Here Kitty Kitty - Meng Panther A

[mostrich]

By following Stik's Leopard build report, I felt an urgend need to build some nice and high quality armor for myself. In a wise sense I ordered Meng's super tasty Panther kit along with the movable tracks and the matching Zimmerit decals.







Now I show you the result of a weekend's work. Fit is nearly perfect, no flash, ejector pin marks only in negligible places. Simply a joy to build. The tracks set is a own kit with incredible smart engineering. The torsion bars are made of stpring steel and fully workable. For each kind of wheels there is a matching swing arm, this resulted into a pretty complex part management on my work bench. Had to crack loose three fixations by desroying one of them. Luckily there are some spare parts in the box.



Details on the rear are stunning. Cast structure on the exhausts' looking great.



The cooling system for the engine with its cooling fans got a sloppy coat of black paint done with a brush. They won't be seen once the pe mesh is installed, but just to be sure.



It's been a blast so far and I'm still working on the upper hull while watching MotoGP.

Torben

[speedgraflex]

Torben!



Good gravy! Your work is just amazing—and your photography is just about perfect! The thin black border around each image is such a nice touch—you create a beautiful frame within a frame that way! I have been experimenting with visual notations as well, but your work just s i n g s so nicely. I want to be able to write more about your choice of subject but John Snow knows nothin' about armor, so this will be a wunnerful learning experience.

[Stikpusher]

That looks like a very sweet kit! I’ll definitely been following this one!

[mostrich]

No soda. No ice. Just straight track links.


Building the tracks from the Meng Set SPS-049 is very time-consuming. As much as I liked the idea of the spring steel torsion bars, I hate the fact that to every track link two sprockets have to be glued on. For 2 tracks that consists of 87 links each there are 348 sprockets to be cut off their sprues, cleaned up and glued.
Here is the first strip of 27 links. Cost me about 70 minutes. I hope I'll be getting faster...



During his build Andy Moore from themodellingnews mentioned, that the torsion bars are too stiff to react realisticly to the models weight. So I looked for a piece of scrap metal at work to give my Panther the roadability that it deserves. And I was lucky: the part I've found is nearly drop-fit, I only had to sand away about 0.5 mm of material on the stiffeners. Eyeball Mk.I can be a trusty tool sometimes.



Torben

[speedgraflex]

Nice shots, Torben! Great progress!

[Thomas_M]

Had a look at this epic start early this day. Only, the pictures don´t load for me, as well as this thread takes rather long to be shown. Maybe the fantastic Net speed thanks to Deutsche Telekom...

I share your passion for the Panther! Got myself the Rye Field Model kit: superbly!!! Had seen this kit being build by a chap while on Wangerooge, then Terry Ashly did a fantastic review. No more stop buying it for me...

[mostrich]

Thomas, welcome to the Panther hype!
Bruce, always a pleasure to entertain you.

Again a week vanished, but It's been a busy week. All those Zimmerit Decals found their way on the Panther and my impressions are kinda mixed:

• Fit: Perfect. Even the complex formed decals fit with zero space between all edges to the kit parts.
• Thickness: Right to scale I'd say. They're pretty thin.
• Adhesion: Poor. Even on plain surfaces they tend to loosen in broad areas. I had to use thin super glue on all of them. So why providing them as water slide decals? Makes no sense to me.

Anyway, stuff is where it belongs and I took some pictures of it:




One track is done. On to the second...

[speedgraflex]

Torben, beautiful progress and photos... I do feel I must echo Thomas; I have to wait a long time for your thread to load and to respond to your thread. I thought it was simply AT&T mobile latency with “Photoplastics” of Germany. I also have this problem accessing Duke’s photos.

[Stikpusher]

Torben, beautiful progress and photos... I do feel I must echo Thomas; I have to wait a long time for your thread to load and to respond to your thread. I thought it was simply AT&T mobile latency with “Photoplastics” of Germany. I also have this problem accessing Duke’s photos.

on both parts....

[mostrich]

Thanks for your feedback, Gentleman!

Last night I spent some time playing around with smaller bits (funny saying in our hobby).
Stubborn Zimmerit was restrained by TET, a few hastly made holes in the hull got filled, and the tool holdings got their hexagonal bolt heads. For the latter task you had to cut the bolt heads from a sprue runner. A fresh and sharp blade is highly recommended! The reason why Meng didn't put them directly onto the holdings is the shape of the parts. The upper flaps deviate for around 30° and so slide mold technique would've been needed to put both the bolt heads and the brackets onto one part.


The tools also found their way on the hull. Splints were added just for shits and giggles.


I opted for a Sd.Kfz.268, a so called Panzerbefehlswagen. Those had an extra 20 watt VHF radio system (FuG 7) that allowed the commander to get in contact with the Luftwaffe and to order air support if needed. The only visible difference to a standard Panther A was an additional antenna on the turret and a plug in the hole for the removed coaxial MG. The plug is a simple styrene rod affair.


Now it's time for some primer.
Torben