Tamed Panther: “Cuckoo”

[GCB]

In fact, I started building models a few years ago... and did planes and a few armored vehicle. Then made some dioramas to show them, but building something which has a real history is quite appealing. As said, will look into it.

 

[BarleyBop]

building a model of a real vehicle

... 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]

You obviously know quite a lot..... Bravo

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.

building something which has a real history is quite appealing. As said, will look into it.

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

If I'm successful, I think that reason to care is passed on to the viewer, adding human interest and relevance. A story.

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

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.

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]

You ain't wastin no time Ruckin on this one, excellent, Jakko!

You obviously know quite a lot..... Bravo

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]

You ain't wastin no time Ruckin on this one, excellent, Jakko!

I wish I had a bit of a setback with the model, explained below.

Ya, ya kinda gotta have your ducks lined up if you go against what Jakko says.

Thanks for the praise, though I'm far from infallible — especially if I rely on my memory instead of looking things up …

Ok, Jakko, I'll be expecting that check in the mail, any day now.

Lucky escape for me there, then

---

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:

 

[Edbert]

You obviously know quite a lot..... Bravo

Jakko is one of our best, that is for sure.

 

[Steve Ski]

Lucky escape for me there, then

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]

you could have used artistic license and let it go at that

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

 

[BarleyBop]

the particulars of the individual

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.

 

[Jakko]

I think that's a good analogy, yes.