My Hunting Panther

[tankme]

She's a fine looking kitty cat.

So 'fess up: how did you make the ropes?

They looks like metal or plastic molded ends with real steel cable inserted into those ends. I picked up some steel cable like that at Home Depot.

[MrChef]

So 'fess up: how did you make the ropes?

Paracord.

I cannot take credit for it. I found Fantasy Miniature modelers use it and it works perfect, looks real and good scale.





I already had paracord. I pulled the outside covering off, separated the the strands, cut them to length and then quickly burned the ends with a lighter because once this stuff is cut it unravels easily.

Then paint it with Tamiya Acrylic XF color I want. Ta Da!

[MrChef]

She's a fine looking kitty cat.

So 'fess up: how did you make the ropes?

They looks like metal or plastic molded ends with real steel cable inserted into those ends. I picked up some steel cable like that at Home Depot.

Thank you very much.

The Tow Cables are Metal/Copper Cables that I got from Taigen with an accessory kit for a panther metal edition.

[Meter rat]

Sublime painting and weathering.

[MrChef]

So I have to give credit to my wife, she helped by painting the periscopes. She contributed a cool color resin that she uses for doing nails that cures with a UV light-





And I forgot to show the girl with her skirts down-



Oh and just for fun-

[Herr Dr. Professor]

A tip of the hat to Mrs. for adding the lenses: if that's the fingernail coating my sweetheart uses, it will be indestructible.

[MrChef]

Decided to upgrade the barrel-


So this has been on my mind for awhile now. The barrel on my Jagdpanther is about as thin and almost the same length as my Panther G. It's definitely modeled to look like the 2 piece barrel on the G2 but looks skinny, short and spindly. As well the muzzle brake is a bit small.

So after some research I confirm that the 8.8 cm Pak 43/4 L/71 two part barrel on the G2 for all intents and purposes the same as the 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 barrel on the Bengal Tiger. KwK designating the gun as tank mounted, Pak designating as an anti-tank gun. As a matter of fact the 2 part barrel was adopted by the time of the G2 to streamline production and ease of maintenance since it was shared by the K2.

After a bit more rudimentary research I measure the barrel diameter at the mantlet on both tanks and turns out it's the same. Skip forward and Toucan just has to send me current special deals So the Tiger II barrel was on short sale with their silly recoil for $15.99. Oh well...







I'm thinking of doing the black lacquer replacement barrel...

Annnnnd gonna finally cover the offensive Frog eye


And here we have it.

First I did this the easier way of the 3 ways's I postulated it could be done. It's not plug and play but it's also not difficult. The way the mantlet is attached to the BB unit to allow for elevation/depression of the gun doesn't allow for the Heng Long Plunger pooper unit to work. It also would need further more in depth modding to facilitate a proper servo recoil. This is something that I will put on the back burner as right now I'm satisfied with the new barrel and will soon be jumping into more than one full project.

Here these pics show how the mantlet has a recessed lip on the inside where the stock barrel fits since it has been machined down with a collar added for a screw to retain it on the inside as if doesn't use the usual HL scew hole in the barrel.



















So I just cut the new barrel down and employed the new trick I learned from a new RC friend when working with servos. The barrel does not need to be rigidly attached, I want a snug fit and the ease and ability to remove it when I eventually do the servo upgrade. So I used white plumbers tape and tightly snug fit/screwed the barrel in. The tape wrapped the new barrel on the outside and the inner BB barrel inside the new barrel. Definitely a snug fit but not a bear to remove either.

I swapped the new plunger BB unit since it has the inner sleeve unit that I will use to stabilize the barrel from the inside.




Here you can see my trial and error of how much of the barrel I needed to trim.



And Bob's yerr uncle







Been a couple of years and she's still going strong

[John Glover]

Mr Chef, that barrel swap is brilliant Very clever and makes your Jagdpanther look more to scale when you look a a real one.

[MrChef]

Mr Chef, that barrel swap is brilliant Very clever and makes your Jagdpanther look more to scale when you look a a real one.

Thank you John. I'ts been on my mind for awhile now but always fell to the wayside with other projects keeping me busy.