Bergepanther Ausf.A

[vaoinas]

Starting my next project - Takom's Bergepanther Ausf.A.
It's gonna be Demag's one as the box says. Out of the Daimler-Benz, Henschel and Demag built 

Bergepanther Ausf.A's Demag is the only one to go with the winch and shovel.

 

To add to the base kit I have Voyager Model's PE, MasterClub metal tracks and T-Rex's 3D-printed idler wheel.

 

 

 

The beginning is obiously very similar to the Takom's Panther Ausf.D I built few years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!
Kristjan

[Keeff]

Another masterclass to follow, so I'll get my chair and some refreshments! 

 

The work you've done so far looks great ...  Lots of detail and nice crisp mouldings ... 👌

 

Keith ☺️ 

[DanReed]

Great start

[Milan Mynar]

It is really masterclass.

[Stef N.]

It goes without saying that this will be epic. Good luck Kristjan, I'll enjoy following along too. 👍👍

[Bullbasket]

Excellent job on the pipework Kristjan. It certainly brings it all to life. Nice work.

 

John.

[vaoinas]

Thank you for your kind words.

I made this topic yesterday, but I'm not as productive as it may seem - photos there were taken a week ago.

So as for now the first step is painted weathered and assembled. 

 

 

 

 

Getting the sides and the bottom together went quite smoothly this time and wasn't quite as fiddly as 

last time with the Panther D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to you all!

Kristjan

[Keeff]

Now that does look good .... Excellent work as always! 

 

Merry Cristmas to you Kristjan! 

 

Keith ☺️ 

[vaoinas]

Thanks, Keith!

 

The next few details has been added.

 

On the cabin side side of the firewall I added a few more wires this time. The handle and levers there have been replaced with brass bits at hand, but it's hard to take that on the photo since they are already under paint.

According to the instructions, there was supposed to be a cylindrical container here as well, like on the Panther, but I left it out because there seems to be nothing there according to the photos.

 

 

 

The longitudinal bulkheads of the engine compartment along with the fuel tanks are also here.

I made a curved incision to the lower side of the left fuel tank (the lower one in the picture) because otherwise, due to the damper, it wouldn’t fit properly in place. 

 

 

 

Before the rear bulkheads were glued in, the idler tensioning mechanisms had to be glued in and fixed into the correct position. 

 

 

 

 

This time, I didn’t have the Eduard set for the dials, so I used the Takom decals. And these

Takom decals are actually quite good. In other respects, I also tinkered a bit with the dial block to improve it slightly.

 

 

 

And that's how she looks at the moment:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!
Kristjan

 

 

 

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Great progress Kristjan, really like the effects you have achieved on the interior

 

          Roger

[PeteH1969]

Great work and painting.

 

Are you going to have all of the hatches and everything open on the model?

 

Pete

[Milan Mynar]

It is great painting.

[Bullbasket]

Excellent work Kristjan. It looks first class.

 

John.

[Morantbay]

This one is in my stash and this is looking like a masterclass so I will follow with interest. Equal parts inspired and intimidated at the moment ...

[Redcoat2966]

I built this one for Panther group build, really enjoyed it. Great kit and it looks like your doing a great job so far 👍

[vaoinas]

Thank you guys!

 

Quote

Are you going to have all of the hatches and everything open on the model?

Well, yeah, I plan to leave some hatches open or at least make some panels attached by magnets to be openable

as much as reasonably possible. We'll see, how that goes.

 

Quote

I built this one for Panther group build, really enjoyed it. Great kit and it looks like your doing a great job so far 👍

I have built one of those Takom Panthers some few years ago and these are really enjoyable builds
This one - as much fun as you can get by modelling so far. Really, a superb kit.

 

But moving on with the engine.

The Maybach HL230 P30 in this kit is a project in itself that has whole big sprue dedicated to it.
It is really fun to build and will be a nice detailed engine out of the box.
However, I couldn't resist to detail it even more, Some wires here and there were added, carburetor sides were

helped with some bits of styrene and I also replaced the plate with a chain on the aft side of the engine, 

the detail was cloned out of the RFM Tiger kit.

Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the disassembled view of the things for painting with some additional

hoses and tanks to go with it as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

Kristjan

Edited February 1 by vaoinas

[Stef N.]

Quality engine Kristjan.

[Bullbasket]

This engine is a model in it's own right. Absolutely top drawer modelling. Great work Kristjan.

 

John.

[echen]

Sad that this is all going to get hidden in the hull.

[robgizlu]

Terrific work all round and that engine is a delight!

Rob

[the other matt]

Love watching these interior kits come together. This is looking nice 👍🏻 

[Redcoat2966]

On 2/1/2025 at 12:56 AM, vaoinas said:

Thank you guys!

 

Well, yeah, I plan to leave some hatches open or at least make some panels attached by magnets to be openable

as much as reasonably possible. We'll see, how that goes.

 

I have built one of those Takom Panthers some few years ago and these are really enjoyable builds
This one - as much fun as you can get by modelling so far. Really, a superb kit.

 

But moving on with the engine.

The Maybach HL230 P30 in this kit is a project in itself that has whole big sprue dedicated to it.
It is really fun to build and will be a nice detailed engine out of the box.
However, I couldn't resist to detail it even more, Some wires here and there were added, carburetor sides were

helped with some bits of styrene and I also replaced the plate with a chain on the aft side of the engine, 

the detail was cloned out of the RFM Tiger kit.

Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the disassembled view of the things for painting with some additional

hoses and tanks to go with it as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

Kristjan

 

Looking fabulous.....as always. What reference did you use to detail the engine mate?

[vaoinas]

13 hours ago, Redcoat2966 said:

 

Looking fabulous.....as always. What reference did you use to detail the engine mate?

 

Thank's, Simon. Most of the references were various photos found on the wide internet.
But also the David Parkers take on the 1:16 Maybach HL230 that featured in one of the Weathering Magazines, was quite useful here.

[vaoinas]

No painted engine this week yet.

 

I really didn't like the simplified air filters the kit has so I got myself the RFM RM-2070 Maybach HL230 kit for these.

The air filters were assembled with some 3.5mm brass tube added to the bottom in the hope that the filters will remain removable

once the model is finished. The filters hold themselves on the top of the engine pretty well .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I became a bit sidetracked from the main kit as I thought it would be nice to assemble the RFM engine for comparison reasons as well.

And here we are with two very nice Maybach tank engines now.

 

Comparing with Takom the most noticeable difference is that the RFM engine block is 2mm shorter, the width and height are pretty much the same.

RFM has the carburetors (and air filters obviously) in more bits to put together and much better detailed, Takom on the other hand

has much better take on the exhaust and the cam covers. Both kits build into a very good and detailed engine but over all I find

Takom one a bit more defined and true to the real thing.

 

Here are some side by side pics for you to decide.

Takom is gray And RFM yellow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

Kristjan

 

[PeteH1969]

Which do you feel is the better engine?

 

Great work on both engines we are so lucky now compared to the 90's when all we had was cast resin engines from Verlinden and then still had to scratch build 80% of it to get it presentable to use in a model.

 

Pete