Based on my Panther’s attributes it’s a late 1944 model and was acquired in late 1944 or early 1945, so any German pattern is likely to be ambush camouflage. Which isn’t a problem because I liked that one the most, I just need to add the dots.
Something to note, Imgur has completely geoblocked the UK, so if you’re in the UK and this thread is full of placeholders saying “content not available in your region” that’s why. Hurrah for VPNs.
It took some experimenting but I finally sorted out a system to attach the side skirts.
The rear of this skirt is a bit of a mess because of the experiments and failed attempts, but that won’t be visible luckily. I’ve polycemented two small lengths of styrene square rod together and superglued it to the skirt.
These gently pressure fit into the gaps in the mounting points and securely hold it in place, but can easily be removed at will. Initially these rods were longer and attached at a right angle to the skirt for a more secure hold, but the rods would break at the glue point when repeatedly removed. I now just need to make the other three and I can start painting them.
Another small thing I did was use some plasticard to block the small gap between the upper and lower hull above the sprockets. It probably wasn’t going to be an issue but I was worried about the possibility of water being flung up inside the hull when the tracks were in motion, and this was an easy fix.
I’ve been busy with other aspects too, I obtained some stowage which I’m experimenting with painting, and a driver figurine which I’ve painted in the same fashion as the commander.
I also decided to try and improve some of the detail at the rear of the model. It’s been brought up in the thread before and for some time now its irked me how the spare track is just hanging from the rails with nothing to keep it in place, though it is substantially better than the Heng Long Panther where the spare tracks just magically stick to the side of the hull.
I got some 0.6mm nickel rod from my local model shop with the idea of cutting them to size and bending them to form the holding pins for the track holders. As there is very little room to work with given how little the holders protrude out from the track I was less interested in true scale size and more with what looked right but would fit.
Drilling the top hole was easy enough, but the drill bits snapped every time I tried to drill the lower hole. I suspect this is down to how thin the drill bits are and the slight flex of the plastic as the drill bit bits is just enough lateral force to break it. I decided this was a lost cause and opted to drill the top hole and have the pins touching the bottom one so aside from close inspection it looks like the pin is going through both parts of the track holder.
All done, and all in all I’m rather pleased with how it turned out. My local model shop is getting some chains in and I’ll look at adding some if its feasible, but if not I’m happy to leave as is.
Another thing that was bothering me was the lack of detail on the stowage bins at the rear, and how they’ve got these two great bins but with no way to get into them. I looked online to try and find a solution but was either photoetched parts or something from Christian Ludwig, both relatively pricey and would involve tearing the existing ones off and re-doing the rear hull plate along with decals – not a desirable solution.
Instead I decided to attempt to make my own access hatches using plasticard for the hatch doors and some of the metal rod I got for the retaining pins to act as hinges. Something to note though that unlike the real thing (at least from photos I have and other models) the bins have a slight trapezoid shape as they extend from the hull, so any access hatch will look wonky if I try and align it to one side or the either. I decided to align them to the rear of the hull and the bin, so if the angle looks a bit odd, that’s why.
I’m very happy with how this has turned out. It is missing details such as the opening handles and securing latches but I don’t have either the skills or materials to fabricate those at this stage – it was difficult enough cutting the tiny bits of rod and getting them into position. It’s a lot more detailed than the plain surface it was before, and should those skills and materials become available I can revisit it in the future.
Still waiting for the exhaust smokers to come back into stock, so there is still interior work to be done.
Much better.
