HL Panther G customization diary

[jeff1101]

It's priced moderately. About 40£.

[jeff1101]

Updates 02/24/13 - Attaching the Schurzen hangers - Part 1

I started with the PE fender kit from Aber. These contain the Schurzen hangers which I will use. Unfortunately I already attached/glued all the tool brackets to the hull at this point. It would take a lot of work to remove the molded on HL fenders to attach the PE ones that came with the Aber kit so I will just be using the Schurzen hangers. If I had gotten this earlier on in my build I would have been tempted to try to use the PE fenders also.

I had started the build using the Modellbau Schurzen track hangers but since they were made of plastic, they broke easily. Eastern front recommended this Aber kit and I will try to do a mini-review below.

Here is the PE sheet containing the Schurzen hangers.


It's a shame I wont be using these 2 sheets for the side and front fenders.


I will also attempt to re-use the Schurzen plates that came with the Modellbau kit. Using the Modelbau schurzen plates for the Aber hangers brought its own set of compatibility issues. I will discuss how I fixed these issues as well.

The Modellbau plastic schurzen plate.



I annealed the PE sheet by lightly passing it on the burner flame and then started freeing the hangers from the sheet. I learned that heating PE sheets and allowing it to cool slowly will make them more pliable and less brittle. This is useful (as I soon found out ) if you make a mistake and have to re-bend the part repeatedly and don't want to break the metal at the bend.


I followed the below instruction for bending the hangers. I also decided to add a wire at the top of the piece so I can more securely attach it to the plastic fender of the tank.


Here is my first attempt at the hangers with the wire soldered in place. Turns out I made a mistake. Since the hanger was designed for the included PE fender the default bend line would be too low for the HL plastic fender. It has to be bent on the indicated line below (green) if you want the schurzen plate top to hang flush with the top of the plastic fender.


Here is the hanger with the corrected bend line.


The second thing you need to look out for is if like me you are using a plastic Schurzen plate which is thicker than its PE counterpart. Since the hanger was designed for PE metal plate then make the stock bend higher to compensate.


Another problem was trying to solder the wire on top of the hangers. For some reason the solder would not take hold on the hanger and wire and I could not get a strong bond. This could be the result of the thicker metal sheet of the hanger dissipating the heat (via conduction) of the soldering gun thus not melting the solder fully.

One solution I came up with to address this was dropping a glop of solder on the join, adding flux and using the flame from a burner to fully melt the solder. The result is below. Notice the blackening of the hanger due to the flame. However this method fully bonded the wire to the hanger.


Conclusion

Generally I found the Aber PE fender kit well made. However I have 2 issues with it.

- It would be nice if the PE sheet included some more hangers as spares. Currently the hangers included with the kit is 12 which is exactly what you would need. Therefore if you make a mistake (like I did ) and somehow break (or heaven forbid lose ) one of the hangers then your out of luck. (Which make for a very anxious build...)

- Considering the price, I don't think it would harm the makers to also include the wire along with the kit. The instruction sheet specifies adding this size wire and that size wire etc, but these were not included in the package! It added to my exasperation and lost time when I had to drive out of the house to look for a correct gauge wire in order to complete the build.

[jeff1101]

Updates cont'd - Attaching the Schurzen hangers - Part 2

After all the hangers were completed I prepared the tank for installation. Since I will need to turn the upper hull upside down to attach them I took the opportunity to remove all the tools from the tank. The tools will not be re-attached until I have completed painting the tank.


I also took the time to remove the turret. German armor is well known for their brittleness. I have seen plenty of panther pics with the hull cracked from receiving impact hits instead of a clean hole. This is surprising since the Germans have discontinued face hardening of their armor as early as 1943. Maybe because of this brittleness I have noticed (particularly in the Bovington panther) that the corner edges of the turret interlock are often chipped away. (see pic of Bovington panther below)

Chip on the turret interlock in the Bovington panther. (from http://www.armorama.com)


I copied this on my panther by cutting with an exacto knife to give it the same chipped off corner.


With the tools removed I turned the upper hull upside down and begun drilling holes on the underside of the fender.


I added CA glue on the hanger and threaded the wire to the hole in the fender.


I then turned the hull over and cut the excess wire.


I attached the hangers one at a time and measuring where the next hanger will go by attaching the schurzen plate at each juncture to reference it.

Sometimes when I make a mistake and attach a hanger in a wrong position, I am still able to remove it provided it hasn't cured for a long time by using this CA glue remover. Be careful though as this can melt the plastic if it sits on the surface for a long time. Wash the solution in water as soon as the glued hanger is removed.


Due to time lost looking for a wire and other errands I was only able to attach the hangers on one side of the tank. Here is the pic with the hangers in place.


And with the Schurzen plates attached.


Hopefully I have some time next weekend to finish the rest.

[maxmekker]

great update, thank you thank you so much.

It's a shame it's no backup in theese PE kit's. I got some pdf's from hotte8487 over at the tamiya section / panther build on how to make them you're self. I must say, it's bloody hard to cut them out and bend them right, hehe. I don't get mine to look as good as you ore hotte8487 did.

I have both the Modellbau Schurzen and the Impact ones. Do you think the 'normal bend pattern ' will fit the impact ones ?

[jeff1101]

Hi maxmekker as long as you use the metal PE sheet as the schurzen plate then I think your fine. No need to change the bend as recommended by hotte8487.

Just for reference I included a pic of the bovington panther (http://www.armorama.com). As you can see in the pic the 'hook' has to sit flush at the bottom of the fender so that when you hang the schurzen plate it doesnt sit too low.


And here is my version. Mine differs from the real thing in that i deliberately attached the hangers with the hooks having a bit more overhang so that the schurzen plates (when attached) will have some clearance and wont get snagged by the tracks when the tank is moving.


I see you are using quite thick gauge metal sheet for the hanger. How did you cut it? I would think cutting it with just scissors would be hard. And then there is a hole in the hanger that must be drilled as well. I could probably do the 1st and 2nd one to look the same but it would be hard for me to have all 12 pc hangers cut consistently. I think I would need a stamping machine to do that.

I am still amazed how hotte8487 had the patience to cut all the hangers by hand.

[jeff1101]

Hi maxmekker,

What Eastern front suggests will work also. Just pick an attachment method that will work best and is easiest for you to do.

Regards!

[jeff1101]

Updates 03/01/13 - Finished with other side as well

Finished attaching the hangers for the other side. Some random shots. Turret not attached yet.

[doc larsson]

call the men in white coats........... i love this thread. Well done m8

[jeff1101]

Updates 03/03/13

The tank looked a bit slab sided after adding the schurzen so I thought I add some visual interest. So decided to shape the schurzen a bit.


front


rear





I replaced the muzzle brake that was cracked before. The spare came from TankArmy.com.


Also added some details to it and puttied the exposed threading.

[jeff1101]

Just in case anybody thinks I'm being overly imaginative and pushing creative license a bit too far in cutting up the schurzen plates like that here are a few pictures from AxisHistory forums. http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... &start=900

And of course the Germans are always known for their sense of style. For what else could be the useless reason for cutting the schurzen plate (which would make the protected area smaller) except for the obvious?





Notice also the chin mantlet, late war flammenvernichter exhausts and machine gun ring in the commander's cupola, like my Panther G. I'm also liking the big tactical/unit markings on the turret side as it is similar in size/font to the Peddinghaus decals I already purchased...