John's Bandai 1/48 Panther G

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Carlos. I knew that

[lyle]

Nice tanky thingy bobber.

[handiabled]

I've not seen 3d printed track used before. They almost sound too good to be true

[jeaton01]

Brent, I'm finding they have their pluses and minuses. The first set I got looked great but they came as individual links and I kept breaking the links as I tried to snap them together. The second set looked even better and came off the supports very easily just by bending them to the side. They are super flexible and come on assembled runs, but if they come apart they have to be glued back together, they will no longer stay together. The instructions say to glue them once they are situated properly on the tank. Since I am fitting them to a Bandai kit and they are not made for it I found the second set was not long enough and they did not supply enough extra links to fix that. I added some of the links from the first set to remedy that and will position those under the skirts. I was surprised and pleased that the two different sets fit together OK.

Here's where the project is now, dark yellow on the exterior, dark iron on the tracks. I can leave the upper hull loose on the lower hull which will simplify adding the tracks and also allow the display of the interior. Which will be interesting but not near as accurate as a current tank superkit.

[Tojo72]

Making good progress,looks good.

[kyledehart5]

Good progress John!!

[handiabled]

The tracks really look great John!

[stikpusher]

Nice progress John! I hadn’t noticed before, but Bandai screwed up the lower hull of their G. The sponson bottom plate should be flat for the full length of the hull, not the stepped plate of the D and A variants. That was one of many changes done to simplify the design and speed up production.

[hasenpfeffer]

Cool. I'm glad you and Carlos are still working your Panthers thru.

There's nothing worse than spending a premium on AM tracks and then they are so fragile that they break all over the place. No fun there. Look like you have it fairly well sorted out though with a little creativity.

[jeaton01]

Thanks, Carlos, I think. Luckily that won't be visible with the upper hull on, but it sure screws up my plans for displaying it with the upper hull off because I am too lazy to fix it. I made the mistake of looking at the instructions for a newer kit with interior and have had to come to terms with the fact that this kit is more a general representation than an accurate depiction of a Panther. But it will look more like one than my T-34 does. Hopefully my one victory, though hard won, may be tracks that have the right sag.

[jeaton01]

I installed the tacks last night and today. Really delicate and not suitable really for my clumsiness, I wish I could get the bottom runs a bit straighter but this one will just have to be running on rough ground. I do like the sag. Once installed I brushed on diluted white glue to make them a bit more durable, on one side you will see that the glue is still wet.

[stikpusher]

The tracks look great! But it looks like they didn't want to go over the sprocket properly with the teeth into the slots. You can always nip off those teeth that are directly touching the tracks for a better fit.
I know Bandai can be somewhat forgiven for their goof of the sponson bottom, considering the level of knowledge easily available when that kit was first molded in the 70's.

[jeaton01]

Yeah, the teeth are too blunt to fit these tracks. I'll deal with that when the tracks are dry and less fragile.

[TOWGunner]

For a 50 year old kit you've really made this one look excellent. Great work.

[dean48ws]

This is coming along very nicely. Sounds like the tracks are putting up a fight.

[kyledehart5]

Looking great John!! Good looking panther you’re moving towards here.

[reserve]

The couple times I've worked with printed parts I've found them to be way delicate, far too much for my clumsy mitts. Your track sag is exactly what it's supposed to be, and the rest of it looks great as well nice work

[Joe Rix]

Your panther is coming along quite nicely John. Nice recovery on the tracks. They look the part.

[handiabled]

The tracks do have a nice natural sag to them. I have heard of 3d parts being rather delicate before.

[lyle]

Looking great, John!

I, too, have a lot of natural sag these days.

[jeaton01]

More Panther adventures. I saw that there should be grills over the vents on the back deck. I was able to find some brass mesh fairly cheap and now I think I have a lifetime supply, probably 2 square feet. Didn't use much of it, maybe a 2 inch square before trimming to shape. I've been agonizing over the camo, and finally just did my best with dark green and red brown over the dark yellow. Also, I removed teeth on the sprockets as necessary to get the tracks to sit on them properly.

[kyledehart5]

That’s looking really awesome!

[deafpanzer]

Panther really looks great for that scale!

[dupes]

Assembled runs of 3d printed track? I like the sound of that! Where are they from? Hoping that 1/72 might be a possibility as well.

Great camo!

[jeaton01]

Thanks for all the nice comments. Really just muddling along as armor is not a frequent passenger on my bench.

The tracks are from Chino Model. I haven't seen any in 1/72, they were very delicate to work with in 1/48. There is a photo of the box they came in in an earlier post.  Here is the HobbySearch page with some of their products.  Their website is not in English.

www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=102&cat=plamo&target=Make&searchkey=Chino+Model

[Tojo72]

Good to have another completion on the Panther Group Build,great work John

[lyle]

That is some mighty fine paintin' you did there. Looks great.