Panther A Conversion

[c.rainford73]

Yes great build with excellent bits of detail. Following along with great interest

Sent from my 2PS64 using Tapatalk

[Estnische]

Here is the latest update:

This is where the fun starts.

As Dean pointed out the sponsons on the Ausf A (and D) have a different slope and side profile. Dean rebuilt his sponsons with plasticard, but before following him, I was a little wary about the fragility of the separate piece that forms the vertical side of the rear of the sponson. He strengthened his with resin, but I preferred it to be moulded in one piece like the Pantiger. After a while I had an ‘ah-ha!’ moment and measured the Pantiger sponsons. Miraculously, they are exactly the right height to fill the slope between the top of the hull and the horizontal side rail, on the Panther G. And that vertical piece comes already attached.

So I cut the sides off the Pantiger upper hull, added a bevelled edge at the top and another on the Panther G side rail. They were glued on with JB Weld.

At the left arrow I was left with an incorrect dog-leg shape at the rear, and the vertical piece ran along the side almost all the way to the front, a legacy of it originally having to match the Tiger hull rear. That has been trimmed to line up with the third external road wheel. Also, it has come up too short at the front and will need some extension to match the front of the hull.

Again you can see the Panther G side rail lines up nicely all the way to the rear, creating a neat triangular cell in the sponson. Even the piece below the side rail will help provide support.

From underneath it looks fairly neat too. The Panther G has extra below the side rail which will have to be trimmed.

[HERMAN BIX]

Thats magnificent mate............outstanding labour saving.
Once I get onto mine, I will shamelessly copy your method...............I reckon this idea will begin a landslide of A/D conversions and drive the poor old pantiger up in value

[Raminator]

Yeah, it's nice to see that the weird Pantiger actually has value! Brilliant repurposing of parts, Estnische.

[c.rainford73]

Yeah, it's nice to see that the weird Pantiger actually has value! Brilliant repurposing of parts, Estnische.

Oh no.... now they will release a full metal Mato pantiger for $900!

Estnische really well done for sure

[Estnische]

Thanks gents. Funny how you progress. Having a plan makes it look achievable, then when you do one stage there is a difficult bit, but once that is past it seems like its going to plan.

One thing is constant though: a never ending supply of green plastic dust.

[Ludwig von wigbearer]

Superb, you are making a great job.

regards john.

[HERMAN BIX]

Thanks gents. Funny how you progress. Having a plan makes it look achievable, then when you do one stage there is a difficult bit, but once that is past it seems like its going to plan.

One thing is constant though: a never ending supply of green plastic dust.

Yip, and all of a sudden its nearly done !
That green dust.............be great to collect it to use as filler !
Great work Mr Estnische

[Estnische]

Yeah, it's nice to see that the weird Pantiger actually has value! Brilliant repurposing of parts, Estnische.

Oh no.... now they will release a full metal Mato pantiger for $900!

Estnische really well done for sure

1wiuly.jpg (35.44 KiB) Viewed 4258 times

[Estnische]

Indulge me if you will with a brief tale.

When I was fresh out of school I got a job as an engineering trainee at the steel works near Wollongong. The trainees spent four weeks in the workshop cutting, chiselling and filing blocks of steel by hand to be true and square. Many of you have probably done something similar.

We cursed the Eddie,the workshop supervisor for the drudgery and our blisters. Eddie was an old German machinist who use a story from his past to try to convince us it was good for us:
“You know chentlemen, ven you stuck on a schip in zer mittle of der Indian Ocean viz a brrrrrroken drife schaft, you vill need to be able to finisch a bearink by hand.”

I’ve never had to do that, but what I gained has come in handy fixing the front of this plastic tank. Again using left over pieces of the Pantiger, I filled in the gaps at the front of the upper hull sides. Thanks Eddie.

I needed to add the drivers vision port, but didn’t see the need to make a fully opening one, as Dean did. I considered placing a thin styrene sheet across the rentire front to make it a neat finish, but figured it was probably less work to fix the existing front. I also added the obligatory metal MG.

The Panther G hull top sides were trimmed to match the Ausf A side profile and the gaps between the old and new filled in. The hull lower will be fixed later.

Here is how it looks now at the rear. Once the rear boxes are moved outwards, they will hide the join line between the upper and power hulls.