Taigen ( Fancy Heng Long ) Panther G

[PainlessWolf]

It Begins

Finally everything has arrived and I have a quiet Sunday to begin work. This Panther has minimal metal add-ons, (Main Gun barrel, some grills, Intermediate quality metal gearbox and the odd tool and clamp) so the hull won't have to be completely dissasembled for suspension work to take place. The sound on this Taigen tank is good, the gun is a strong shooter and it has a proportional smoker and excellent led lighting already installed. so only cosmetic add-ons and modeling will be done to get it to my level of run and show.

[PainlessWolf]

1st Day work involved correcting the metal handle for the Commander's hatch. It was pushed flat against the surface. Some work with a small pair of needle nose pliers fixed that. While working with the hatch handle I had an idea for adding a little detail to the underside. I had a rough idea about some sort of padding and a handle so a plastic screw head hider, a tiny brass ring and half a 1/35 scale Tiger 1 tow hook later, I had some detail. Quick work involved drilling out the hull MG34 barrel so it would glow with a red ring when lit. (a nifty new mini yankee drill helped immensely with precision drilling of this type) and removing the brass stud for the not present wire whip type antenna. This tank is my first 1/16 2.4 radio setup and it works splendidly. 4 hours later and it's time to fix dinner. More fun tomorrow!

[PainlessWolf]

2nd Day work involved adding a spare track link to each side of the tracks as they were much too tight on the tank as delivered. Taigen thoughtfully added spare track links and pins so that work was accomplished fairly easily. Then I decided to begin work on the parts I dreaded most, the Spare Track Hangers. The kit from Tank Modelbau is complete but I say in all honesty, some assembly is required. My eyes were burning by the time I had cut out all the plastic 'c' clamps and cleaned up and glued them to the strip rack. I didn't have any metal spare track links for this but with a little clipping of the mounting posts, cutting them apart and sanding the resultant edges and nubs, the strip ones that came with the tank to be flush mounted on the rear deck worked fine. Tomorrow night, I will do the really small stuff, cutting the 11 3/4 inch micro chain into twelve lengths to be glued to the tiny brass hooks and said assemblages inserted and glued into tiny slots on the track racks The yankee drill will come in handy again drilling out the small holes for the hooks to rest in as well as possibly drill three countersunk holes per side to use as screw mounts for the completed tracks and racks. I don't trust the glue, excellent as it is, to not shear and lose one of these marvels of tiny modeling somewhere in rough country. This will be fun.

P.S. ( It hit me as I was doing this that I had unconsciously followed the excellent work done by Jeff1101 on his Panther G Track and Hangers. I went and looked and sure enough! I also _really_ like his method for attaching the micro chain too and will do mine the same way. ) Thanks Jeff!

[Red Devils]

Your off to a great start Painless, I'm also using Jeff's post as a reference for my build as well. He has done some excellent work. Good luck and I'll be following your progress, I'm only fiddling with the Panther as I await some new gearboxes for my Tiger 1. Take care...

Derek

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Red Devils
Thank you for the encouragement. Tonight's work will require the use of the magnifying Tensor Lamp at my desk. *chuckles* I will need to run to the Hobby Shop this afternoon to get some smaller drill bits for the Yankee drill. That micro chain is ...micro... I need some new flat dunkelgelb and braunviolet for these accessories as well. I want to keep the existing paint as intact as possible so no over spray of flat lacquer on this tank. I'm not even sure what this airgunned paint is? Acrylic, possibly. It has a rough, sandy feel to it and adheres well to the plastics but not so much the metals.
regards,
Painless Wolf

[PainlessWolf]

3rd Day work involved assembling the dreaded Spare Track Hangers. I had done the preliminary plastic assembly the night before so this evening's task was given to drilling for the hooks then measuring, marking and cutting the micro chain and attaching it to the wire guides for eventual deck mounting ( Thanks again, Jeff! ) and attaching it to the track holder hooks. I needed some smaller bits for my Yankee drill so that gave me an excuse to go to the local Hobby Shop today. 40.00 dollars worth of paints, thinner and an Excel micro bit set saw me ready to begin anew. Drilling out the 24 holes in the plastic hangers was made easy with the drill and the correct bit. Then the fun stuff started. I had a bright idea and stretched the 11 3/4 piece of micro chain out flat and got a piece of Scott's Magic Tape and laid it down over the chain being careful to keep it full length. Voila! It was easy to measure, mark and cut it then. I had 12, 3/4 inch lengths in no time with a nice piece left over to use on the hooks for the rear tow cable holders later on. I followed Jeff's work until it came to where he soldered the micro chain to the wire guides. Here, I used my favorite super glue, Loctite Ultra Gel, to secure the micro chain within the wire guide loops and the brass hooks to the other end of the micro chain. I have used this type of super glue for years and not experienced a failure yet. Parts tend to break rather than come off. I will use it to secure the wire guides inside the drill holes in the rear deck as well when I mount the Track Hangers. A note about the wire guides. They were a puzzler at first then I found a roll of braided picture wire. A quick measure, snip of two equal lengths and unraveling the seven individual strands gave me the wire I needed in a good mix of flexibility and stiffness. A general round of fitment saw the end of the work tonight and I could breathe a sigh of relief. A solid two hours worth of modeling but these will look great painted and mounted on the Panther. More fun tomorrow. ;o)

[Phil]

Looking good, I have the same tank with metal tracks which sits to low so I've ordered a set of stronger springs. The same thing happened to my Jagdpanther but that time I just drilled a hole a bit further round for the spring end to sit in which did the trick.

These track hangers were a pain, much prefer the plastic ones


Just a thought here, as the Panther had been airbrushed it could be a good idea to sand the area you are going to glue the track hangers to back to the plastic. I found when I built my Heng Long tiger I thought the grey was the plastic which it wasn't it was paint, so the bits I glued fell off. Not until I sanded the paint back to the plastic it all held good.

Another view point on weld marks here, while looking at the Panther at Bov, I noticed that the weld marks were not that noticeable on the full size tank so on a 1/16 tank they will be very small. Not sure how I will do if at all, but again the same prob with the paint.

Looking forward to doing the track hangers (same as yours as is the rest of the ad ons)

I've bought my tank last year and only just thought about doing something with it after seeing your post!

Great forum, so many talented people here.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning Phil,
Thank you very much for the sanding tip. I will run a file along the area these Hangers will glue to and rough up the back of them a bit as well. I may yet drill and countersink three small screws on each side to ensure they don't get lost. I may be overdoing it as I noted previously, that Loctite is the 'Stuff'. I had metal running gear on the HL King Tiger I got for Christmas two years ago and spent some time beefing up the suspension and hull on that one. I was pleased to find that Heng Long had anticipated the use of stronger springs and positioning and had pre drilled the holes for the spring tabs to sit in to get a firmer ride. They are listening to us. ;o) This Panther has the updated yet stock running gear and metal gearboxes so I don't anticipate a suspension issue here, just those tight tracks I fixed earlier. I agree completely. I have learned some amazing things since I joined this Forum. These guys are the best!
regards,
Painless Wolf

[doc larsson]

nice colours on the paint job.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning, Doc,
It is nicely done. I have to give credit to whichever Taigen airbrush wielder did this one. I'll paint accessories in muted dunkelgelb and braunviolet and meld them in with the color scheme as good as I can.
regards,
Painless Wolf