RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Good evening!
*enters as the Devil* Deeeeetaiiil it....You know you waaaaaaant tooooooooo!.......
regards,
Painless ;o)

HERMAN BIX wrote:Your train of thought is the same as mine on these new HLs
99% of the time they sit on a shelf, as long as they look ok the running part can be near enough.
The Panther I got as a birthday present will be done up but not overly endowed with exotic features.
That way it can do it’s thing without risk of breaking bits off or needing the support of NASA to keep it running.

...and it wasn't so much the shelf, either, HB for earlier iterations of HL tanks. Some were embarrassingly toy-like, and best stashed away in a cupboard before inviting tricky questions.
Now, I think they can be elevated to the status of 'Working RC Models'

Here I was looking for a 'runner', rather than a 'stunner'; but even without the garnish of Atak, Wecohe, MKModellbau and other bespoke aftermarket enhancers, this HL Panther- along with the T90, and Challenger 2, can stand up reasonably to closer inspection, without inviting sympathetic derision.

Thanks, Carl and HB.
I take it the metal chassis, and proper wheels Painless referred to earlier are to be found on the $480 Panther Ausf., from Taigen Tanks. Well, yes, it would be nice to be riding around on those wheels.
however, money doesn't grow on trees 9and it's not even made out of paper, anyway). Maybe, one day. Here's the desirable hull and wheels from Taigen, with the 'Schmalturm' topping:-

PainlessWolf wrote:Good evening!
*enters as the Devil* Deeeeetaiiil it....You know you waaaaaaant tooooooooo!.......
regards,
Painless ;o)

Nice try, Painless! Hmm... well if I were the flawed Faust (or Dr Faustus), you'd be the Mephistopheles figure. However, I see all those needy projects on my shelves, just clamouring for attention. It's back to that plates spinning on sticks meme.
Now that Summer's here, I want to try to paint my Tamiya Pz IV in Finnish colours (I bagged a set, recently, of these hard-to-find colours). Then, the Comet and Cromwell deserve a coat of '44-'45 British Olive Drab. They just don''t look right in the Humbrol US Olive Drab. It's fine on the Sherman, but not on the Comet.

Mornin' Roy,
No my Friend, not even near 480.00 US. The Lower that I speak of is the correct standard Panther G Lower. Running around 90 - 100 US dollars. Dave can get you one from Torro. I plan on hitting up either Taigen or Dave depending who has them in stock when I do the Rebuild on the Panther.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/cont ... ormat=750w

https://www.forgebeartanks.com/store/p1 ... _Tank.html

The wheel sets are extra and you can get the corrected Early War or Steel Wheel ones from Dave. Dave can probably get you the Lower with Wheels mounted for a good price. ;o)
regards ( and yes indeed, the Manufacturers are trying to put the after market part and upgrade guys out of business )
Painless

Having posted a visual comparison between the Tamiya and heng Long Panther G's, I thought I'd mention that the HL offering is so similar to the Tamiya model, dimensionally, and in detail, that it's tempting to think HL might have copied Tamiya's product. The Chinese do seem to have a reputation for copying and cribbing stuff.
One significant difference, If you check back to profile pics of the HL model on the wall, you'll see that it's missing the small fender support brackets you'll find on the Taigen and Tamiya versions (and, of course, the real thing).
Here's a pic of the supports:
Again, I don't think it matters that much if you're after a runner, rather than a stunner. In any event, detail-wise, the HL model's close to Tamiya's offering, but minus the supports. Anyone with a mild obsession with detail, could easily fabricate brackets and bond them on. That'll keep the detail demon placated.

Anyway, if you recall I'd only just repeated the old mantra 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it..."
Well, those of us- and there are many- who simply can't resist expanding their collection, could always say: '"yeah, it ain't broke, but it could be much better".
Well, after Painless posted those alluring images of the HL/Taigen hybrid- I just found myself clicking on some bits of Forgebear's site- before I could manage to tether the clicking hand down...

This is what I bought:

That's the hull, metal wheels and other bits.
In the same way that HL's upper hull bears a strong resemblance to Tamiya's, so does Taigen's lower hull... (and yes, they would, if they were both aiming for model accuracy- but then that was always Tamiya's design philosophy before, and not HL's, nor Taigen's, initially).
The arrangement of the torsion bars only really begins to differ with the bars themselves. As for the track tensioner, Taigen's is practically identical to Tamiya's. Some would say that's not a good thing, but I have no quibbles with the Tamiya design.
Here's Taigen's hull and track tensioner

And the Tamiya Panther. The whole tensioner is not wholly visible, but you can get the idea. Click to ENLARGE smaller images...

Time to use some metal primer on the wheels and hull. I used a Tamiya metal primer. If you're observant, you'll see that the wheels are on back to front- but at this stage it doesn't matter one jot.
Then I used a grey Humbrol Acrylic Primer. Some would say it's best to use red oxide; but I'm happy using this one.
For consistency, I want the Taigen lower hull to match the camo on the HL upper hull. That means beginning with an overall coat of Dunkelgrun.

Then I measured out the patterns on the front glacis plate, and rear plate, and cut masks to match.
This is the Taigen glacis in progress:

and the result:

I'm just hoping that the metal tracks on the Heng Long Panther will fit the Taigen running gear They should.
However- this reminds me these compatibility issues crop up quite frequently., and perhaps that'll give someone the chance to create a compatibility database for tracks, running gear, hulls, and so on.
What should fit what, or what will work with what, without modification- or perhaps with a few tweaks.
More, when more bits turn up

Roy!
This is exactly what I want to do with my Panther G. Good to have a template to follow here ( and I am ;0)
regards,
Painless

Be careful. Taigen Tiger1 tracks don’t play well with Heng Long drive sprockets. Not sure about other tanks.