PANTHER G ZU-FUSS

[HERMAN BIX]

You've made fine weld lines Herman and also the flame cuts at the armor plates are super detailed.
But what I don't like is the big fat LED in the front plate of the turret - with the rain cover she looks like an dolls eye.

I know mate, that bulb is crap. As I have the BB option live in this thing it seems wise to have it in there as a warning of "live ordanance"
I may even grind the face of the bulb flater so I can use putty to reduce its profile as much as possible while retaining it.

Plus, if things line up, I will have the Vampir night fighting set up on it. Although no real pictures exist of anything other than the cupola mounted scope, the common theme is there are 3 sets of infra red vision gear, one of which will cover the gunners arpeture.Bulb-us Invisibalus I hope

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
Herman, the Panther is looking sweet. As for the LED in the turret face, you can push it back into the tunnel there or remove it and use the wiring as part of your Vampir power access. Following along!
regards,
Painless

[HERMAN BIX]

Good call on the bulb me Painless . I could just push it in a bit & reduce the hole size. I'm not clever enough to get the vampir lit up even if it's the set that can, so I will have to wait & see what kit I end up with as far as all three or just the cupola mount version .
I swapped over the noodles in the guts to a 2.4Ghz set up. What a great idea, wish all of my lot were 2.4 now.
Only thing puzzles me, with the old green board removed, how does the 2.4 get its signal as the aerial has gone ?

[PainlessWolf]

Herman,
I'm pretty sure that we can get you wired up with enough photos. I've even used that warning bulb behind one of the HL 'black stick' machine guns as a light up Coax machine gun. The aerial is built onto the board now. HL has it inside the board cover and Taigen has it outside. It's a little fiber optic looking thing now. I included a pic of the Taigen set so you can see it.
regards,
Painless

[Swamprat33]

Hi Herman, I also noticed the welded cupola. I did that twice so far and each time then cut it out again. Your call mate.

The other thing to be aware of is that the HL Panther G has got 2 default parts that everyone leaves on (or most do) that were only fitted to maybe 100 Panthers that were fitted with the IR night fighting gear.

The item in the centre of turret roof in green is a compass mount.
The item marked in red is a guard to protect the cables going into the IR system.

Both of these parts are kindly supplied by HL and i am sure very few know what they are for.
Anyway, it sounds like you might be fitting the Vampir to your kit so happy days.

I just wish I had known before completing my Panther G as i really now want them gone but too late.

Bear in mind that 99% of all Panther G did not have either of those parts fitted.

Cheers

Tim

[HERMAN BIX]

Its all good lads, the welded cupola will stay.
Partially due to the hassle of cleaning it up, mainly because of the way it looks better welded, and that mine is representative of a Nov;'/Dec '45 model with all the constraints of strategic bombing, production alterations, and simple expediency.
The two layers of anti aircraft roof armour will also render any discrepency on the roof details pretty much moot.

The small V splash guard below/left of the cupola central periscope arpeture is a base mount for the commanders manual gunsight from what my ndrawings show, and the compass shroud is a feature of production - to - stock......... last in -first out German protocols meant the new mods were fitted & sent to service, with anything left to be used as required. Turret roofs, and the fittings thereof would be consumed only when the newer available versions were exhausted. This would include any modifications or deletions from the contracted versions the factory had in the production system after a certain date.
Must have been a bummer to be making things that the company was being paid for, but at the same time having those builds superceeded.......
Very possible to have "out of date" turret roof hardware used on much later production assemblies.
Hence the KT turrets with late hulls & narrow tracks with 18 tooth drives that still showed MG rings & "battle track" hangers on the turrets..................
Speculation I agree, but if things had dragged out.........................

[HERMAN BIX]

Ok, so the enigma code for steel wheels is broken.(Panther 221 after the 'bulge'). Well for me it has !
Tiger 1 late wheels.(so the hubs match closer ) King tiger wheels are just to hard to make work without increasing material like axles & widening hubs etc. Its much easier to take it off than to add it

Take off 6mm from the inner hubs on the centre wheels.
Take all the stand off material from the inner face of the "straddle" wheels but add a spacer of 1.5mm into the split centre of these to clear the Panther track guide horns with a bit of tolerance.
The Panther arms are slightly longer than the King Tiger ones I have used, but KT ones are a bit more user friendly to get to what I need.
This means the last roadwheel is very close to the ider wheel.
Not MNH factory perfect but close enough to fairly represent .

I really gave it a red hot go to try & make the wheel combinations work from an "at home with standard hand tools" perspective, but I have to throw the towel in & wait up so I can spin the excess material off on a lathe somewhere.
The tolerances are to fine to take chances with hacksaws & files at this stage.
Dont get me wrong - it can be done, but why break your balls when there is an alternative eh ?

So for now I will get on with plenty of other stuff while I wait to get a space on a helpful workshops lathe.

[HERMAN BIX]

Thanks Mr Magman, the alterations to the roadwheels have put the brakes on a bit, but the material removal should be done over the next week.
I can carry on with prepping the hull until then.
I've installed a 360 turret rotation set, but there is sweet bugger all room to secure the cable slip ring under the elevation unit that is still within turret centre line.
Jurry is still out on if this will go ahead or not, but it would be cool ,if I can get it sorted.

[HERMAN BIX]

The wheels are done.
Machined the hub boss flush to the inner face of the inner/outer dual wheel sets. This could probably do with a half mm more off, but this can create hassles with the arms.
The centre wheels that run between the guide horns need 4mm off the hub length.
Again, this could cope with an extra .5mm off, but they will rely on being set in the arm with clearance to ensure they run close to the datum line of the idler/drive sprocket centre.
The inner/outer wheels sets will need to have shim spacers in the joints, or the joints set with epoxy or superglue to maintain the clearance over the outside of the guide horns.
As these are a pressed fit, and they need to be stopped short of "home" the gap means they could pop off during use.
All of this depends on the arms you use, the wheels you use etc etc.
I used King Tiger metal suspension arms, with Taigen late Tiger 1 steel wheels, with Panther G springs placed in the 'clocked' position on the lead and rear wheels.
As the placement of the genuine track pins is a pain in the buttocks to remove, I have used dress making pins to secure the tracks.

Over all, I am happy with the result.
Happy enough that I could almost sh*t a rainbow

[billpe]

Looks pretty good, like the picture!