Panther help required

[Guest]

A question for you tank guys.

I'm building my first 'proper' tank, a tamiya 35th panther, everythings gone together well but I have a problem in fitting the tow cable, the instructions aren't clear, (it's one of the older kits with provision for being motorised), it needs to go on the side as it would prevent turret rotation on the top but doesn't seem to easily fit and seems a little overlong, any tips or pics from anyone who's built this one would be appreciated!

Tanks in advance, (see what I did there, , ok I'll get me coat!)

[Guest]

I never bother with the supplied cable, it looks too unreal & in theatre, most crews had them somewhere easily accessible to minimize the time needed to hitch them up.

What I use is picture hanging wire, painted black & super-glued to the kit hooks. A touch of silver drybrush & it's done!

[spanner570]

Totally agree with Patrick, the supplied tow cables are awful.....

I too use brass picture wire. I cut off the loop ends of the plastic cables and superglue them to the brass wire, then run them in a straight line from one hull hook to the other. I paint them just like Patrick does!

Cheers,

Ron

[Guest]

Ron & I make our cables the same way! He explained it far better than me! Here's a few pics to illustrate what we mean:

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Hopefully that will help a little. Which cable are we talking about? It occurs to me that as well as the main tow cables, there's another small coil that goes on the side of the hull about halfway down?

Cheers

Patrick

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[Guest]

Thanks for the replies fellas, however, it's not the realism of the cable that's bothering me, just that there don't seem to be any attachment hooks on the tank body to place it, i'll take a pic of the tank side where it's meant to go shortly and of the minimalistic instructions which show the rough shape and location but nothing like enough detail to fit it accurately with the stowage already there.

[spanner570]

If you are talking about the two main tow cables that are normally fastened to brackets on the deck, in practice these were usually just hooked fore and aft to the four big shackles welded to the front and back of the tank and just left loose on the deck, ready for instant use........

The small hawser is just fastened to the left/port side of the tank on small brackets welded to the side.

Cheers,

Ron

[Guest]

The tow cables should hook onto the tool mounting bracket at the front and onto a post mounted at the top of the side, furthest to the rear. If you're building the Tamiya Panther G then the rear mounting will be missing but don't worry about it, the cables were usually slung on anywhere convenient

Personally I twist up my own cables from copper wire or sometimes I use some cord that I picked up in a craft shop somewhere

If you google "panther walkaround" you'll get loads of photos which will clarify my waffle

[Guest]

Here are some helpful pics... I hope! The cable was as seen fixed to the hull, or using the horned device to the right, then attached to the 'U' shaped chappies at the front ( with corresponding one at the rear )

You can see I've got the technical lingo down to a fine art!

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Cheers

Patrick

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[Guest]

That last pic is helpful as it goes, thanks.

It seems the tamiya kit is missing a couple of handy location points but it does have one like the above pic sticking out the top of the stowage rack, it didn't look to protrude much so I wasn't sure it was there for the cable.

[spanner570]

Oops, silly me......I was in Tiger 1 mode. Sorry for the duff info, sort of!

[Guest]

OK, quick update on this one, the kit, being, (as I understand), one of tamiyas earlier and less accurate representations is missing a few mounting points and such.

The front bar was there so I used a bit of stretched sprue to create a mounting point on the rear deck and shaped the kit supplied tow cable to fit.

The images and instructions show where the confusion came from, the tank is currently in primer so images yet to show how I fixed it but will upload a couple when I get a minute.

May not be entirely accurate but I barely know a panther from a T34 etc, looks like a tank to me so it'll do,

[spanner570]

I've finally got my brain to function....

I remembered I have one of these exact models (or what's left of it) in my spares box. I have it in front of me now.

There are no mounting brackes or hooks at all, are there?! I made this years ago, and not knowing much better, I have just glued the supplied straight cables directly onto the side of the hull, tight under the tools and spare track links on both sides.

I can clearly see where your confusion has arisen from now I can see the model.....very unclear just where the cables go.

Such was the beauty of ignorance that I just blindly carried on with a near enough attitude.....It still looks like a Panther though!

Cheers,

Ron

[Guest]

There aren't any mounting points on my 1/25 Jagdpanther either & that's a Academy re-box of an old Tamiya kit.

I guess it's another example of a lack of accuracy in these old motorised kits.

[Guest]

Thanks Ron, ultimately, that's all that matters.

I picked this up from my LHS, (Ha, 85miles L), while I was in the town last weekend, I have the Tamiya Sherman M4 with the figures in the pile and want to make a good go of it so have been on the lookout for a cheap practise tank.

This one was just under £16 against all the others at £30+

The guy in the shop is a tank builder and has some of his very nice dio's in the shop window, I asked about the price difference and he proceeded to explain the innaccuracies in the kit, the turret shape, bits of the hull, blah blah, my brain just went for a wander and I thought, what the hell, it looks like a tank to me, LOL

To be fair he said, it's a perfectly decent kit and builds up well and is great for a first tank and to practise weathering, he wasn't trying to push the pricier ones on me.

The really laughable thing is i'd called in specifically to buy the Tamiya Ducati 900ss bevel MHR kit i'd seen there a couple of weeks before but it was gone. Not much difference eh, racing bike, WWII german battle tank,

[Guest]

This is the exact same kit that you have, the arrow shows where the rear mounting should've been