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Forums - Modelling / Construction |
The construction forum is for the discussion of techniques on the construction phase of AFV modelling and the tools and materials used. |
| Topics | 1939 |
| Messages | 9055 |
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| Subject: | Dragon/CH Panther F smart kit construction notes |  |
| Date: | Sep 7, 2008 |
| From: | Curtis Jurrens | |
Work is proceeding nicely on the new Dragon Panther F. If I'd known it was going to go this well I would've started one of the Smart Kit G's in my stash a while ago!
The directions seem to be one of Dragon's better recent efforts, with only a couple (like only one or two!) wrong or missing part numbers (so far). I'd recommend using a pencil to mark off which optional parts and steps you're using and which you're not, and which parts you've already installed.
The PE grills are pretty much spot on (as they should be), except maybe for the small round one that goes on the underside of the engine air intake--it's maybe a touch large--but I used a brass rod the diameter of the hole to press it into place and it looks good. You do need to thin and clean up the molded air intake cover a little bit due to how it's molded in place on the engine deck, but it's not a big deal. I thought screens were maybe a little heavy, but they look a LOT finer once you get some paint on them, so you definitely want to paint what's underneath them. You can sorta see the fans underneath both the crew compartment heater housing (right side) and fan grill on the left side. I used the fan option with fewer blades, as there's a pic of an Ausf. A engine installation with the decks removed in both books that shows the fans to have lotsa blades (and appear to be bare metal). In Jentz's Panther book, he says that the fans were redesigned during G production, but doesn't explain exactly how, but if it was redesigned I'd guess that that means that it's gotta be different from the ones in the A, so that means the part with fewer blades, right?
The instructions are kinda vague on which direction the radiator air intake grills on the engine deck go. According to my references (mostly the Jentz and Spielberger books on the Panther), the sloped solid parts of the grills should go towards the outside of the tank. As for the louvers that go over the left side radiator grills, the fixed/closed end apparently should go to the outside on the front one and to the inside on the rear one (at least according to Doyle's drawings in the Jentz book). One note on the left side louver vents for the radiator air intakes: If you use the PE inserts, you can make them movable if you're careful with the glue, and they look cool. Either way, I think you'll have to thin down the underside of the tabs on the main plastic grills so that the assembled louvers sit low enough on the engine deck to clear the turret. I think the bottom of the plastic louvers should sit in the same plane the rest of the deck surface.
Now I'm moving on to the OVM and the hull side details. I think I'm going to use a mix of the plastic and PE options, we'll see how they work out. The instructions for the PE OVM mount options are way oversimplified though. You have to remove some molded details from the plastic parts and add them to the PE parts for everything to work correctly, but they don't mention that. (The directions would be the same as for the Cyberhobby Panther G update set, as the PE fret is pretty much identicalto the one in that set).
One more thing, I'm not going to use the PE front lower hull plate--I'll fill and rescribe the notches there to reflect the thicker front glacis plate of the F versus the G--the PE plate has no texture on either the surface or the weld beads, not to mention that the nicely depicted weld lines to the side plates would be lost with the metal plate.
Regards,
Curtis |
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