1/16 Panther Conversion

[Daniel_Roxy]

Got an interesting one here.

I got a old Heng Long Panther tank with a busted turret about a month ago.

Gun mechanism jammed and broken,mantlet cracked and split and afew other issues.

My plans are to repaint and mount a custom turret to it resembling a theoretical but never actually built panther variant.

[Daniel_Roxy]

I wasn't planning on documenting the progress of this tank so I don't have many photos.

But what I do have here is a handful showing the condition it was in after taking a dive off a washing machine 😂. And when I picked it up.

[Daniel_Roxy]

These were taken after I had stripped the turret of any useful parts and painted it red to see how the paint takes to the models plastic and how it would look.

Can also see most of the side details have been removed for painting too.

Oh and the running gear/tracks

[Daniel_Roxy]

This last set shows how it was after masking off anything needing it and covering the electrics and motors. Ready for some painting.

[Daniel_Roxy]

And my last post for this is a 1/35 scale model of the tank. I picked this up at Tank Fest at bovington tank museum a year or two ago. This is the same version that I hope to convert the panther to

And with the wonders of 3D printing and a handy free to use model kit I found online for a panzer 4 verient of this tank. I was able to get the parts for the turret printed by a friend.

[FullArmor]

Interesting. I will definitely follow.

[Daniel_Roxy]

And just like that the turret parts have arrived.even a little bag of fun bits. 

Can also see how the hull has been repainted.And is ready for the tracks to go back on. 

[GusMac]

Nice work, the new turret looks great.

[Martinnfb]

Super cool project, I will follow with interest.

Cheers

Martin

[Daniel_Roxy]

After a busy week I got some time to work on this monstrosity. I have worked out how to modify the existing elevation and depression gearbox to work with the new turret. Still got some bits to do on it but getting there now.

The mechanism is deceptively simple. The pin sticks through the side of the turret and connects to the metal bar going through the support that locks into the side of the turret. As with the other side these 2 parts that lock in also provide the pivot point for the central part of the turret.

As for the gearbox that's now going to have the metal bar fixed into were the drill bit is on this image and also be assured inside the turret onto the shiny metal shaft you can see in the image above.When all this is in place what should happen is when the motor receives the signal to move one way or another it doesn't actually turn anything instead it moves around the central axis (drill bit in the image and shiny metal bar in the first image) rotating whatever is attached to it. (Hopefully).

 

Also got some added details that have arrived. And now been painted along with some nice little bolts.

 

And lastly. Here's the upper hull shows with the turret sat ontop of it. This won't be how it sits when finished as the rotation gear is also attached under it were as when finished it will be inside the hull.