I have just received the latest news that after all the boxes were checked and no parts were missing then the next stage was to start the assembly of the 1:6 scale tank kit.
Jeremy has taken a few photos to show progress at the early stages with some detailed information.
First part, front glacis
Rear plate
Exhausts
Assembled rear plate
The assembly of the tank commenced with the front Glacis & the machine gun ball turret. Quite straight forward. The exhausts required the cross wire to be soldered. I decided to silver solder them as this would have the added benefit of giving the pipes a genuine heated look rather than relying on painting them. The exhaust brackets were fiddly to put together. After that it was fitting up the first part of the torsion bar suspension. The bronze bearings are held in place with Loctite. The torsion bars fit into pivots which in turn fit into the bearings. A small fettling job I decided to do was to remove some chatter marks from the pivot on the brackets that hold these in the bearings.
Exhaust brackets
Floor pan, torsion bars
Trial fitting
Side frames
After that the side frames were fitted together with the front & rear glacis plates. At this stage I decided to paint the side frames before the wheels are fitted as after it is wheeled access would be nigh on impossible. Some of the detail on the front & rear plates was painted too. The primed areas will be covered by faux ‘Zimmerit’ courtesy of Milliput Putty.
Exploded instructions
Paint detail started
Panniers painted
Painted side frames
It now sits on a wheeled table which will make maneuvering it during the rest of the build process easier. Weight wise it is rapidly reaching the point of becoming a two person lift. The colour is the base colour of the German tanks which is ‘Ockergelb’ RAL 1024. The camouflage colours & patterns were added later.
More paint technique
Bump stops
Thanks to Davie Rollo who has offered some sound advice based on his experience of building Armortek’s Tiger tank some years ago. Davie suggested the Milliput for the ‘Zimmerit’ effect & as of Friday Dundee is cleaned out of Milliput! Davie also suggested making the 1/35th scale Dragon kit of the Panther as this is highly detailed & will give a good idea of how it all goes together. This was spot on advice & been a great help already.
