Sd.Kfz. 179 Bergepanther. Italeri 1/35

[Guest]

1) If you want a local hobby shop US IT.

Definitely. In the long term, it’s no good having a local shop (for anything) and then buying things they sell off the Internet because that's a bit cheaper.

2). Always remember to put the lid on things when you are done and don't tighten it to much... My lid has split and the filler hardened!

3) Car body filler from a tube often also works well on plastic kits, and is much more easily available to those of us with no model shop nearby.

[scottie3158]

Ian,
The cables look excellent,

[Ian M]

Now about this floor...
Så Yesterday I had a hunt for pictures of the missing floor or deck. Actual historical photos of said deck are as rare as chicken teeth. Lucky for me, both Meng and Tacom have done the Bergepanther and there are loads of photos of that. Including a rather useful top view.
Armed with some plasic-card, a ruler and a knife I got some decks made.
Today I found that I had built them the wrong way round. So had another stab at them today.
I used 0.5 mm card, but am wondering if 1.5 mm would not have been better. Scale wise the 0.5 comes out at 17.5 mm which is a bit on the thin side, taking account for the weight it was loaded with. If I do them in 1.5 mm they would have a scale size of about 2" Anyone know how thick they should have been?

Anyway so far I have these, Need cut outs for hand holes to allow placing and removing....

I also fitted an H beam as a cross brace/support.

Ideas and suggestions most welcome.
Does anyone have a photo of the drivers compartment awning in the open position?

[Guest]

Ian,
Thanks for the quick lesson on making cables, that will come in usefull in the future. For filler I used car body stopper, put it on last thing and it is ready to sand the following day, and as it is so fine it fills in all the scratches, and you can get it off ebay.
Cheers, Mike.

[Graeme C.]

Hi Ian, the cable & the boards look good, scaffold boards aren't much thicker than your boards, so they should be ok. I have this picture, is this what you are looking for? Photo for discussion only.

[minitnkr]

Some for discussion only

Notice MG mount for firing from inside tool area & 2cm mount.
All show darker shade of tarp for over the crew area. PaulE

[Ian M]

Cheers chaps. Graeme, that is the first photo I have ever seen of one with the canvas roof open.
I can get the shape and size off it and can see it has support posts I think. I think I need to find more..

[Ian M]

Thanks Paul but I was looking for ones with the canvas cover for the drivers compartment open. Or of the frame for it.

[minitnkr]

The dark tarp folded on the front of the tool area is the cover for the crew compartment in the open position. The frame, I believe, is a simple elongated squared off U shaped frame to bring over the crew compartment stretching the tarp from its' attachment to the front of the tool area forming a sloped roof. PaulE

[Guest]

Ian.
Would think the floor if based on a scaffold board to be about 32 mm, I would have been machined from ex 50 mm stock. Could be completely wrong :smiling2::smiling3: .
Side board for truck's would have been thinner. around 28 mm .
John.

[Guest]

It’s probably a bit late to say this, but note how high they are on their suspension. It looks like the suspension is adjusted like for a normal Panther, but with the turret missing, it’s pushing against a lot less weight.

[Ian M]

The dark tarp folded on the front of the tool area is the cover for the crew compartment in the open position. The frame, I believe, is a simple elongated squared off U shaped frame to bring over the crew compartment stretching the tarp from its' attachment to the front of the tool area forming a sloped roof. PaulE

My bad choice of words. So should I should have probably said folded out. Or in the closed position.
As to the frame, I can guess that from the kit part, I just need to see a photo of the roof closed.

[SimonT]

Ian

Panzertracts 16-1 has the photo you want

[Ian M]

Thanks Simon but no need I found another solution....
After a lot of Googling and Head scratching and some helpful souls on here, I made a slight change of plan and will do the OPEN cab with the Tarp closed/folded/rolled up. But I just had to sort out a few bits. It sat to low and the kit part was..... naff.
So;

I made a lower roll and attached some pattern free tissue, and cut off the rather thick lump of plastic which was the kits tarpaulin. Attached the supports a little higher, so it resembles that shown on the photos Paul posted. The whole lot painted with thinned down gorilla grip glue. Sets up nice and hard and takes paint well.

Added the missing weld seam to the front of the hull/transmission plate holder thingymagig. Found some rather hard Milliput that seams to still work. (even if it was a bugger to mix up).
And.... Made a new set off floorboards. The set I posted yesterday just didn't do it for me.

These are from 0.75 mm evergreen and the thickness works well I think. And I even put the pull up handles on.
That PE fret had better turn up soon. Who knows what I'll get up to otherwise.

[minitnkr]

Sorry for the confusion. I've seen a series of pics of a Bergepanther mounting a 3.7cm flak showing it in a closed position I think, but I couldn't find it again. The floor boards came out excellent. The pics I have seen don't show the floorboards well as there's all sorts of riggers' stuff & a large space heater (Ostfront for warming frozen engines I guess) covering them. PaulE