From old to new ,
Recycling of old models

The basic models from Tamiya and Crown, (report from W. Kampfhofer)

When this model came on the market in the year 1969, it was important to provide it with a small electric engine and a remote cable control.

To encourage the customers to build the kits, they were kept very simple but robust. The single-engine models had to provide space for the two batteries, the contacts and the "on/off" switch in the hull.

We (older modellers) know the funny little apertures, that we had to close prior to continueing the work.

But a much greater problem occurred with the kits: the 1:35 scale was not always fit for incorporating this amount of stuff! So the hull was enlarged or lengthened which led to dimensional distortions.

Therefore wrong angles at the armour plates or wrong proportions with the parts were not uncommon to regain a somehow "right" appearance of the model. Also the old Tamiya Panther is no exception. Adding to that it is more a 1:32 scale than 1:35!

Beside that and the rough details the greatest flaw happened with the running gear. Although the Panther had a front drive wheel, the Tamiya tank is driven via the rear sprocket wheel. For this purpose they derived guidance teeth to interlink with the totally wrong tracks.

The real thing has inner and outer running wheels. The model only shows the outer ones. The wheel hubs are made of polyvinyl and have to be put onto the torsion arms. To prevent gaps between the wheel and the hub, the torsion arms have to be cut a little bit. Furthermore the hole between the lower and upper hull has to be filled with a sheet of plastic. Most of the tool parts have to be substituted with better ones.

The kit of the Crown Company appeared in the 80^th of the last century in Vienna. I managed to get one already finished model from my Grandfather.

It was the only available early type "G" kit in those days. As this kit was motorized also, one can assume that similar things as with the previously described Tamiya model happened. But the tracks are made from vinyl and the drive and sprocket wheels are worse than even the Tamiya ones.

On the other hand the fine details and engravings, that are unusual for kits of those days, give this product a great plus.

What to do with these kits?

The after market retailers provided us with numerous extra PE sets and conversion kits for this Panther. So the assumption, that these expensive products make a model better and more accurate is wrong! So keep this in mind, when you use these products!

The thickness of the hull and the turret enables us to sand down and build up these wrong parts properly.

 

Artillery surveillance Panther

Model: W.Kampfhofer
Kit: hull from TAMIYA, conversion kit unknown
Photos: Wolfram Bradac

In the 80^th some conversion kits appeared on the shelves as well as their illegal copies. I can neither remember if this is such an illegal one or the original, nor the name of the manufacturer. But interesting is the fact, that the turret is hollow moulded, which led to a sinking spot at the top armour plate.

The disproportion of the kit comes from the fact, that the turret is in 1:35 scale. Research results in those days led to the wrong assumption, that 50 pieces of this version were built. In reality only one prototype was made on a base of an Ausf. D with the modified turret of an Ausf. A. So I had to change the three colour scheme into the single dark yellow one.

After the disassembly of the kit, I glued the lower and upper hull again. That was accompanied by a great amount of filling and sanding. The running wheels came from an Italerie Panther D. The wheel hub and the rubber on the outer road wheels were sanded, as they are not made correct from Italerie either.

I removed every second bolt on the road wheels as well which leaves 12, but that is not correct, as 16 would be the right number with the Ausf. D. I suppose nobody noticed my little incorrectness?

The tracks are from Revell and resemble the late type with snow rims. I removed those rims in the visible part of the track and engraved two cut with a file to simulate the early track type.

The turret roof was heated with a fan and thus corrected. The tools come from the spare parts box.

The mounts for the smoke discharger are self made. The dischargers themselves are from a Czech company JLC.

The dark yellow colour got some nuances and scratches in order to break the uniformity.
 

Panther with "Schmalturm" (small turret), Prototype

The basis is a Panther G of the Japanese company Crown. I made a Zimmerit layer. After this and the painting I let it rest for nearly 20 years. In the year 2002 I removed the colour by means of a solution of crystals soda. Normally the Zimmerit paste doesn´t react but as I applied the paste directly onto the base colour, it worked. Onlay the rear armour plate "refused cooperation" and had to be replaced by a part from the Tamiya Panther A.

The tracks are from Accurate Armour. Althuogh the guiding teeth are the hollow type ones, the quality of the moulds are bad. The turret is from Dragon and the engine intake grills are from Tamiya.

Photos of these prototypes are very rare. As on one of these pictures it appeares rather dark, I thought, that the "Meninge" anti rust primer colour would be best. Dust was simulated with pigment colour. Oil stains were resembled by use of highly diluted oil colour mixed with semi gloss enamels.