HL Panther G customization diary

[jeff1101]

Hi guys, I have been lurking a while and thanks to this forum I have finally taken the plunge and bought my first heng long tank, the panther G. I have virtually no scale modelling experience (well I did some 1/72 aircraft when I was in college but that was it and I'm 43 yrs now)

Anyway I plan to do this topic a bit differently as I am patterning it to be a detailed build diary showing all the steps (and mistakes) I will make customizing this baby. Please feel free to comment as I will need every info I can get. I will also be asking you guys questions if I hit a road block during the process. I am hoping that this will help the other beginners interested in this hobby as well.

The panther G I bought is the smoke and sound model with plastic tracks and fires the BB.



I noticed the muzzle brake has a hairline crack. I guess the assembly guys in Heng long screwed it a bit too tightly. Does your HL panther suffer from the same problem. I am thinking the plastic they used is a bit soft. Are there brass muzzle brakes for HL panthers?



I plan to do upgrades first before detailing it. Here are my plan steps.

1. Add weld lines - this is detailing but since i think it fairly easy to do I can probably do this first while waiting for the upgrade parts to arrive.
2. Metal Tracks, sprockets and idlers
3. Stiffer springs - I will buy this part rather than adjusting the stock springs since I am a bit wary of making a mistake during the drilling part to re-adjust the stock springs
4. Engine grilles -
5. Mato 3:1 brass gears and motor

For the last part I don't even know if the tank I bought has plastic or stock metal HL gears. If its metal I would probably defer item 5 since it can be quite costly.

Which brings me to my first question. How do you open up the tank? I turned it over and counted 10 screw holes of varying depths. Do I have to unscrew all 10?

[jeff1101]

Another trivial question, I was playing around with the tank and if this thing is really to scale, I notice that the driver and radio man hatches wont swing open if the turret is angled like this?



In the real tank wouldn't this cause problems for the crew escaping if ever the tank was hit and the turret was at this angle?

[caddyshack]

Yes buddy undo the screws and the top shell just pulls off.. good luck with your forth coming build.

[littletankman]

Hi mate got beet to it yeah as the other post says regards the screws . Have you researched what your going to do to your Panther . You will get plenty of ideas from here and advice. When I get ropund to doing my one I plan on either a early G or the final model G I cant decide yet.

Andy

[magmer]

Hi a couple of observations re your build.
1/ it may have metal gearboxes but look carefully at the gears as the metal used for them is not much stronger than the nylon. On my Panther G there was a burr of metal that gave a jerky movement, despite filing it off the whole gear was in very poor shape and it ended up being replaced.
2/Over zealous tightening. I had one tank that had the breech block overtightened and had caused cracks in the plastic breech. This caused air leaks and the BB had just enough power to fall out of the end of the barrell! Removing the breech block Icarefully ran superglue into the cracks and clamped it up. When relocated and not overtightened the result was very good, the BB shot very well.
Also if there is any debris or the BB is in poor shape it will jam in the barrell, the tolerance is crucial to get the best performance. Hope this helps Mark

[tisaksen]

Another trivial question, I was playing around with the tank and if this thing is really to scale, I notice that the driver and radio man hatches wont swing open if the turret is angled like this?



In the real tank wouldn't this cause problems for the crew escaping if ever the tank was hit and the turret was at this angle?

This is interesting, I'm trying to find pictures to see if this is a model out of scale or if the panther was actually like this.

[tisaksen]

I found this video at youtube, it doesn't have hinges like this heng long tank does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8jpnkulVOk

[littletankman]

The hatch your looking at is the Panther A version they lift and swivel . Your one is a Panther G they hinge , HL are correct (this time )

http://jbwid.com/img_09/101309g.jpg
Although this is a model this is how the Panther G hatches open

Andy

[tisaksen]

Ah okay, so does the turret block the opening of any of these hatches if it's at the angle shown on the HL picture?.
Also, is that thing (don't know what it's called) that keeps the barrel locked down block the movement of the turret?

[littletankman]

Hi I think the turret is fine , others might comment on that . The barrel travel lock folds down so this wouldn't interfere with the barrel.I have the HL Panther G (none bb version) but still in its box .

Andy