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Old faithful, Tamiya Ausf.A


Mig Eater

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My (first out of hopefully two) contribution to the GB will be the granddaddy of all 1/35 model kits, the Tamiya Ausf.A.

This kit was originally released in 1968 as a remote control toy (hence the sad face on the bottom of the hull for the RC controls). When Tamiya originally designed the kit they didn't have have any specific scale in mind, however when it came to releasing their second model though (M41 Bulldog) they wanted them to be in the same scale. After measuring the Panther they fond it to be roughly 1/35 scale, which was then adopted as the size for all their future model kits. Soon after other companies started coping them & 1/35 became the standard, replacing the 1/32 scale that had been more common beforehand.

I originally bought this kit to use as a "paint mule" to practice paining techniques on, I only bothered to build the basic hull & turret parts as that was all that I needed. After that though it sat in a cupboard collected dust for a few years not fulfilling its intended roll. I decided to drag it back out into the light & to re-build it properly for this GB, I've disassembled most of it back to the original parts which should hopefully qualify within the 25% rule @Corsairfoxfouruncle? I plan to fill in all the gaps (bye, bye sad face 😛), add a layer of zimmerit by hand & also replace all the external parts with new ones from either the spare collection or scratch build/3D printed. I might 3D print a new set of tracks to replace the rubber ones too, but I want to see how the rest of the build goes first. I haven't decided on any markings or camouflage colours/pattern yet, I'll peruse some references while I'm building & see what grabs my attention...  

 

panther_a_00.jpg

Edited by Mig Eater
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4 minutes ago, Mig Eater said:

I've disassembled most of it back to the original parts which should hopefully qualify within the 25% rule @Corsairfoxfouruncle?

Considering you have all the road wheels, tracks, and doodads to add I think we can say you're at about the 20% mark. 

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I've made some progress with my build, even though I have yet to actually glue anything together though. Instead I've been fixing a few errors, adding detail & doing some prep work for future steps.   


The various holes on the hull for tools & parts where filled in, the hull will be covered in zimmerit & different tools from the spare collection will be used instead so they wont be needed.

The kit lacks any vision ports for the crew & instead just has holes in the hull with an armoured cover. The covers are over sized so they have been removed, I'll 3D print some new vision ports & scratch build new armoured covers.

The crew air vent at the front of the hull was just a solid cylinder, it was removed & will be replaced a better shaped 3D printed version.

The Kugelblende (hull machine gun cover) didn't look very good so it was removed & will be replaced with a spare one.

The front renders were removed & again will be replaced with spare ones.

The central engine deck panel was too long & original ended along the same line as the air intakes (see here) this is incorrect, so it was filled in & a new panel line was scribed higher up.

There should be a gap at the back of the engine deck behind the air intakes (see here), the small strip of plastic there was removed.

The top of the hull was made from three different plates welded together, the kit lacks this detail so I scribed new weld lines, along with also scribing out the existing ones around the edge of the hull. I'll add new weld seam detail to all of them by hand later on using 2-part putty.     

panther_a_01.jpg



The "sad panzer" face on the bottom of the hull was filled in, along with a large gap above the idle wheel bar & the large Tamiya logo on the bottom of the hull was sanded down.

The the tow hooks on the front of the hull are the wrong shape, it should be squared off rather then diagonal. I added a small wedge of plastic card to make it more accurate.

I contemplated removing the two large bulges running across the hull between the first & last suspension arms. It would require a lot of fill & sanding to make it flat, it might also have an effect the rigidity of the hull so I decided to leave them as they are.


panther_a_02.jpg




The cover for the vision block was removed from the turret roof just like on the hull.

The cupola was also removed so I can work on it more easily or possibly replace it with a spare Takom one.

The storage boxes on the rear plate where also removed, I have a few spare that I can use instead.

panther_a_03.jpg



I've started 3D printing a set of workable tracks to replace the rather dodgy rubber ones that come with the kit. I have other tracks I could have used but I wanted to see how difficult & usable they would be. I'm pretty happy with them thus far & it works out a lot cheaper then if I'd used a set of Friul or even plastic tracks. However they require a lot of time & effort to print, for anyone complaining about how difficult the individual links in their kit are, you guys have got it easy 😛 to make these tracks I had to;
 

  • Design the 3D model.
  • Spend several days printing them a few at a time (after 3 days I only have about half of them).
  • Once printed wash them in alcohol.
  • Remove the the 20(ish) supports on each link.
  • Wash in alcohol again new_all_coholic.gif
  • Cure them under a UV lamp for about an hour.
  • Drill the holes for the pin.
  • & finally assemble them. 
     

I'm using flattened stapes as the track pins, which luckily are the perfect size & length, so dont even need to be trimmed. If you're wondering about the colour I started printing them in white resin but soon after I ran out & switched to a new bottle of grey resin.
 

panther_a_04.jpg

Edited by Mig Eater
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That's quite some work going into the granddaddy of 1/35 armour!

This was the first afv I ever built years ago, still got it, somewhere....

Good luck.

 

Cheers

Darryl 

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BTW I modified the 3D model of the tracks with the idea to 3D print it in 1:1 scale, that idea was soon dashed though as even with it cut up into small sections it would still be too big for my printer 😭 & even if it did fit it would probably cost around £70 in materials (without any parts failing & having to be reprinted).

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I continue to find/make more work for myself with this build 😆 Pretty much every weld seam on the kit is either wrongly positioned or in some cases just missing, so I let my inner rivet counter lose & rescribed most of them. I haven't done the ones on the front plate yet, I'll do that after the upper & lower hull are glued together (just dry fitted for the pic) & I'm still wondering if it's worth doing the weld seams for the mortise joints on the rear of the hull & turret too... Once all the weld are scribed they will be filled with 2-part putty & the weld pattern added by hand.

panther_a_05.jpg

The old "weld" detail on the rear of the hull were just two small indents you can see filled with putty.
panther_a_06.jpg

A lot of this work will probably prove to be pointless as it will be covered up with zimmerit later 😅 but I want to make a bashed up tank with chunks of the zim chipped off so some of the weld detail will still be visible in the end. On that note I've decided to steal @M3talpig's original idea & make a captured Soviet Panther. I'll probably deviate from the historical photos & make it a bit more "Soviet" though, with maybe a DShK machine gun on the turret roof, some T-34 fuel tanks & a wooden log etc.



   

Edited by Mig Eater
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I've finally made some progress beyond cutting up & scribing the hull 😛

Probably the biggest problem with this kit is that the bottom of the sponsons are open, this was fixed by adding some strips of plastic card to the lower hull. It was difficult to get the measurements between the upper & lower hull perfect so it will still need some filler & sanding to get a proper fit. I also scratch build a pair of "tubs" to fit inside the hull under the air intakes on the engine deck, which are rather open & easy to see though. I dont have any photo-etch to go over the intakes or fans but I'll see if I can 3D print something (I've 3D printed paper thin mesh before but it quickly became warped & wouldn't stay flat). Lastly I added some 3D printed view ports to the front in preparation of closing up the hull, their armoured covers & other parts will be added later.

So up next is painting the inside of the "tubs" black & gluing them to the upper hull, then the upper & lower hull sections can be put together.

panther_a_07.jpg

Edited by Mig Eater
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4 hours ago, Mig Eater said:

I've finally made some progress beyond cutting up & scribing the hull

My hats off to you sir....anybody can build a newer kit and get a good result but to take a 30+year old kit and breath new life into it takes skill and planning....as far as i'm concerned if this was a competition you would have won already.

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Thanks, a few times I've thought to myself why am I bothering to do all this work when I could just build the Takom kit OOB instead. 😆 I want to practice scratch building more though & old kits like this are perfect for that, I'm also going to try making zimmerite for the first time & I'd prefer to do that on this one instead of an expensive Takom or Dragon kit.



 

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Slowly making progress, the upper & lower hull have been glued together. OOB they just clip together (so you can open it up again & change the RC batteries) & the upper hull kinda just floats around on top of the lower hull. The addition of the plastic card under the sponsons (& a lot of filler) have made it really rigid now though. So with that done I scribed welds into the front plates, I also added a 3D printed Kugelblende too (the spare one I had were from a late Jagdpanther & the wrong shape, so 3D printer to the rescue) & scribed the weld around it.

One of the view ports decided to fall out after the hull was glued, took about an hour of fiddling around to get back in, hopefully it will stay put this time.

panther_a_08.jpg

Much filling & sanding later it still isn't perfect but it's a lot better then the huge gapping holes that the kit has OOB.
panther_a_09.jpg

Now the hull is all done the fun can start 😁 The whole tank is going to be re-surfaced & all the welds added, it's probably going to look like a completely different kit once I'm done...

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Now I'm starting to get somewhere, used Mr.Surfacer stippled on to add texture & also clean up any marks/scratch, unifying the surface. Welds were added using Green Stuff 2-part putty, my tools were a bit dirty with Milliput from the last time I used them, so some flakes of it got mixed in with the green stuff.

panther_a_10.jpg 

Next up is the part I've been dreading, zimmerit...

Edited by Mig Eater
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  • 1 month later...

It's been awhile! I've been continuing to slowly work on this build, doing little bits & pieces as time & my health permits me.

I added some parts from the spares box; Gun lock from a Tamiya Panther G, which replaced the very simplistic one that came with the kit. Fuel cap on the engine deck from an Trumpeter E-75, which was missing from the kit. The close defence weapon on the turret roof was also missing so I added one from a Voyager E-50 sets (which comes with 4 of them!). The rest of the 3D printed parts for the view ports were added, along with a new 3D printed air vent. Grab handles & lifting hooks were all added using metal wire & I also drilled bolt holes around the plate for the crew hatches. I scratch built several parts using aluminium from a drinks can, on the front of the hull I made one of the fenders, I'm leave the other one off as battle damage. On the rear I made one of the storage boxes along with their brackets on both sides, again I'm going to have one missing as battle damage.

The next big thing to do before I finally get around to adding the zimmerit is I need to design & 3D print a new set of exhausts along with scratch building the brackets for them. I'm also currently building a Flakpanther Coelian for the GB & I dont think I will be able to finish both builds before the end of the GB, I'm enjoying the Coelian more then this build though so I'm going to concentrate on finishing that one first & then see how much time is left for this Panther.

 

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Edited by Mig Eater
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  • 2 years later...

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