Tamiya Panther A 6/25 Done and Dusted

[Leon]

Thank you Bill! I did manage to get the tracks painted though i didn't feel up to it. Hopefully i can get this assembled and start the camo tomorrow between shoveling more snow.

[dierk]

Shovelling snow sucks. I don't suppose your wife would fall for it if you told her it was good post-op excercise for her knee? Even on this side of the pond the news is full of the light dusting you've been getting, so it must be pretty bad.

[armorguy]

Nice one Leon, keep 'm coming !

[Leon]

Dierk,the wife has offered in the past but I told her no way as she has a deteriorating disk in her back .Any heavy lifting or turn the wrong way and she's layed up in bed for a week.I'll post some pick after I shovel today.

Guy thank you! Hope to make some more progress today.

[Leon]

Morning guys! This was to an OOB build with no AM stuff,that ment using the rubber band tracks.I painted the tracks using AK track color last night and left them to cure.This morning i tried to install them and found out they shrank. Need to see if i can find a way to streach them or see if i can get some Friuls.Never had his happen before.

[TRM]

Well, that is interesting! You should be able to stretch them a little...try applying a little heat, like form a hairdryer, maybe clamp one end and pull while applying the heat. You may get a few cracks from the paint...sure nothing that can;t be fixed with touch up and a little weathering! Best of luck on getting them sorted! Worst case...Bronco has the plastic movable links...fairly cheap too....Master Club has some also, couple bucks more, but still cheaper than fruit-loops.

[Leon]

Thanks Todd! I was thinking about using heat.I'll give it a try and see if i can streach them.

[dierk]

Start on low heat and work your way up if you have to - learnt that from bitter experience when I killed some ZIS-42 tracks by using too much heat...

[afvfan]

Mark on a piece of wood how much you want to stretch them so you don't go too far. Once they're stretched out it's not easy to reshrink them. Also, apply the heat to the front face of the tracks. If you do it on the back you stand the chance of melting your guide teeth. You can also use very hot water.

[Leon]

Dierk,Bob,thanks for the suggestions! The track are bust..."Literally". Looks like i'll try and find some AM tracks.

[Tojo72]

That AK enamel stuff is pretty hot,got to careful with it.Hope you can something.

[Leon]

Thanks Anthony! Going to contact Tamiya customer service tomorrow and see if I can get replacements first and what the cost will be.

[Tojo72]

Hey,Leon,I just thought of it,I have some Dragon DS tracks from a Jagdpanther G2 that I won't be using

PM me if your interested,I got a lot going on,but could get them out by weeks end.

[wing_nut]

Sucks about the tracks.

[Leon]

Marc,it sure does! Anthony is sending me some replacement tracks that should work.

[Leon]

Evening fellas! Got a PM from Tojo earlier saying some DS replacement tracks are in the mail.Looking forward to getting this Kitty rolling again.The weather is supposed to start warming up the next few days so hopefully the basement will warm up so I can get the camo sprayed on.

[afvfan]

Hope they work out for you, Leon, but I think you're going to run into a problem. Unless I'm mistaken (which is quite possible) my fuzzy memory is telling me the Tamiya sprockets are too narrow and have a different tooth count than the Dragon kits. Hope I'm wrong.

Guess I ought to apologize for sending you the headache in the first place.

[dierk]

Just goes to show that sometimes you should look gift-horses in the mouth - had Leon done so, he'd have been able to count the teeth

[Leon]

Bob,no apologies necessary buddy! It's a shot in the dark.I'll try contacting Tamiya customer service on Monday and see if they can send me replacement tracks just in case.

Dierk,thanks mate! We live and learn right.

[afvfan]

Just did a little checking. It looks like the Dragon JP G2 sprockets have the same tooth count as the Tammy kit. Just going to have to cross your fingers on the width.

[Leon]

Thanks Bob! Fingers crossed. May have to uncross them for a bit if i want to do some modeling today.

[Leon]

Evening guys! Thanks to Tojo for coming to the rescue,the Kitty has new shoes and they are a perfect fit.Still need to prime and paint them and then on to assembly and camo painting.Hope you enjoy.











Thanks for looking,as always ACW.

[dierk]

Glad to hear you got sorted on the track front! Are you going to glue the top run to the road wheels once they're painted, so they don't float in mid-air?

[Tojo72]

They look good Leon,I got at least 5 finished models on my shelf with them.Only lately I've been using MT'S and Fruils.

[Leon]

Dierk, thank you mate! The tracks will get glued down to get the right sag.

[Leon]

Anthony, thank you! They look a lot better than the kit tracks.

[adt70hk]

I do like Panthers!

[Leon]

Thank you Andrew! It feels good to mix some WWII stuff in between my modern builds.

[TRM]

Nice to see the kitten in her shoes Leon!! Time to get busy!!

[Leon]

Thank you Todd! Hope to get close to being finished this weekend.