RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Updates cont'd. Attaching the chains to the track hangers


At this point I simply insert the wire to the hole I just made.



Here is a pic of all chains attached.



Then turn the upper hull over and use a drop of CA to glue the wire on the other side. I further plan to strengthen the bond by applying putty here.



Here is a final pic with the track secured on the hangers using the locking pin.

My god you must have the patience of a saint! this is starting to make me feel like ripping my panther apart, excellent work

Looking good mate . I did all those track securing pins on my Panther A very fiddly . I like the fixing method far better than mine , I glued them straight onto the rack .


Andy

Great project!! Very nice to see all the mods that are added to this tank...

Thanks for sharing, John.

Great stuff, going to be awesome when you're finished.

Wow, just checked now and lots of comments. Thanks for the kind words guys!

Update 7/29

Hi guys, I'm again posting after a long delay since I wanted to have some more progress photos before I came back.

Here are pics of the track arrangement on the hangers. I did not want to make the spare tracks as a complete set since these add more visual interest. And in photos of real panthers I often see spare track links missing or not attached to some of the hangers.


right side


left side

Continuing on, I noticed that when I added the bracket underneath the jack block that it was now hitting the bottom of the turret, when the turret rotates. To fix this, I decided to shave off the molded bracket at the top portion of the block since there shouldn't be any bracket here anyways. (Or else how would the jack block get removed?)


Shaving the molded on bracket on the top portion...


molded on bracket removed


Now the turret just clears the block as it rotates.

Updates contd.

I have been putting off adding the PE latches (I bought these ages ago) but I was running out of things to do on the tank. Sooner or later I was going to do the thing I hated most - working on these awfully small PE parts.


The PE sheet comes from Aber. They are 1/16 scale but still way too small for me.


I read online that before assembling the PE, you have to heat it. (A process called annealing). Be careful overheating the sheet though as it is very thin and will distort easily. The key to annealing is not so much applying too much heat but letting the PE part cool slowly after heating.


Here is a sample instruction sheet that comes with the kit. The PE sheet consists of clamps and latches. The instruction I will be following will be for the latches. As you can see I had problems sourcing (and attaching) the 0.3 mm wires since the PE kit didn't came with any.


I finally sourced the wire from a telephone cord. I peeled off the insulation and removed a single wire from the stranded wires. This wire was actually a bit thinner than what was needed but since I had none other available I settled for it.


Here is a photo of one assembly step. I had some difficulty inserting the side extensions on one part (red arrows) to the corresponding holes on the curved piece. The key here is to line up the holes properly before attempting the insert.


And here it is after a successful attempt. Please note that these parts are smaller the the locking pin chains I did before, so as usual I couldn't really see what I was doing and just proceeded by feel alone. I wish I had a loupe so I can actually see what I was doing. However a dslr with a macro lens helped since I was able to take a pic of each step and review my work.


Here is another piece. It was flat from the sheet so I used tweezers to bend it. There are bending tools available that could make this easier but bending them with tweezers is not really that hard. Its very important you have a sticky mat (I used a CD sticker) to place these parts on so that they don't go flying about when you try to bend it. Also wear goggles or eye protection (I had my glasses on) so that if they do fly off, they don't inadvertently hit you in the eye as these parts are not only small but sharp. (I am thinking if one of these buggers hit you in the eye, the only way to get them off would be a quick trip to the hospital) So be warned.


That last piece (part 7 in photo above) actually attaches to the tank and serves as the pivot for the latch. You attach it together by threading the 0.3 mm hole through the 2 pieces. (Easier said than done).


Here is a photo after the wire was successfully threaded to the 2 pieces. The wire was threaded to 4 holes in total. Please note that it took me 2 days to finish this one step. (Although I had many breaks in between). Don't expect to finish this process in one sitting. Its particularly maddening since you have to line both holes of the 2 pieces together before you can successfully thread the wire to both of them. I was so frustrated that I was thinking of giving up and chucking the whole thing. If you start to feel like this, just gather up all the parts, rest and call it a day. The key here is not to be in a hurry to complete it. I was finally successful when I stopped and continued the next day.

Updates contd.

Attaching the latch to the stowage box



The last PE part is the catch. It has to be bended 3 times. Again I used tweezers to perform the bend.



To attach the latch, I first marked the stowage box lid with pencil so I know where I will glue the latch to.



I then CA glued the catch on the top edge of the lid



I then attached the latch to the catch.




After which CA glue part 7 to the stowage box.



Finally cut the excess wire.


And here is the finished latch. 1 done, 7 more latches to go.

This is just ridiculously great stuff man.that PE stuff looks so tiny .