without any fast torsion rod return rates. Kinda like the video link below (the most impressive video of the JP I have found)

Jagdpanther WTS moving on training groud

First pic w/ flash

second pic w/out flash

Front looks a little high, and it is, but nothing in the tank yet, either.

Third pic is with electronics and battery etc...may need some lead...

[xrad]

Moving along with build:

Hiatus due to business trip.....
Did the motor shield and lexan torsion arm cover. Thin aluminum for shield held to lexan w/3 3mm n+b's.

Soldered up a convoy light:
1) Cut Small diameter brass tube to length.
2)  cut four slots w/dremel.
3) U-channel brass for end cap soldered on
3) drilled small hole for light to pass through from backside
4) milled second small brass tube to fit around the backside hole and soldered in place
5) cut a piece of semi transparent antenna guard to fit into tube (acts a fou lenses at one time). slip this into tube. made it a snug fit.
6) solder on second U-channel end cap
7) soldered on the lamp brace (small right angle brass)
8 ) Small Superbright blue LED (from hobbyshop for some car) fit into brass tube and held in place with shrink tube.
9) added resistor to dim the lamp a little (may need one more)
10) drilled hole in hull for rear lamp post to pass through

Couple of points: Lens slots not entirely spaced correctly, but my dremmel blade width was the limiting factor. Small support bracket in 4th photo shown in #24 SdKfz. 173 (my reference), so I added it. Supposed to have two small bolts to exhaust lower shield.

[xrad]

Started working on the weight. Picked up 4lbs lead , added three battery packs and two full tracks. The hull weight is about where I want it and the suspension ride height is just about right. Decent rebound front and rear without springiness. Model now has that real torsion rock that you see in the video a few posts above. I just hope my gearing is strong enough and that the gear reduction helps control driver board overload! Stress points are all ball bearing, cap screws, locktight and lock washers where needed.

still shooting for 15-18lbs...

[Matdragon]

exellent work xrad.

that picture of the jagdpanther that you cant tell if its real or a model, its real take a look at the grass, if that was 1/16 then that grass would be extremely thein and short

looking forward to seeing it finished,

Matt

[STEINER]

Thats a real fine build that your doing with this HL / Tam Jp xrad. I fully appreciate the hours and the work you have put into this.

keep up the great work.

STEINER