¹⁄35

Building a 1:8 Scale Panther: Part 1

Rebuilding: The Hull

Firstly I removed the turret, tracks and deck and placed them away for what I knew would be for quite a few months. I then stripped off from the hull the suspension units, the wheels and the gearbox/motors. Each item dismantled revealed yet another horror. On removing the suspension units I found that they were held in place by a mixture of different headed screws. Some of the threads were so badly cut that I retapped them all a millimetre larger in size. All screws were replaced with socket head bolts throughout the entire tank. The rear idler adjuster consisted of 2 bolts drilled through the rear plate that engaging into a ‘bent’ and rusty axle that joined on to the idler wheels. The gearbox, well that is another story and is fully detailed later.

Having now a bare hull, the heads of the bolts that both limit the angle of the suspension units and secure the retaining end of the suspension spring protrude through the hull sides. If you want to just run the tank as is, no problem, as the side plates (bazooka plates) are moulded to the upper hull/deck and cover them over. Many photographs however depict incomplete sections of plates (knocked off in use) and as I also wished to make and display the 1 single return wheel, I had to hide the bolts. After removing the bolts I reinforced the inside of the hull with 2 layers of g/f. I then obtained new bolts, silver solder to each a 50 mm diameter brass plate and mounted them in their correct location inside the hull. The inside of the hull then received 3 more layers of g/f with a little extra over each bolt location.

The rear plate of the tank as supplied is glass fibred to the upper hull/deck. The method of removing the turret/deck off of the hull is just to lift it off exposing a false rear plate inside! It had to go. I decided that I would copy the system used by Tamiya on their 1:35/25 Panthers. Off came the rear plate with dust as far as the eye could see. The quality of the laid up f/g joining the deck to the rear plate is appalling. Full of voids and very messily done.