Tamed Panther: “Cuckoo”

[Edbert]

Good advice, I'd have lifted the tool while keeping the large part flat on the bench. I do think your way is better, less stress or reliance on the clamping ability.

 

[Jakko]

Doing that is how I ended up figuring out that it's easier to press down for folds like this

On to the front mudguards. I didn't see myself making these with my limited skills, but luckily, my father was taught metalworking in school long ago, and still enjoys making things from it. A while after I handed him the mudguards I sawed off the model and the aluminium sheet I used for the side skirt rails, he gave me back two copies of them in aluminium All I then had to do was cut them to size, dent them, and add strengthening ribs and rivets …



The ribs are 0.5 mm plastic strip that I scraped down on one side to make (more or less) half-round rod, while I made the rivets with a punch and die set. The headlight is from the kit, set on a piece of plastic card glued under the opening I cut in the left mudguard (to match the real tank). I did have to bend and slightly shorten the power cable, because as moulded it doesn't match the real Panther G.

 

[Jakko]

With the mudguards added, I can start working on the tool racks on the sides:



They're not yet done, because I didn't feel like making those little clamps tonight anymore, the ones that German armour modellers all seem to think are so important to add With this kit, you get all of the tools and racks in both plastic and etched brass, but oddly, the bits of tube are not supplied for adding to the etched parts. I made them from 1 mm plastic rod for the upper ones (that the tow cable hooks onto when stowed), and 1.5 mm aluminium tube for the lower ones (for the tow shackle) — but the latter only on the right, because Cuckoo didn't have them on the left. Don't ask me why they're missing, but I can't see them in photographs. What's more, Dragon made two small mistakes with these tubes: the upper one on the plastic part is too long, the lower ones are too thin. For some other details Dragon missed, I used plastic strip.

I know all of this because I have these:



And this is how those tool clasps work:



(Photos of the Panther G at Bovington, taken by me in the autumn of 2000. Never throw anything away )

 

[Jakko]

Thanks

 

[Jakko]

Now that I've finished building my old-school Tamiya Panzer II and Piranha PWI, I can finally continue with Cuckoo.

On the left side of the turret, a piece of Zimmerit had come off on the real tank. To replicate that accurately, I made a template much like for the hull front, again by tracing over a photograph and printing it out at 1:35 scale. By cutting it out, placing it over the turret side and dabbing paint through it with a brush, I transferred the shape to the model easily enough:



Then I just used a sharp knife to cut around the outside of the damaged patch, and then removed the bit inside that cut:



Over the last few days, I've been cleaning up links from a set of Rye Field Model Panther tracks. The Dragon kit I'm using for Cuckoo does have separate links, but they're the kind you have to glue, and I'm not a fan of those, so I bought a set of workable ones instead. The links of this are attached in pairs to a bit of sprue, which is easy and simple to remove. Unfortunately, though, there is also an ejector pin mark between the guide teeth and mould seams on either side of them because the teeth are moulded hollow (another advantage compared to Dragon's tracks).

Here at the front a link that hasn't been cleaned up, and at the rear, one on which I've filed down the seams etc.:



In this box, the links at the front haven't been cleaned up yet, those at the rear have been:



Not the greatest job to be doing, but I've had tracks that needed a lot more work. Once I had cleaned all of them up, I put six links together to see how that goes. The pins are in sets of five on bits of sprue, so you can insert those all at once if you put the links in the jig you can also see in the picture.



As always, it takes a while to find the best way to build them. One thing I'm disappointed in, is that the pins don't seem to want to stay in by themselves but need a tiny dab of glue. I don't much like that, but what can you do? At least they fit well on the Dragon drive sprockets:



One thing to note is that there are two sets of pins: Nos. 14 and 15, and one of the two goes on the inside and the other on the outside of the track — so they're not the same on both sides of the tank! At first sight there doesn't seem to be any difference between the pins, but there is:



The heads on Nos. 14 are flatter than on Nos. 15, so you need to pay attention which ones you put where.

 

[Belugawrx]

O
M
G

You military builders are of another breed...lol

 

[BarleyBop]

You military builders are of another breed

Hmmm, might that be something of a 'back-handed' compliment?

 

[Edbert]

Hmmm, might that be something of a 'back-handed' compliment?

I think it was front, back, and both sides a handed compliment.

 

[Jakko]

I'm just trying to make a reasonably accurate model of a real tank