Thanks Robert,

And still more details to come when I get the superstructure and spade on it lol. I'll be adding personal gear and tools as I go.

Beautiful piece of heavy equipment! Well done!

Hi guys,

Nothing big to post...have the road wheels with chipping on the rubber ready to go for paint.

Hello again guys,

Well I managed to get some more "quiet" time again this evening. I was able to get the suspension arms glued in place. TMD supplies you with a simple jig to put on the bottom of the hull to give the slight nose up look the Bergpanther has. Without the turret they "rode" high......I added a piece of thin plastic stock to give it a little more nose up.....

Hello all,

Well a little more work done. Being that the panther doesn't use the rear storage bins....I had to distress the surrounding zimmerit. I also removed zimmerit from around the hull.

Darn, did not know about the nose up posissioning. The old Italeri kit of course does not tell you such things!

Ya TMD mention it in the instructions. I'm guessing the Italeri kit was based off of their regular panther kit

Morning guys,

Sorry I haven't posted as of late. Been away from home. But I'm back and itching to get some work done. I will get back to posting as I get things done!

Cheers
Chris

The start of the chipping and weathering process of the road wheels......



I have started with painting everything silver then clear coating. Next will come the chipping fluid...then primer red.

Don't keep me waiting too long brother. This is one of my "go to" build logs.
J

Ditto. "You're being watched!"

LOL Thanks guys! Don't worry..getting on "track" again!

Doing practice on a scrap hull. The one thing thats nice about the chipping fluid is it leave some edges raised....will be spraying a clear coat again to protect the primer colour...then chipping fluid and then the Dark yellow. If it works out then I will be doing on the road wheels and drive sprockets....

I just bought a bottle of chipping fluid so I'm curious how this turns out.

Ok....so here if the final result....I think I will be going this way on the road wheels and drive sprockets and idlers....

Well guys...bad news...my compressor crapped out on me...so I will be down for a bit till I can get a replacement...

One very minor detail: Now that the armored cover over the driver and co-driver has been removed there was a small drip strip welded vertically to the edge of this opening to keep surface water on the top armor from running down into the cab area. A little Evergreen strip with take care of this detail and it adds a small 3D affect to this area.

Hello Michael,

Yup I noticed that. It isn't on the TMD kit...but I think I will be adding it

Hi, chris.

The torsion bar swing arms look like they hang down a little lower than normal. Are you giving your model workable suspension? Or do bergepanthers sit higher off the ground than normal panthers because of the loss of turret weight?

Hi Chuck4,

Yes due the turret being removed the tank sat a little higher. The conversion gives you a guide to set the angle for the torsion bars. I put a thin piece of stock plastic to give it a little more height....not much though...don't want to over due it lol.

Hi guys,

Just to let you all know I will be getting my new compressor set up this coming week....so I will be back up and running so on the painting!

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up. I am interested in what happens with your chipping as it looks quite good.
J

Hi Jerry,

Thanks. I will be posting pics when I can. In the mean time I have been working on the spade and mounts....

You said this conversion set is kind of pricey but it really looks like it's worth the money. On another note,it doesn't look like it took a lot of work for the factory to change a standard hull into the berge. Remove or never install the turret,then drill out and tap various mounting holes and weld a few mounts inside for the winch. Not really that much work as far as I can see.
J

Ya I'm thinking it was pretty straight forward. The price is well worth it. I was pretty lucky to get mine from a collection just over half the price.

Now for some more pics....got a little more done this afternoon......