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Armor/AFV: Axis - WWII
Armor and ground forces of the Axis forces during World War II.
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Rye Field Models Cutaway Panther G
ColinEdm
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Posted: Saturday, January 26, 2019 - 11:27 AM UTC
After taking a look inside the box here:
Rye Field Cutaway Panther G
it is now time to do a build blog on this bad boy! After getting my nerve up I dove in. In a break from seemingly normal tank building convention, RFM has you start construction with the main gun, and not the usual running gear. the amount of detail present is impressive, with the 75mm breech alone taking 11 pieces.


The width of the breech block did need to get shaved down a bit for a good fit, and there was a sink hole present that I missed when I did the in-box review:

and it might be better to leave pieces A26,53,65 & 96 off of A7 until you have the two halves of the breech together around the gun barrel, less chance of damage. A little bit of filling os required on the breech as usual.

By trimming off a small piece on the breech block as shown you can show the gun with an open breech as well.
Next are the coax MG and gunners sight:

You can build the gun using the included spring and have a gun that will "recoil" but I chose not to use this and put in the blanking piece A35 instead. The gun can also be built with the travel lock locked or unlocked.


Silantra
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Posted: Monday, January 28, 2019 - 07:35 PM UTC
Hi Colin,
Looking good... it just happened that i just got this kit as a gift last week... the number of part just magnificent..
I will follow this thread as inspiration for me to start build mine.. keep it up bro...and good luck


Zaidi
ColinEdm
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Posted: Monday, February 04, 2019 - 03:45 PM UTC
Thanks Zaidi. It feels like I have done a lot more work than what is showing...lots of fiddly little bits. Continued of with the main gun, completed and painted.




I did try to do some hairspray chipping but the paint seemed to crinkle up on me too much. I am using Mission Models paints, I love how they spray and the colours seem good but not sure if they are good for the hairspray technique. You can also see the poly caps for the gun trunnions, these will allow the gun to elevate and depress and hold position. The inner mantlet came together next with a PE frame that needs some careful shaping and assembly but fit in very nicely.


Then the gun is fit in, this took a bit of finagling as the poly caps are a very snug fit and tended to distort. The trunnion covers A73 & 74 were also very snug and had to be clamped in until the glue dried to prevent them from squeezing back out.



Now that the gun and mantlet is together, on to the rest of the turret, which has some nice rolled plate texture to it:

The first step is the external details such as camo loops, ventilation cover, various brackets, lifting lugs, etc and then onto the commanders cupola, which is a significant assembly in itself, consisting of 37 pieces plus the MG34. The vision blocks are molded in clear plastic and have PE handles:

The armoured covers for the vision blocks have some nice weld detail (which I initially mistook for flash!):

and everything comes together nice and snug:


That's it for now, next the interior of the turret.
Silantra
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Posted: Friday, February 08, 2019 - 10:37 PM UTC
OMG....seeing is believing!
the small details of the periscope will scare me....

thanks for sharing your build once again.......... i still waiting for a few project to complete before (maybe) starting up this kit...


Zaidi
ColinEdm
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Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 12:31 PM UTC
Thanks again Zaidi! You`re just south of KL aren`t you? Been in that area a few times, my wife is from Malaysia and we go back every once in a while to visit the relatives, beautiful country and great food! Especially love Kuching Laksa. Anyway, back to the build! Work continues on the turret, we have some teeny tiny interior lights, I really only needed to do one as two of them are on the part of the turret that is cut away:

Outside and inside turret details:


The rear escape hatch can be posed open or closed, or if done carefully, it is workable. Onto the turret basket, the amount of detail is impressive, and I am very grateful for my magnifying lamp. Some lead wire is provided for some of the tubing requirements and they give detailed dimensions for shaping it. Just be careful with all the delicate little parts!







The level of fit is also very impressive, seams disappear and some pieces click in so nicely it almoste seems no glue is needed. Going to be a bear to paint, left a few pieces off to make it a bit easier. Maybe someone can chime in with what all these bits and bobs are for, I assume it is mainly gun laying drive and hydraulics. Onto the turret ring and traverse mechanism:



I must say that Rye Field Model has done a great job on this so far, as mentioned the level of detail and fit is great, and casting is very good as well, only some very minor flash and minimal seams lines, and just a few ejector pin marks that will be visible and need cleaning up. I just find I can't work on it for extended periods as my eyes can't take it lol.
Pongo_Arm
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Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 02:19 PM UTC
more!
DrChopp
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Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 03:18 PM UTC
Really loving this build! Ive got this intimidating beast in the stash, and seeing you tackle it is inspiring!
Silantra
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Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 05:32 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Thanks again Zaidi! You`re just south of KL aren`t you? Been in that area a few times, my wife is from Malaysia and we go back every once in a while to visit the relatives, beautiful country and great food! Especially love Kuching Laksa.


Me just live very near to KLIA... next time u come here pls drop me a private message... maybe we can have a drink....

BTW, the build is progressing great..thanks for sharing and great to know the fitting is ok... i never build RFM kit before..and wow those details really amazing......scary but tempting

keep the build alive......


Zaidi
Dioramartin
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Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 12:30 AM UTC
Great job Colin, first time I’ve seen an RFM kit in action & I’m impressed so far. One word: Optivisor
U-mark
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Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 01:08 AM UTC
Colin, I'll be following your blog with interest. In fact my RFM kit has been saying; "build me" for a while now. I think it's time. One thing I do know about the kit is the fit of the photo etch framing in the hull is a little off and will need some care when building. The parts that run across the hull are just a little too long. One thing to consider when painting the interior is the fact that in September of 44' the factories were ordered to paint the interior entirely in red oxide. In january of 45' that order was amended to paint just the upper turret cream white. The Germans were running out of paint by this time. Good Luck
ColinEdm
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Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 02:54 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Great job Colin, first time I’ve seen an RFM kit in action & I’m impressed so far. One word: Optivisor


Yes, I have a, magnifying lamp that is a life (eye?) saver!
ColinEdm
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Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 02:57 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Colin, I'll be following your blog with interest. In fact my RFM kit has been saying; "build me" for a while now. I think it's time. One thing I do know about the kit is the fit of the photo etch framing in the hull is a little off and will need some care when building. The parts that run across the hull are just a little too long. One thing to consider when painting the interior is the fact that in September of 44' the factories were ordered to paint the interior entirely in red oxide. In january of 45' that order was amended to paint just the upper turret cream white. The Germans were running out of paint by this time. Good Luck


Thanks for the tip on the parts fitment Mark, I will keep that in mind! I have been re searching interior paint colours and had pretty much reached the same conclusion as you.
ColinEdm
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Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 06:06 PM UTC
Got the turret ring and basket painted up and put together. One tip is to leave the traverse mechanism assemblies in step 18 separate for painting and for the mating of the basket to the turret ring/base, it will makes things a lot easier.






Also painted the inside of the turret and cupola, just about ready to put it all together.

Sleepwalker71
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Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 07:07 PM UTC
Very nice work. Indeed without a cutaway, it would have no sense.
ColinEdm
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Posted: Monday, February 18, 2019 - 02:45 PM UTC
Thanks! Got the basket mated up to the turret, a little fiddling required to get things properly aligned, but in the end even the elevation gears on the gun and motor aligned!





Now onto the hull!
ColinEdm
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Posted: Sunday, February 24, 2019 - 04:56 AM UTC
Started on the upper hull, first step is the front plate and kugelblende, no major drama fitting it up, just a couple of minor issues. One is that there is a gap visible along the length of the front armour plate along the top of the hull, easily remedied with some stretched sprue and extra thin cement to add to the weld bead. Next, the detail on the torch cut marks for the front plate seemed a bit washed out so a bit of scribing was called for. Last, some filling and sanding is needed along the front plate cut line to get a nice smooth cut. All in all, very simple fixes to minor issues.

Next, the transmission access plate and crew hatch are assembled.


Next the hull machine gun, radios and gyrocompass are all assembled and painted.

and installed in the hull along with the drivers periscope and grab handles:




The the gun travel lock and other sundry details for the hull front are added:


ColinEdm
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Posted: Friday, March 01, 2019 - 10:06 AM UTC
Worked on the engine deck access hatches, doing a Panther with the crew compartment heating unit. The pieces all come together quite nicely and the hatches fit snugly. They are just friction fit for now, I will leave them removable for display.

Skipping a couple of steps that involve small hull pieces that I know I will break off if I do them now, I'm moving on the the lower hull where the bulk of the work will be. The hull tub comes in 3 pieces, and I substituted the cutaway hull side.

It fits up nicely using the rear plate and firewall to line things up:

Although there is some interference I didn't catch on the cutaway side, resulting in some small gaps that I filled with stretched sprue.


Then it is onto the torsion bar suspension components,

Then PE transvers braces/supports, a couple of these were very tight as U-mark indicated and necessitated removal of the locating tabs and minor trimming of the transverse length to get them to fit without bending.

With the rear plate in place showing how nice the fit is.

Then I assembled all the torsion bars, they are just friction fit for now to make sure everything fits, I will remove them for painting.

Then the longitudinal brace/support assembly:

A couple of plastic pieces needed a tiny trim to get this to fit in, probably due to me not locating one or two in exactly the correct place.

And a closeup shot showing how nice and snugly things slot together. RFM did a really nice job on this all things considered.

Silantra
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Posted: Sunday, March 03, 2019 - 06:51 PM UTC
very nice...........
spongya
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Posted: Sunday, March 03, 2019 - 11:28 PM UTC
Yeah, about the bottom of the hull.. How are you planning to do that? I decided on painting the parts separately, THEN assemble, because I could not see how I could paint the torsion bars after I finished with assembly. I wonder if I made a mistake...
ColinEdm
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Posted: Monday, March 04, 2019 - 04:40 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Yeah, about the bottom of the hull.. How are you planning to do that? I decided on painting the parts separately, THEN assemble, because I could not see how I could paint the torsion bars after I finished with assembly. I wonder if I made a mistake...


2/3 of them are just friction fit for now, I will remove for painting, the remainder have a fair bit of room between them so I figured I'll be able to get my brush in there. It's still gonna be a challenge I think, and will test both the steadiness of my hands and my patience!
spongya
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Posted: Monday, March 04, 2019 - 09:20 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Yeah, about the bottom of the hull.. How are you planning to do that? I decided on painting the parts separately, THEN assemble, because I could not see how I could paint the torsion bars after I finished with assembly. I wonder if I made a mistake...


2/3 of them are just friction fit for now, I will remove for painting, the remainder have a fair bit of room between them so I figured I'll be able to get my brush in there. It's still gonna be a challenge I think, and will test both the steadiness of my hands and my patience!



That makes sense. This weekend I had some time (hard to find with a 9 week old baby), and did some painting and assembly. I found that the parts 21/20 torsion bars are actually longer than the width of the hull; if I put them in they bend.


Did you find a similar issue with yours?
ColinEdm
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Posted: Tuesday, March 05, 2019 - 03:40 PM UTC
No, mine seem to be pretty straight as far as I can tell:

...and I won't say that painting those torsion bars in place was a better solution...but I do hate painting a bunch of little bits!
d111298pw
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Posted: Tuesday, March 05, 2019 - 05:11 PM UTC
Paint job looks great
funster63
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Posted: Saturday, March 16, 2019 - 09:33 AM UTC
Great job i have just got this model and following your build to see how it should be done properly.... keep it up and post more pics and explanations
ColinEdm
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Posted: Saturday, March 16, 2019 - 02:57 PM UTC
Thanks guys! An overdue update now, been tied up with painting and decalling the 75mm rounds - each one has 3 tiny decals so to preserve my sanity I am only putting on the ones that are going to be visible.


Also started on the transmission and drivers controls. The amount of detail is, again, very impressive, but the sheer number of pieces can make assembly a little difficult at times. The lower drivers foot pedal assembly alone is 22 pieces!

the number of small pieces to put together makes it difficult to keep straight and aligned. I would suggest keeping the 3 subassemblies separate until it is time to attach to the transmission. I ended up cutting mine apart to get it aligned correctly. The transmission assembly is a work of art with detail that would not be out of place in a 1/16 scale kit. 64 pieces later:



And test fitting into the hull, a tight fit

more detail...

Hopefully have it all painted and installed in the hull shortly.
 _GOTOTOP