Italeri Panther A (Finished)

[hasenpfeffer]

Well fellas, thought I'd start my first thread over here. It's a project I started back in late December. The kit is Italeri's Panther A and has been sitting in my stash for more than 20 years. Time to give it a go. I also have Bronco indy tracks and a set of Cavalier zimmerit to boot.


Here's some scavenging of spares from the CH Panther (Gallery) Nice when there's a whole 'nother kit almost to add details.

(Cut a hole for adding the periscope)

(Fender replacement)

(Correction to the rear of the engine deck)


(Dry fit - don't mind the gaps... )


One nice thing is that the kit come with an engine/compartment. This is one part that I started long/long ago, and isn't the slightest bit accurate. I'm not going to go through too much trouble now to correct them thar mistakes, so the engine access will most likely be in the closed position.

So that's where it stands today. Should have better updates from here on out. Went fast getting caught up, and the fact that it's past my bed time and gotta be productive at work tomorrow.

Enjoy and comment at will! ;D

[bbd468]

Hello Dave, Fantastic start on the Panther buddy. Zimm looks awesome. Well done so far...keep it comin' Dave.

Gary

[Deleted]

Gawd theres a lot of "Big Cats" over here .... Cool !

It looks like you have all the goodies to turn out a a fine build over here .

So the engine is inaccurate ? Too bad . Would of been a nice feature to leave the engine compartment open .

;D

[hasenpfeffer]

Hey Carl, well, the way it's glued on there it will still be able to be opened. Here is a pic of the engine. It's only got detail on the top, and not very much at that. I had started trying to make it look better when I first started this kit over 20 years ago. That was as far as I got before my hiatus...

The HL230(h)asenpfeffer variant.
It's completely wrong from the pictures I now have as reference - so, oh well.

[wing_nut]

A Panther? You? No way!





;D

[bullardino]

I can't tell if it's correct in shape and size, but I can surely say it's an impressive build

[Tojo72]

looking pretty good Dave,looking forward to seeing that interior

[spud]

wow for such an Old dog you have done it justice and bring it up 30 notches

[hasenpfeffer]

Marc - well it does seem to be the current trend... and I'm enjoying it.

bullardino - thanks, man. The kit itself is very different dimensionally than the Cyber Hobby Panther A I recently finished (that kit is basically the Dragon Panther A Premium minus the magic tracks). Most notably in the wheels and main gun length. I'm not gonna spend too much time trying to fix all that. The difference in detail is like night/day. I'm trying to add some where I can. And as you can see, I've used quite a few extras from that CH kit - including the main gun.

tojo - Interior?

spud - thanks, I really appreciate the comment... and whew, I thought you were talking about me at first! LOL ;D

[wbill76]

Looking good! Who says these older kits can't be brought up to speed without a little TLC?

[armorguy]

Dave is this an early or a late version please ? I'm not a Panther specialist and I have a Dragon's Panther A Late in the stash, also with AK zimmerit aftermarket parts. I'm sure I can learn from this build !

[zlikovac]

I always have problem with this tank, i dont have quite good idea for him!
Count on me, i wanna see your way, go for it.

[hasenpfeffer]

Bill - thanks. I'm gonna try anyway. It would be near impossible for me to build this straight OOB after the last one...

armorguy - This wil be a late A. The most noticeable difference being the ball housing for the hull MG. (Might be why your asking at this point... ) There has to be some modification of the Italeri design here since it is just plain wrong. They have you mount the "ball" on the inside and the housing is basically empty to the hull. More to come on that, but it's gonna take a little thinking on my part for the mods.
For your kit, you can check out the build wingnut just put together on his thread. I also have a finished late A in the gallery (sometime in Jan)

zlikovac - welcome along! ;D

[tobias5555]

Good start with that oldy.

[Mence]

Good start Dave, nice additions as well.

[robbo]

Looking very good, I've got the same kit in the stash

[deafpanzer]

Of course you have my attention! Nice work on the Zimm and the engine too! Great move adding Zimm to an older kit...

[Deleted]

very nice work it's nice to see older kits getting the treatment

[noll]

Looks awesome so far!

by the way, how good are the workable Bronco tracks? I'm looking into getting some when I get a JP in a month or two. Thanks!

-oliver

[hasenpfeffer]

Hey noll11... I don't really know how good the Bronco tracks are yet... I have zero experience with them. I will be sure to get a couple pics and play around with them a bit this weekend. Stay tuned. We can learn together.

Anyone else used Bronco indies before? Pros/cons? Comparison to MT, Modelkasten or Friul?

[armorguy]

I'l have a seat on the first row then Dave ! Great to see this Panther A Late version build log and I really didn't or don't have a clue on the machine gun ball, there's already one thing I've learnt from this topic ! Thanks and keep us informed mate !

[deafpanzer]

Sorry I haven't tried Bronco indies... only have used Friuls, Modelkasten and Magic tracks in the past. Hope somebody can answer your question...

[reserve]

Now this will be one to watch for me, an ancient product brought up to current standards. Like what you've done with it to date

Regards,
Mark

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2013 12:03:17 GMT -5 hasenpfeffer said:

Hey noll11... I don't really know how good the Bronco tracks are yet... I have zero experience with them. I will be sure to get a couple pics and play around with them a bit this weekend. Stay tuned. We can learn together.

Anyone else used Bronco indies before? Pros/cons? Comparison to MT, Modelkasten or Friul?

I used a set for a Sherman , T49 tracks , they actually do work very well when completed . Big plus is how light each run of tracks is ,especilly when compared to Friuls ! Gotta be careful with your liquid glue application . Some of the parts are delicate durring removal from the sprue . Assembled track runs are robust .I was satisfied with them .

[hasenpfeffer]

Well, it's been long enough that I've not surprisingly fell off page 1... time for a little update.

As you may recall, I was lamenting Italeri's crappy ball mount mg design. Here's a pic to show their laziness. They basically just provide a hollow bulge for the hull with no modification to the Ausf. D slit design.



I was able to salvage a mount from my last Panther project and add some zimmerit. This still has to be made a little more pretty, but you get the idea. I found some plastic beads that were about the right size and drilled holes for the mg and the sight. (The Aber mg doesn't hurt for extra detail either... )




I'll be checking out the Bronco tracks, as promised, fairly soon. Looking forward to getting back to some regular bench time.

[wing_nut]

Yo Brotha "P" Your not kidding it a longtime since the last update. But you're Back!! Nice job with the bead.

[406 Silverado]

Saweet. Love seeing those older kits getting done over. Love the zimm.

[deafpanzer]

Zimm looks just AWESOME! Did I ever tell you how much I love barrels from Aber?

[wbill76]

Excellent solution to that glaring problem, looking good!

[armorguy]

That metal MG looks mean, ready to rock !