Taigen Panther G with a British twist

[LordLudikrous]

As always thank you everyone for the positive feedback. Its been a busy few days. I went to Tankfest on its opening day and got to see a world first – two working Tigers together for the first time since WW2.


(sound on)

Despite the enormous temptation to the contrary, I was fairly disciplined in picking up merch.



As originally planned, I ordered the Heng Long 7.1 electronics, and possibly the most crucial item for the model – the tactical bucket.



I chose to use the original Taigen speaker from my Tiger instead of opting for a Heng Long dual speaker. Reason being that I put the latter in my Tiger when I upgraded it to HL 7.1, and while its good its only a very minor improvement over the standard Taigen speaker. Its also quite long and awkward to fit into the hull. So I’ve saved myself some cash and some significant effort.

I do however plan to install the same HL CNC smoke generator that I used in my Tiger, but its out of stock at the moment. It can be a bit awkward to install into the hull owing to the cylindrical motor but it works brilliantly and is hands down the best smoker I’ve had experience with.

Luckily the speaker is a straight plug and play into the HL board but as expected I had to re-solder the connections for the headlight, hull machine gun, and turret rotation motor.

The side of the right hand gearbox was the perfect position to mount the power switch so it would be accessible from the radio operator’s hatch. After trying various methods of securing the switch to the gearbox I ended up hot gluing it into place. Not my most presentable work admittedly but it works perfectly and seems to be holding in place without issue. Time will tell if it stays this way.



Without the upper hull elements plugged in, this is how the inside of the Panther is looking. Once I have the smoke generator my plan is to install the motor in a transverse position in the gap between the gearboxes and the MFU/battery with the heater and output tucked in behind the speaker/battery. I’m using the old battery from the Tiger from the time being, I’ll replace it with a new one once the model is finished.



This internal layout also allows for another quality of life feature where I have the option to charge the battery without having to open up the tank and remove it. I know this will raise some eyebrows but I use Ni-Mh as they’re inexpensive, safe and I don’t require the advantages other battery types offer.



While still incomplete, the tank is now “alive” and can move fully under its own power. Apologies for the vertical video, but holding a phone and filming and driving the tank at the same time is quite tricky.







The Tactical Bucket has been weathered using burnishing fluid and hooked onto the back of the tank. Quite realistic too.





As it happens the real Panther above is also a British Panther – one of a number of examples built under British supervision once the war ended for testing and evaluation purposes.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find the drivetrain hasn’t required much in the way of running in and the tank drives nice and smoothly. The only thing I’m having to periodically adjust is the track tension, as the tracks have stretched substantially since being installed, and it seems running the tank accelerates this affect. I may end up taking out the extra link I put in, which is crazy seeing as I had to put those links in because the tracks were so tight I couldn’t fasten them together. In contrast the Tiger needed a lot more running in and adjustment, but once the track tension was set I’ve barely had to touch it since.







I’m currently painting the end caps to go on the sprockets, but the main focus after that is the main gun and turret internals. There’s a fair few bits to get to install into the turret; servo recoil system, gun smoke system, and a slip ring. I’m also thinking about installing the hardware for the IR battle system. I’ve got no one to battle against and there’s no clubs or events anywhere near me, but I’ve figured it best to install it now before it’s finished rather than have to open it all up again in the future if things change.

[Ecam]

Terrific Panther and some great videos as well. Thank you for posting those and am following along.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Bucket of the Month!

[LordLudikrous]

As always thank you for those that commented as your feedback is always encouraging.

The next order of business was to complete the end caps for the sprockets. As these are a pain to get back off again I ensured the sprockets were absolutely secured to the axles before installing them.





I didn’t have any available Dupont connectors to hook up the LEDs in the turret, but as I’m looking at installing the IR battle system later down the line I’ve installed the LEDs without hooking them up to anything.

The new recoil mechanism arrived and right away there was a problem, something I suspected might happen.



As you can see both barrels are the same size, so the recoil barrel cannot go into the gun barrel or vice versa. On the upside as expected, the mechanism itself had no problems going into the turret, and just needed the location of the elevation rails on the side adjusted.

A frustrating state of affairs with the barrel but my local model shop came to the rescue. I realised I didn’t actually need to get the barrels to work together, I just needed a way to connect the gun barrel to the recoil arm, so I nipped on down and got myself a length of brass tube and got to work. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get tube that would be a snug fit and go inside the recoil mechanism, so I would need to secure it via grub screws.

What followed was a lot of sawing, drilling, tapping screws, sweating and cursing - not helped by the very high temperatures we are currently experiencing. Which resulted in this.



This replaces the barrel inside the recoil mechanism and attaches to the base of the gun barrel.



It functions well, though I did have to tweak and straighten things up a bit as it was a tad wonky as initially attached.

I then had to enlarge the hole in the internal mantlet, something I was always going to have to do to allow the gun barrel to move back and forth freely, except I had to remove a bit more than initially planned to stop the grub screws from catching. The next test was to attach all of it to the mantlet to ensure it worked properly.



Which I’m pleased to say it did, so I disassembled it and got to work painting the barrel.

After that was complete (sans muzzle brake), I reassembled it all to ensure it worked before I install it into the turret.





After the last tests were successful, I finally installed it into the turret. I plan to add a slip ring and barrel smoker later, but these will be easy enough to install just by popping off the bottom panel. At long last, the Panther has its gun.







So far everything seems to work perfectly, though I am yet to decide whether to leave some mild track recoil on or off. The next thing on the to do list is finish painting and install the muzzle brake. After that its things like tow ropes, the radio antenna, and the outstanding internal parts. A fair bit left to do, but it’s looking much more complete now.

[Meter rat]

Sometimes, just sometimes, when is see work like this, and an unusual subject, I could be tempted by a Panther, or T34..
I really like this.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon!
Let me tempt you with some extra Detailing ( is already very happy with the Blackout Light Cover on your headlight )! How about Removing the big R and L on the undersides of your Driver and Bow Gunner Hatches? If Possible without ruining the Hatches, otherwise no one will see that very often anyway. How do you feel about drilling some holes in your Spare Track Mounts and attaching some detail chains and L Pins to keep them in place? Last Thing to keep my silly List short is: if you can get the Sprocket Covers off again, clean up the backs and attach a small rare earth magnet to the center of the sprocket cover. That will keep the covers secure in rough running and make tightening the sprocket screws very easy if needed. The Bucket is splendid before I forget! Following along.
regards,
Painless