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Building a 1:8 Scale Panther: Part 2

The Tracks

On first glance the tracks are very impressive. Cast in metal, heavy and with the correct pattern. On closer examination the first concern is how they are joined together. A piece of 2-mm wire is placed through two links and bent over at each end! Not very scale. The actual Panther trackpin was on the inside (nearest the hull) formed into a rivet, the outer end of the pin was secured by a collet that was located onto a groove on the trackpin by a socket headed bolt.

Like a lot of other things, they had to go. On stripping down the tracks you find like the sprockets they are not drilled in a jig but again I believe freehand! An absolute nightmare when trying to reassemble! I obtained 200 2 mm swaged rivet bicycle spokes and a piece of 5 mm mild steel round bar.

Back to the lathe! The 5 mm round bar was then drilled with a 1.95 mm drill and parted off at a length of 3 mm to form a collett. The collets were pressed onto the track pins, each link as a friction fit and as a final precaution, was soldered to the pin. With 86 links on each track and some re-drilling also required, this boring job took some 2 weeks to do.

Here ends part two of this three part series. In part three Peter will continue with the final final painting and weathering as well as his overall impressions of the project. So stay tuned! - Jim