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... when it comes to softskin vehicles, in many cases there were literally tens of thousands and more, for example the CMP60 variants, over 200,000 built in Canada alone.
I find that drilling in on a particular theater, operation, unit and sometimes individual, gives me even more reasons to care about a build... beyond the technical details and difficulty of assembly, which are in themselves very real factors affecting the enjoyment of a build.
If I'm successful, I think that reason to care is passed on to the viewer, adding human interest and relevance. A story.
I applaud your attention to those details, often answers to questions you must be asking yourself: Why? What? Where? When? Then the inevitable 'How' to answer those questions in your rendition of that particular vehicle.
Jakko
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I've just read a reasonable amount about Panthers and own two good books¹ and a couple of decent ones on it
However, I do know more than a little (and a lot more than most) about armoured vehicles in general, which helps a great deal in researching vehicles I'm not that knowledgeable about. Also a great aid is asking questions on sites like Missing-Lynx, where a lot of the real experts about many different tanks etc. hang out.My advice would be to give it a go. You have nothing to lose, really: if it doesn't work out, you can always just call it a generic example of the vehicle
I wouldn't go that for for the things I've built from photos, but I do like to show pictures of the real thing along with the model, which will help people make up their own story
Sometimes, though, you just have to say: "I don't know what this is or what it's for, but «this» is what I see in photos, so I'll just build something that looks like it." And then, chances are that later, you will discover you got it totally wrong
¹ Spielberger's Der Panzer-Kampfwagen Panther und seine Abarten and Culver & Feist's Panzerkampfwagen Panther.
Steve Ski
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You ain't wastin no time Ruckin on this one, excellent, Jakko!
Ok, Jakko, I'll be expecting that check in the mail, any day now.
Ya, ya kinda gotta have your ducks lined up if you go against what Jakko says. No, he's not God, but he does his research. He might seem a little over the top at times, but it's the knowledge he carries in how to find the answers is what is beneficial to the subject matter at hand. He's corrected me a few times, actually very helpful. I mess with him from time to time, but he's a fine chap!
Ok, Jakko, I'll be expecting that check in the mail, any day now.
Jakko
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I wish
I had a bit of a setback with the model, explained below.Thanks for the praise, though I'm far from infallible — especially if I rely on my memory instead of looking things up …
Lucky escape for me there, thenOk, Jakko, I'll be expecting that check in the mail, any day now.
As for the setback …
On Missing-Lynx, Tom Houman mentioned earlier tonight that an article in Trucks and Tracks says Cuckoo's loader's hatch was stuck in the open position … I glued it shut a few days ago, largely because I didn't feel like adding all kinds of stuff inside the turret that would be visible if it's open. And because I hardly ever just tack parts in place, it didn't want to budge at all anymore
Time for rigorous solutions:
Drill hole, put jigsaw through and saw carefully, taking care to stay within the lines on the inside:
That's the easy part done. I then took a sharp knife and a half-round file to enlarge the opening to the diameter on the inside, because on the real Panther (and the model), the opening has a bevelled edge. But trying to add that in one step us asking for trouble.
After that, I used three different shapes of blade (pointy, rounded and chisel) to remove the
remaining part of the hatch on the outside:
That's was mostly a matter of finding the right depth, where the layer of glue is. Once the outer part was gone, I had to try and restore the bevelled edge , which luckily went fairly easily because of that same glue layer:
This because once I had located it, I could simply follow it to get the last remains of the hatch out. I did feel a bit like an archaeologist, though, having to find and follow specific layers of material
The edge still needs to be cleaned up a bit, but after half an hour of work (plus the time needed to decide that pressing or punching the hatch out wasn't going to work) I had had enough for today Now all I need to do is make a new hatch, but luckily, Spielberger comes to the rescue there with Der Panzer-Kampfwagen Panther und seine Abarten:
Steve Ski
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Ok, gonna let you slide this time,..............................
You know, you could have used artistic license and let it go at that. I wouldn't have balked.
Jakko
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I could, but then it would not have been a replica of Cuckoo that's as accurate as I can make it
With which I mean the details of this particular vehicle — I never really care if every nut and bolt is on, or if things are properly to scale thickness, as long as they look right. But what I do care about with models like this, is that the particulars of the individual tank are represented. The hatch not wanting to close (for some reason that I don't know) is one of those particulars to me
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I get it.
It is like drawing someone's portrait, even if not 100% accurate, you still want to capture the 'big nose' or the dimpled chin that makes that face recognizable.
Steve Ski
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You sound about as anal retentive as me, at times. Understood and appreciated. My Harley and R75, same drive for accuracy. That really is the beauty of this "Sport", being as detailed, or not, as we wish. Ruck On, Bby!The hatch not wanting to close (for some reason that I don't know) is one of those particulars to me
Jakko
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About two weeks have passed since I did any work on this model, but I finally got round to rebuilding the loader's hatch with parts given to me by another modeller (thanks, Rob!).
I first made the outer part of the hatch by punching a 15 mm disc from 0.75 mm plastic card and glueing it to the piece of Zimmerit I had cut from the glacis plate — there was just enough material to do that. I made sure that the lines in the Zimmerit pattern on the hatch match those on the turret, as I would expect them to on the real tank if the hatch is closed. The inner part of the hatch is a 14 mm disc of 0.75 mm card, but with the edges bevelled, and then glued to the outer part with a 13 mm disc of 0.25 mm card between them. In the centre of the outer part of the hatch, I drilled a hole for the lock that the real hatch has.
Some plastic strip on the inside formed the base for the locking mechanism and hinge. The tan parts are the ones that were given to me, and come from an RFM Panther kit, while the grey ones are from my own Dragon kit. This mainly because there were no parts for the hinge that sits inside the turret among the RFM parts I got. I drilled through the hinge bar to glue in some plastic rod to form a hinge pin that fits the Dragon hinge parts, though I needed to glue a plastic card shim in the latter because the RFM bar is slightly thicker than the Dragon equivalent.
It still needs a bit of plastic strip adding to represent the plate that the latch locks into, but it wasn't among the parts I got either, so I've decided to only make it once the hatch is in place.
When all of this had dried, I glued the inner hinge to the turret:
The hatch can still open and close here, because that piece of strip I mentioned still needs to be added.
I also made a new handhold on the turret roof from copper wire, as a replacement for the kit part that went flying from my tweezers and was never seen again.
I first made the outer part of the hatch by punching a 15 mm disc from 0.75 mm plastic card and glueing it to the piece of Zimmerit I had cut from the glacis plate — there was just enough material to do that. I made sure that the lines in the Zimmerit pattern on the hatch match those on the turret, as I would expect them to on the real tank if the hatch is closed. The inner part of the hatch is a 14 mm disc of 0.75 mm card, but with the edges bevelled, and then glued to the outer part with a 13 mm disc of 0.25 mm card between them. In the centre of the outer part of the hatch, I drilled a hole for the lock that the real hatch has.
Some plastic strip on the inside formed the base for the locking mechanism and hinge. The tan parts are the ones that were given to me, and come from an RFM Panther kit, while the grey ones are from my own Dragon kit. This mainly because there were no parts for the hinge that sits inside the turret among the RFM parts I got. I drilled through the hinge bar to glue in some plastic rod to form a hinge pin that fits the Dragon hinge parts, though I needed to glue a plastic card shim in the latter because the RFM bar is slightly thicker than the Dragon equivalent.
It still needs a bit of plastic strip adding to represent the plate that the latch locks into, but it wasn't among the parts I got either, so I've decided to only make it once the hatch is in place.
When all of this had dried, I glued the inner hinge to the turret:
The hatch can still open and close here, because that piece of strip I mentioned still needs to be added.
I also made a new handhold on the turret roof from copper wire, as a replacement for the kit part that went flying from my tweezers and was never seen again.
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Nice! Building and restoring all at the same time!
Jakko
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Tonight, I bit the bullet and finally started on the plates above the fixtures for the side skirts (which, of course, Cuckoo didn't have).
I took a piece of aluminium sheet and replicated one of the Dragon kit parts in it:
On the side skirt mounting bracket on the tank, that the strip will go on top of, I glues 0.5 mm square rod because the real ones are slightly taller, but Dragon's plastic parts are thicker so they compensated by reducing the height of the mountings.
That's one side, now the other I'm not much of a metalworker, so for those readers who also aren't, I'll explain how I made these. First, I placed the kit parts on the aluminium sheet so that I could mark its length and width with the tip of my hobby knife, because that's finer and therefore more precise than a pencil. I only marked the width at the ends, and not over the full length. Next, I cut through the plate over the whole width of the strip, to mark its full length. Don't cut through in one go, but just like plastic card, make several shallow cuts until you get through.
Then, I put the sheet into my Etch Mate, in such a way that the cut is just outside of the tool, and the lines I marked for the width were along the bend line:
Note here that the part that's inside the Etch Mate is the piece of the sheet I need. Also, I'm using the back of the Etch Mate here, rather than its "surface". I then put it on the edge of my work surface and placed a steel ruler over it:
A careful but firm press down on it, rotating the ruler with the sheet (taking care to apply pressure equally), and we have:—
I nicely bent piece of aluminium sheet!
Problem number 2 was how to make a narrow, bent-down lip to it. I don't have any photos of that due to a shortage of hands to take them with, but basically, I put the sheet onto the work surface, bent strip upward, and placed a thinner steel ruler "into" the bend — the ruler horizontally on the surface, but with its thin side rather than flat. That allowed me to run a knife along it, pressing the knife against the ruler while pressing against the upturned aluminium and the ruler with a finger of my other hand. That scratched a line into the aluminium, at a distance of just over the thickness of the ruler away from the bend. Now, don't try to cut through the sheet, but wiggle the aluminium back and forth until metal fatigue causes it to break along the line.
After some more work with a file to clean up the cuts, I could start fitting the strips to the tank, bending them to resemble those on the real thing, and then superglue them into place.
I looked closely at photos of the real Cuckoo for this and tried to replicate what I saw there. What I have is not 100% accurate, but I think it comes fairly close.
A side note to that: I was (almost certainly) going to paint this model in snow camouflage, but that's a no go now. After I had made (but not yet distressed) the left-hand strip, I noticed that Cuckoo at the time of the film shot of it pushing down trees, is entirely missing the strip on the left. When it was photographed near Geijsteren and in Tilburg it still did, so my model will now represent it as it was there instead.
I took a piece of aluminium sheet and replicated one of the Dragon kit parts in it:
On the side skirt mounting bracket on the tank, that the strip will go on top of, I glues 0.5 mm square rod because the real ones are slightly taller, but Dragon's plastic parts are thicker so they compensated by reducing the height of the mountings.
That's one side, now the other
I'm not much of a metalworker, so for those readers who also aren't, I'll explain how I made these. First, I placed the kit parts on the aluminium sheet so that I could mark its length and width with the tip of my hobby knife, because that's finer and therefore more precise than a pencil. I only marked the width at the ends, and not over the full length. Next, I cut through the plate over the whole width of the strip, to mark its full length. Don't cut through in one go, but just like plastic card, make several shallow cuts until you get through.Then, I put the sheet into my Etch Mate, in such a way that the cut is just outside of the tool, and the lines I marked for the width were along the bend line:
Note here that the part that's inside the Etch Mate is the piece of the sheet I need. Also, I'm using the back of the Etch Mate here, rather than its "surface". I then put it on the edge of my work surface and placed a steel ruler over it:
A careful but firm press down on it, rotating the ruler with the sheet (taking care to apply pressure equally), and we have:—
I nicely bent piece of aluminium sheet!
Problem number 2 was how to make a narrow, bent-down lip to it. I don't have any photos of that due to a shortage of hands to take them with, but basically, I put the sheet onto the work surface, bent strip upward, and placed a thinner steel ruler "into" the bend — the ruler horizontally on the surface, but with its thin side rather than flat. That allowed me to run a knife along it, pressing the knife against the ruler while pressing against the upturned aluminium and the ruler with a finger of my other hand. That scratched a line into the aluminium, at a distance of just over the thickness of the ruler away from the bend. Now, don't try to cut through the sheet, but wiggle the aluminium back and forth until metal fatigue causes it to break along the line.
After some more work with a file to clean up the cuts, I could start fitting the strips to the tank, bending them to resemble those on the real thing, and then superglue them into place.
I looked closely at photos of the real Cuckoo for this and tried to replicate what I saw there. What I have is not 100% accurate, but I think it comes fairly close.
A side note to that: I was (almost certainly) going to paint this model in snow camouflage, but that's a no go now. After I had made (but not yet distressed) the left-hand strip, I noticed that Cuckoo at the time of the film shot of it pushing down trees, is entirely missing the strip on the left. When it was photographed near Geijsteren and in Tilburg it still did, so my model will now represent it as it was there instead.
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KingCreole58
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Interesting captured Tiger tank…
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...nice use of the back of PE bending tool, and good advice on gentle scoring.
I was surprised to find similar results on metal tubing, just using a hobby knife to score around a tube without too much pressure, until the wall is thin enough to 'snap' pretty cleanly.
Again, the rigidity relative to thinness of metal sheeting is a big bonus for work at scale compared to styrene.
Good job!
