PANTHER G ZU-FUSS

[tankmad]

Looking good keep up the good work.
Stevie

[Abe Froman]

Herms, that tank is looking so bitchin ( just trying to be street )

Such good work man...bet every time you look at it, you ease back a little in your chair, exhale slightly and under your breath, quietly say...wow

Be proud...be very proud

Lottsa Love for your work dude. Chappeau

[HERMAN BIX]

Well I'm shuffling a little in my chair...............putting one of the rocket assemblies together so I can get the positioning and length of the mystery mounts right.
The frames are made of pot-metal, reminds me of the good old days of a Chaos Army, same stuff.
The rockets are a type of resin/fibreglass, strange stuff to work.

Just a bit fiddly to clean up & glue together. Using slow cure gel super glue.
The rocket has a metal plate that represents the diffusers and a metal nose fuse.
I have kept the wooden fold down legs on the crates that would have been used to launch from the ground (Zu-Fuss) as the theory is that these can be multi fitted to '251's, Panthers, or unloaded from supply & launched on the ground.

I might experiment with having the crates removable, just leaving the mounts in place welded to the hull. Depends on the over all strength etc of the crates & if the tank is easy to handle for battery charge/changes etc etc.
One thing I am after suggestions on though, these things are electrically fired from inside the tank, how/where would be the best bet to run cables from each rocket to the inside ?
I assume the gunner would fire them on command.
Perhaps the firing cables were only run through the commanders hatch once the rockets were loaded, as being an area weapon the tank would be back from the actual front line acting as artillery untill its salvo was fired or it was required closer up ?
No reason the cables could not be in place all the time, but where would they run to inside and how ?

A bit of necessary detail I have overlooked until now

[wibblywobbly]

Excellent work on this build, the detail is all coming together now, and the rocket launchers ooze quality. As for the wiring, my 'guess' would be that the turret sides are thick armour, so like the Tiger smoke launchers the wiring would go in through the turret roof where it is thinner. Just a wild guess but it makes sense from an engineering perspective.

[HERMAN BIX]

G'day Mr Wobbly, I agree the concept of a factory fitted penetration for firing cables makes the best sense, but turret would mean the tanks capabilities could be hindered while still hooked up to a full load of rockets. Just be a hassle if the turret was to be rotated for any reason thus putting the cables at risk of damage.
I even punted that the cables might go in through the MG/Radiomans hatch.
Still no obvious solution to the simplest of requirements.

IF I can, and thats a big IF, get hold of a full set of 3 night fighting scopes for this thing without losing an organ to an Eastern European cartel to finance it, the combination I have chosen takes on an even more complicated theory.
I know that with only the commanders night hardware the ammo storage reduced by 3 for the batteries. So, with the other two sets plus the firing mechanism of the rockets, how could this have affected the internal layout, ammo levels, etc etc

Oh now I'm really overthinking it, I have a headache............

[wibblywobbly]

Perhaps they plugged them in, sockets on the main structure somewhere? If they were hardwired they wouldn't be able to remove them?

[HERMAN BIX]

Im guessing in order - the firing set, cables, DIN plugs/ Deutch Plugs, rockets with tail ends to connect to the plugs/firing mechanisim ?
Might be a bit clearer if I can identify the actual rocket connection side.
Had to be an expedient way of walking up to the tank, loading the rocket crates to the existing mounts, and hooking them up.

The lack of any possible permanant electrical hook up point on the 'A' model in the Littlefield Collection that drove me down this path to begin with has got me wondering if i've shot myself in the foot, or they DID use these things in a very simple configuration that I'm missing due to overthought

Any hoo, got some Tamiya grey primer on the 3 rockets I have made ready just to see how they will look.
Used Tamiya German Grey rattle can TS-4 for the overcoat.
Of course I still need to open the can/tube of "wooden paint" to dress the pot-metal crates, but I should be able to take care of that.
Its really the crate-to-mystery mounts cross over and the firing cables that could cause me stress.

[wibblywobbly]

Look on the bright side, as no one else has seen one, and no one else knows what the set up was, whatever you do no one can say it is wrong (well unless a 90 year old German tank commander spots it of course... )

You could always make up some blue touch paper and glue it on the back of each rocket? lolol.

[HERMAN BIX]

Well, you got me there mate !!
I will take that as a "shut up & just get on with it " but with sugar

The touch paper thing is really tempting though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c112FzTolu8

THIS is what I really am looking for................

I can buy the small rocket motors by themselves, and I have already found the sound track.
Imagine the cescendo with rockets firing, and the 75 going to the tune of 'Panzerlied'

[sassgrunt]

I was just thinking about your conundrum on a through-the-hull electrical connection for the rockets. Couldn't something have been rigged to connect through the already-existing antennae mount? (Or maybe, they installed a second mount, like the command tanks with the extra antennae. Only, this one would be dedicated to the rockets and have an internal cable running through the firewall to somewhere inside the turret - with a hand-held control box at the end of a wire, like the towed Nebelwerfer used). Then, the only thing you'd see on the outside of the tank is the six wires all strung to one point. Just a thought.

I am really enjoying the effort you're putting into this build. Thank you very much for sharing it! -Mike