Taigen Panther G with a British twist

[Ecam]

Pictures are coming through just fine. Terrific work!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Bravo! It's fun just to look back over your photos to see all the nifty detail work you have accomplished.

[Stormbringer]

Looking great mate and vpn for the win
Im sure i read somewhere on here some folks used O rings to hold the skirts in place

[LordLudikrous]

As always thank you everyone for the positive feedback.

I chose to go with the idea I had of the majority of side skirts having been repainted Olive Drab with one still in its original colours. Despite this the colour wouldn’t quite match the main tank – after all the Olive Drab on the tank was painted over Oxide Red primer in as professional a manner as could be done, while the side skirts would be hastily painted over already deteriorating Dark Yellow, along with any other camouflage colours mixed in. So they’re going to look in a bit of a state, and I’ll add some chipping to show the Dark Yellow underneath along with some general distressing. The one remaining skirt in its original colours I opted for camouflage with Dark Green and Red Brown over Dark Yellow, and this would also be a good opportunity to practice airbrushing and weathering techniques for revamping my Tiger.


https://i.imgur.com/s5vQoqp.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/9MlaE1Q.jpeg

I’m pleased with how the skirts turned out and my method to allow for attachment and removal has proven successful. I’ve got some spares as well so I have the option of changing things up in the future if I want to.

I have continued to experiment with painting stowage but I’ve chosen to put that on the back burner for the foreseeable future. The reason being that the end result would look fine on a 1/35 model, great on a Warhammer miniature, but looks off at least to me when placed on the Panther. So I’m going to get more practice in with my airbrush and painting stowage for my 1/35 models and I’ll revisit this in the future at an undetermined time once my skills have improved.

So what that means is while there are still interior electronics missing; namely the exhaust smoker and the wiring for the IR receiver the tank is basically finished. The painting is all complete and there are no further exterior additions or changes to be made.

The other bits are expected back in stock in the next couple of weeks so it will have more or less taken me a year to build and complete and in practical terms its done, and its days of being propped up on tins of baked beans are over. Apologies for the photo dump but I had a chance to get some photos in some decent outdoor lighting and didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

How it started.


https://i.imgur.com/zQHwowC.jpeg

How it finished.


https://i.imgur.com/ZeuU9Xd.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/veZaA82.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/svOgFMP.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/ROpv6Z0.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/AnRG4C2.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/37VC5a0.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/1Gl7cyA.jpeg

Now I just need to drive it in some muddy environments.

[Stormbringer]

Youve done a great job on it and it looks great outside in the daylight
and yep get her dirty mate

[LordLudikrous]

Cheers.

Seeing as this Imgur situation isn't changing anytime soon I've reuploaded all images in this thread to ImgBB and I'm going back and editing them into my posts. I've left the Imgur links in just in case the situation changes in the future, but hopefully everyone UK side can see images now. If its still throwing up a "not available in your region" message I've not gotten to it yet.

Still waiting for the exhaust smokers to come back into stock unfortunately. I considered taking the one out from the Tiger but all the tubes have been cut specifically to fit in the Tiger hull and I've no idea where I put my spares, so I'll have to be patient.

[LordLudikrous]

After what feels like an eternity, I finally have an exhaust smoker! I’ve opted for the Heng Long J4 CNC as it’s the same one as in my Tiger and has proven reliable. The motor moves quite vigorously so like in the Tiger it would need to be cushioned with foam.



This is where I ran into a few issues. The tubes that came with the smoker and the ones I had left over were all not quite right in some way. Either too big, too small or not flexible enough and so on. I originally envisaged that the motor would sit in the space behind the gearboxes on some plasticard with the heater at the back of the hull behind the speaker and battery. The problem was that owing to available space it is very close to the rear hull plate, and the exhaust points are much lower down compared to the Tiger, so the hoses either kinked or wouldn’t stay attached to the hull. Not ideal.

I then thought to myself, why not swap it around? Have the motor at the back of the hull with the heater near the front behind the gearboxes. An unusual set up but it would solve all my issues and if I am able to position it right I could top up the smoker via the radio operator’s hatch without having to take the upper hull off.

As it turns out, this was entirely viable. Problem was none of the hoses I had were anywhere near long enough. So I tried making use of what I have, inserting hoses of different sizes together and keeping them sealed with hot glue. This did work, but I don’t think for long. The smoke fluid prevents glue from adhering to a surface properly. The heat from the heater softens the hot glue. The smoke gets into everything and once powered off turns back into fluid which stops the hot glue from sticking back on properly once it cools down and the whole thing just comes apart.

In the end I admitted defeat and just ordered some silicone tubing that was the right size to just run straight from the heater to the hull plate. Which I really should have just done in the beginning.

The lower hull is getting crowded so I ran the hoses along the sponsons and secured them in place with hot glue. As Taigen for some reason saw fit to have the quick release arms right in front of the exhaust nozzles I ran both along the right side of the hull so they’ll be out the way of the quick release hooks when opening the hull.



An unusual set up perhaps but it works well, and an added bonus being the quiet hum and vibration of the motor is almost like having an engine in the back like a real one.

I’m also very pleased that I am able to power the tank on/off, recharge the battery and top up the smoke fluid via the front hatches without having to take the tank apart or remove anything. While not essential, I do crank the turret round when charging as it makes getting in and out that much easier. As I’ve mentioned previously in the thread, I use Ni-Mh batteries and never leave them unattended while charging.



I still need to acquire and install the plug for the IR receiver but as there is no RC tank scene near me that is super low priority right now and I’ll do it when I next have to open the turret up for repairs or maintenance. It has no bearing on the look or operation of the tank otherwise. So I am calling this project finished.

Now for some outdoor shots and clips.


















Reflections

Including the planning phase this project has taken me over a year to complete, including 49 weeks since delivery of the first components. I’d like to be indulgent and share some thoughts of mine.

I really like the Taigen Panther chassis. It’s got lots of room to work with and it’s a smooth runner, and the things I was less keen on (like the power switch being on the underside of the hull) I was able to rectify. If not for the fact that I’m rather keen on an M4 Sherman or T-34 85 for my next project I would seriously be considering a Jagdpanther.

I think the project went quite smoothly as I had managed to get most of the mistakes out of my system when I was working on my Tiger. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get an airbrush until well after the painting on the tank was done as it would have made life far easier, but it is what it is. The only thing that didn’t work out was the axle support bearings, but it seems to cope just fine without them. I prefer to run my tracks on the loose side but despite stretching considerably the tracks are still far too tight without that extra link in. I still like the idea of adding stowage but I’ve not been happy with the ones I’ve painted so far, so that will be something to revisit in the future.

It's a shame I haven’t got access to a 3D printer as I’ve seen some people on this site use them to help make the interior very professional and tidy. Unfortunately because I’m cramming Heng Long components into a Taigen chassis there is a lot of bodging going on and copious amounts of hot glue. Had I known at the time about the existence of 3D printed cog based recoil units like I’ve seen MrChef use I would likely have installed one of those instead of the Heng Long unit, but it’s a likely option if the HL unit fails in future.

All in all I’m happy with how it turned out and I’ll be making a thread in the Show Off subforum. Replacing the BB launcher with the barrel flash and smoke was absolutely the right choice as it’s a real crowd pleaser, and I just now need to sort out a solution to transport it to some particularly fitting woody marshland to roll around in.

[Stormbringer]

Youve done a grand job on that Panther mate it really does look the part well done

[HERMAN BIX]

Super results Me Lord, love the skirt outcome and the overall theme is perfectly executed.
Ole mate In the turret must be quite chuffed he has a big gun and actual frontal armour, if o my for a short time !!