Hi!

I just finished the building-stage of this Panther A from tamiya (35065). Right now, I've sprayed the basecoat, haven't got pics of that yet.
This is not the best kit, so I had to change quite some little things. The tracks are very bad, so I decided to hide them as much as possible : i scratchbuilded schuerzen, and I'll dirty the tracks up. I drilled out the exhaust pipes, replaced most of the handles, drilled out the pins of the utenzils, sanded down the utenzils, added two pins at the back to attach the tow-cables, accentuated the weld seams, tried to create a welded metal effect on the cannon-drum(?), made the tow-cables myself, and so on.

The idea is to put it in an urban dio, with a completely destroyed house (just some low walls left), accompanied by two infantry-men. There'll be some stowage on the tank. A member of an american anti-tank team will be hidden somewhere near.

All comments welcome!!

Nice build so far! I had the same problems with the supplied tracks on a Tamiya King Tiger i just finished, but it looks like you used the same method to hold them together as the glue dried in your third pic as I did...wrappin wire round it...Question...what method did you use for the tow cables? They look pretty neat and have a uniform twist throughout, nicely done!

Thanks!

The wire indeed is for keeping the tracks close to the wheels while glueing. Works good, no?
The technique for the tow-cables is based on the article by Costas Rodopoulos on this site (features/dioramas). I did it exactly like he proposes, I only didn't use a motorised tool to twist, but I connected the ends of the wires to a pencil (or brush, or something else with this form). I then turned and turned the pencil with my finger. It went incredibely quickly. There where some 'notches' here and there, but the pieces of cable between these were long enough to use. Very fast and cheap, and very realistic.

Looks like you've done a good build, I know this kit has alot of short comings, but it looks like you've made up for them! Good Work!

Sean

Looks good so far, thats a tuff kit to bring up to snuff. you may want to invest in a set of PE screens for the back deck, It will improve the kit alot for very little effort.

Its a very clean build so far...you even scracthbuilt a schuerzen. If you don't mind, one thing I noticed odd is the way the scherzen was done... hooks holding the armor plate are missing...look at pic below



I think, it just needs a minor modification; overall your kit looks very good...keep it up...

Cheers

Yeah, I know bout the hooks, still working on that, but it isn't as easy as I thought

I decided not to use PE-sets on this kit. I'd rather buy them to superdetail an already decent kit, not to camouflage shortcomings on this one. After all, it should be possible to make it look OK with just some scratchbuilded additions. I hope

Florre,

You're taking that kit to somwhere I never could. I opened the box and then put the top back on and tossed it in the trash. :-)

I admire your efforts in turning coal into diamonds.

I have an idea for the screens and you don't need Pe just get some old window screen metal or plastic should be easy to find cut to size and make the frames out of some scrap styrene the smaller the screen holes the better it will look, not as good as PE but it look pretty good.

What do you guys actually mean with the screens at the back deck? Are those the engine-ventilation-rosters?

And what exactly do you mean with 'window screen metal or plastic'? Is it the green stuff used to keep mosquitos and flies out the house?
Thanks

Edit : I had a look at a couple af pics, and it's just the mesh over the rosters you're talking about I just didn't notice it once! I'm going to make those screens right now, easy enough to do.

On the back deck of your Panther there are 2 round and 4 square grilles with some holes used on the tank for air for the engine and cooling system. What i meant by screens is the stuff used to keep the bugs out of your house. If you have an old screen from a repaired door or window that will work it should last for years of modeling. You can also buy some at a hardware store stuff is pretty cheap, give it a try.
The picture i posted here is of a Tamiya Stug 4 but you get the idea, in the picture on the left is the screen i installed the frame around the screen was made with scrap sheet plastic the one on the left has none if you do this i would make the frame on the screen out of one peice of plastic looks better. I hope this helps.

I was lucky, I had a piece of mesh from a SdKfz 223 left, and it was perfect to cut the shapes from. According to my reference pics, the screens on a panther don't have frames? Is that correct? I do hope so, cause they're already firmly glued to the deck

So yesterday evening, by adding the hooks on the schuerzen, the screens and the antenna, the building stage was completely finished. I don't have a digicam with me right now, so no pics of that I'll wait a while for the painting, I'll start putting together the figures and the dio I guess.

So far for building this Panther!

Most of my references are on Tiger tanks but i believe most Panthers had some kind of very thin frame around the screen , it may be hard to see but you can still add them now either way it should look good.