This month we start on the suspension and bogies
The first photo shows my finished Halinski Tiger; as you can see the suspension
has not fared well.
The model called for hollow tubular axles to be butt glued to the suspension
arms and this resulted in a weak joint that has failed. The Halinski
Halftrack used solid rolled paper axles that were mitered into the suspension
arms; this produced a much stronger axle and the suspension on the model has
not sagged like the Tiger's. Since the Panther uses the same construction
method for the suspension system as the Tiger it was decided that a stronger method
had to be devised for the model.
I know that I would definitely use wood dowels for the axles but I also wanted to stiffen up the suspension arms.
My first thought was to replace the paper suspension arms with Basswood.
After a couple of test builds I came to the conclusion that card stock was stiffer then the wood and I would use the card stock for the suspension arms.
The axles were constructed from 1/8-inch wood dowels with a spacer sleeve of 65 lb paper and the original axle part covering the spacer.
The axles were mitered into one side of the suspension arm.
This finished assembly appears to be much stronger than what the original assembly would have been.
The final touch was to cover the exposed white edge of the suspension arms with a printed strip of 65 lb paper.
To my surprise this added strip of paper appears to double or triple the strength of the suspension arm assembly.
Next we assemble the bogie wheels.
Each bogie assembly is composed of 1 tube, 2 cones and 13 circles for a total of 17 parts and I added 3 additional parts to each assembly.
With 16 assemblies that's a total 320 parts just for the bogies.
I can only suggest that you lock yourself in a quiet room with soft music and a bottle of Prozac and start cutting . . . . . and cutting . . . . . cutting.
With all of the parts cut and the edges painted, we can start assembling the bogies.
The first part I added was a plug that would fit in the end of the axle.
The plug gives you a much larger area to butt glue the axle to the bogie disk.
The other part I added to the bogies was a strip of printed 65lb paper that wrapped around the outside edge of the bogie.
This was done to give the bogies a finished look rather then the laminated paper layers.
As you can see, some of the bogies are sagging The reason the bogie wheels
are sagging is because the suspension arms are breaking away from the side of
the hull. I'll have to give this some thought and see if I can come up with
solution. In the close-up of the bogie wheels you can see the excellent
detail and the weathered look of the model.
Now we get to have some fun.
The exhaust stacks that are supplied with the model are not even close to looking like the prototype.
After giving it some thought on how I could model the fins on the interior of the exhaust stack I came up with a fairly easy way to add the necessary detail.
The original exhaust stacks were scanned and using adobe Illustrator; the interior for the stacks were drawn to be printed on the backside of the stacks.
A small disk was drawn to fit inside the stack and a series of fins were drawn and printed.
The fins were printed on both sides to keep the the fins as thin as possable.
After 3 test builds and redrawing the parts I finally got the look and fit I wanted.
As you can see the results are worth the effort.
Throughout the building of the model I have made several additions to the model and I am considering making these additional parts available to our readers for
downloading.
The parts will be supplied as a PDF file and will probably be 3 to 4 pages long.
If you would like to get a set of these added parts send an E-mail to pzkpfw5@earthlink.net
please use "panther" as the subject of the e-mail otherwise my spam filter will send it directly to the trash bin.
Next month we will work on the track links; back to that quiet room and the bottle of Prozac.
The track links are composed of over 400 parts and are very tedious to assemble.
Summary:
| Model: | PzKpfw V Panther 1-2/2002 |
| Kit: | Halinski |
| Designers: | Marian Sobel | Scale: | 1/25 |
| Difficulty: | Very complex, very difficult |
| Number of Parts: | Over 3000 |
| Instructions: | Polish, German and English |
| Diagrams: | 4 pages generally good |
| Fit: | Excellent |
| Coloring and Artwork: | Outstanding |
| Printing: | Excellent |
| Resources: | http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz4.htm#panther
http://www.kithobbyist.com/AFVInteriors/pan/pan.html http://www.militarygameronline.com/Panzer/panther.html "Germany's Panther Tank" by Thomas L. Jentz Published by Schiffer Military History |
