I've made a little more headway on the Panther Ausf. D w/zimmerit. Been pretty busy the last few days and have been digging deep into the research for this kit. As you can see in steps 5 and 6, some modifications need to be made to the exhausts and the jack.



First up are the exhausts. The grooves in the pipes needed to be filled and the excess plastic on the back needed to be removed. The modifications are necessary to remove anything relating to the plastic brackets in order to use the the photo etch brackets provided in the kit and to get them to fit properly. I carefully trimmed off the plastic on the backs, then filled the groove with squadron white putty.











Then came the jack modifications. I carefully cut away the plastic brackets using a #11 blade, then carefully sanded everything smooth.









The drive sprockets look great, as do the idlers. There are two different sprocket caps included in the kit. The more recessed cap appears on earlier variants of the Panther Ausf. D. Be sure to check your references carefully to be sure you're using the correct cap for the vehicle you're modeling. The vehicle I'm modeling features the later sprocket cap with the weld seam going around it.

Very Cool, Build so far, appreciate the tips for building this vehicle...

I may look like alot of progress but what you have done so far looks really great!

JD

Thanks guys. I actually have a bit more progress made on the Panther, but the above is all I had time to document. Very busy weekend with yardwork, sprinkler repairs and what not.

So far I'm really enjoying the kit. I should have another "meaty" update in the next day or two. Thanks for your interest!

I know what you mean as I spent a few hours putting in the vegetable garden. Could not get the tiller running so I did it with a pitch fork Still found a little time to model though Looking forward to more updates Bob

Looks great. This is a very informative build blog. I will steal some of your tips and tricks and use them for my own Dragon Panther D w. zimmerit.

Looking forward to see more

Man oh man, the last couple of months were insanely busy for me. Up until yesterday I hadn't touched anything on my work bench in over a month!

Well, I finally managed to spend a few hours on my work bench yesterday while watching the Olympics. This work session was all about the exhausts, PE exhaust brackets and the modifications necessary to accommodate the PE parts.

As you can see in the 2nd and 3rd photos the plastic bolts and attachment points are directly in the way of the PE bracket mounts. This is not mentioned in the directions, so another ding on Dragon for less than complete instructions. They will need to be removed and the attachment holes for the plastic brackets filled before attaching the PE.











I carefully filed away the raised detail using the flat side of a needle file. Once the surface was almost flat I switched out to a medium then a fine sanding stick.





I filled the attachment guide holes with small little pegs made from stretched sprue. These were then carefully sanded down using sanding sticks.









Here is a shot of the "test fit" of the PE brackets and the exhausts.





The exausts ends were just shallow cones and didn't look very realistic at all, so I drilled them out using various needle files.





The exhaust brackets were super glued in place.





Then the exhausts were attached to the rear hull plate.







There are two more small PE exhaust brackets that need to be curved, bended then put in place to clamp the exhausts to the exhaust bracket mount which I plan to take care of during my next build session.

Scott this build is looking great so far. Can you make this one a feature when you are done, I would really like to read upon this one later. Also can you link me to photos of the Stug and Tiger from this unit so I can compare?

Also if you can give me feedback on my build the Tiger 111 from Leningrad I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Thanks!

I was eventually planning on having this be a feature article, that's why I'm photo-documenting each little step along the way.

If you're referring to my Das Reich Tiger you can see photos of it here:
Das Reich Tiger Photo Feature

I'm not happy with the pictures of my Das Reich StuG III Ausf. G, so I'm going to retake them under different lighting conditions. However, you can see the original photos of it here:

Das Reich StuG III Ausf. G

Scott-- beautiful build, full of useful information.
Many thanks
DJ

Good to see you back at it, Scott! Hopefully you'll have some more time to relax, and continue this great build.

You're filling and sanding is very impressive, what type of sanding sticks do you use? Thanks for sharing the build.

Yes, I hit the same problem with the exhaust attachement. I am a bit further ahead through the build than you and have been generally disappointed with just how vague the instructions are in places. The etched jack mount, for example, has a paralexed instuction diagram so exact positioning requires recourse to alternative plan views - which I havent yet been able to source. Will be interested to see how you approach this and the base jigs for the tool brackets.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. Here is some information that will hopefully be useful to you.

The following 4 scans are from the excellent Panzer Tracts book 5-1 Panzerkampfwagen “Panther” Ausführung D created by Thomas L. Jentz and Hilary L Doyle. I recently reviewed this excellent reference which you can read about here if you're interested. It is a great resource for the kind of information you're looking for.






As you can see, the jack brackets attach to the bolts which secure the exhausts to the rear plate. Because the attachment points are pre-molded, it looks like we'll need to slice off the two bolts on each attachment point, file down the plastic, attach the PE bracket, then re-attach the bolts. It is going to be tricky now matter how you look at it.

Bingo! Thanks for that. I have finished my build now - minus the jack mounts. Frustration levels diminished once all the PE was finished.

After I got the jack brackets assembled yesterday afternoon I did some test fitting etc. I think what I'm going to do is shorten the part of the bracket that attaches to the plastic attachment point so that I can glue it behind the tab. There is a pocket of space there so if I glue it to the back of the tab, the rest of the bracket will fold forward and for all intents and purposes the PE parts will be roughly flush with the plastic part. That should put everything in the right place and the jack will prevent you from seeing that little "shortcut". Make sense?

Maybe its just me, but shouldn't the bracket for the exhaust stacks go around the outside of the stacks? I was looking at the photos you posted for the placement of the jack brackets and I thought it looked as if the exhaust bracket wrapped over the outside surface of the stacks. You have it wrapped around the backside. Or maybe I'm just messed up.

OK, I just went back and read the line under the last photo of your kit. Yes indeed I am messed up.

heh heh heh, ya I haven't put the outer one on yet. I was debating whether to put it on now, or do it later to make painting and weathering the exhausts a bit easier.

just ordered it from hlj plus the pe set from aber.
will be following you build closely

Hello gentlemen, this project has been languishing on my staging table for a while so I decided to get back to work on it and won't stop until it is finished.

I decided to go with the optional PE chain parts for the gun travel lock. You can model yours with the gun in the gun travel lock and in the closed position, or stowed in the open position which I have chosen to do. The PE chain is comprised of 6 layers that get sandwiched together. Then simply cut off the plastic chain on the gun travel lock and install the replacement PE parts.









I opted to use the PE parts for the engine filter. There are 4 layers which get sandwiched together, two rings on the bottom, a ring with a mesh screen in the middle, then the top ring with the bolt detail on top. The plastic part is solid., so as you can see from the photos the PE option looks much better and the mesh can be seen through. I recently switched from using CA glue to Gator glue. I find the Gator glue so much easier and less messy to work with than CA glue and it's much more forgiving.










The turret assembly is pretty straight forward. The gun mantlet assembly is engineered to allow the gun barrel to raise and lower in elevation. There are two "home plate" shaped parts that you have to carefully hold with the hinge pin slotted in the mittle, then just apply the glue to the outer sides of the two parts and slide the whole assembly into the front mantlet.

















There are metal tow hooks which get locked into place using the plastic pins. So far I have elected to leave off much of the delicate detail parts such as the tool racks to minimize the chance of damaging the parts while handling the hull as the larger pieces and assemblies are attached. Once all the major assemblies are complete I will get to work on the fun PE details.

WOW ..This is a blast from the past...Just noticed you forgot to remove the round mold marks on the hatch covers for placing the handles on a panther A. Glad to see you back at this one ...I'll be watching!

Rick

Good catch Rick, the instructions make no mention of needing to remove them and I missed that detail after having restarted this project. Thanks amigo!

Wow! That comparison pic of the air filter is really telling - That PE really adds a lot.

Any chance of the build being finished/continued ?

I really liked this one and there where promises made