Captainbertie

Hi all,

Thought you might like to see my Heng Long Panther now it's been finished......she is mostly
scale, except for the Tiger tracks & Mato Wheels of course. It is'nt based on any particular tank or colour....just experimented a bit with the airbrush and I'm quite pleased with the result for my first time at it......The tank has all metal gearboxes,wheels,sprockets and idlers, tracks,wheel support arms,
and accessories. It has a large bass speaker and a proportional smoker both of which work great......I used a tamiya gun elevation treaverse instead of the HL (no room in the cut down turret)......she has flashing turret Mg and hull Mg and of course, the bb gun which works surprisingly well since I had to extend the barrel..........The surprising thing is the weight...tips the scales at 22lbs......I am sooooo glad I did the suspension modification to give more support or I am sure she would be on her belly............anyway enjoy........

CaptB

hdbeast

It looks great, airbrushing looks good too, and 22lbs that's heavy !![sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

JerB

yeah great looking panther mate

Jeremy

Perry S.

WOW cappy,
That is the only HL Pantiger I've seen that looks passable. I guess it doesn't qualify as a Pantiger anymoreReally a nice job. Looks stretched the right amount and looks like you put on a scale barrel as well. Tracks are he only noticable thing. Wonder how it would look next to a Tam Panther? Did you adjust the width as well?
I only have one major complaint. THere was no build thread

Plastic scouser

Nice work Capt B looks great mines been abandoned for now, lost interest after Tamiya released theirs working on my King Tiger instead

Cheers Ian

ArmChairGeneral

I think I seen only one other 'good' HL Panther, can't remember who's it was though. Did you stretch the hull or anything major? Very good job and I agree with Perry, where is the build thread! :P

pzrwest

Very nice job. May I make a suggestion when applying decals gloss coat the area before applying the decals with clear glosscoat from Testors this will prevent silvering. When a decal is applied to a flat or semi flat paint minute air bubbles will be trapped under the decal but with clear glosscoat the surface is now smooth. Apply a small amount of decal setting solution to make the decal snuggle down to the surface. When set then apply a coat of clear dullcoat this will restore the flat or semiflat finish to the paint and decal.

Captainbertie

Hi Guys and thanks for the comments........yes the upper hull and lower hull were stretched to the correct length and the idler and drive sprockets moved to the correct positions (Thanks plastic Scouser!!!)........also the barrel is correct length although a little fat because of the BB gun.......the turret dimensions and the rotation position are correct and the rear round covers have been moved to correct position too. Sorry about the lack of build thread...I have been posting on progress from time to time.......perhaps I'll do one on the Jagdpanther?........compared to the Tamiya panther, she is just a little wider, due to the the tiger tracks. Yeah I know the decals are the HL ones and not great....only ones I had to hand but he ho........most of the mods I have done have been flashed across the forum at some time and I thank all who have contributed.............

Cheers

CaptB

titan20

So did you use tiger tracks with the Panther wheels, or the tracks that come with the sprockets? I was just wondering, because all I have found at MATO is the sprocket/track combination.

Captainbertie

Hi Titan,

I used the panther road wheel set and the panther track and sprocket set from Mato, but because I had already fixed the position of the raod wheels,this meant that I couldnt use the actual panther tracks, they are too close to the hull, but the sprocket teeth are the same as the tiger's, but the design is for the panther......worked out really well actually..................hope this is'nt too confusing.......

Cheers

CaptB

titan20

So, you're saying if you hadn't corrected the position of the roadwheels, you could have used the Panther tracks. By the way, that Panther is awesome. Tamiya or not, 100% correct or not, that is one of the coolest Panthers I've seen, period.

Captainbertie

Hi Titan and thanks for the compliments....I forgot to mention that she drives like a real tank
probably due to the weight......awesome to watch it.........I'll get a video camera one day......anyway,if you put the road wheels straight on the pantiger support arms, the tracks don't fit because the runner for the middle and idler wheel is too close to the hull....you have to shim the wheels and sprockets out by about 3/16" I think to get the tracks and thus the sprockets to fit right....they would be flush with the edge of the upper hull but I did'nt think that this would look that good so I stuck with the Tiger tracks.......apparently they did fit them to panthers towards the end of the war anyway when parts got scarce.....my get out anyway......
good luck with yours........

CaptB

swathdiver

Your Panther looks great! Thanks for sharing!

My Panther running gear from Mato went on without the spacers and everything fits and runs fine. Boy did those road wheels add some weight to the tank! Haven't weighed it but it's a might heavier then my highly modified M26A1!

Captainbertie

Yeah I know what you mean......mine weighs 22lbs...........Jagdpanther next eh!!!!

CaptB

Strathcona

Hello !
Great looking Kat . Very nice Panther .

Frank

Miggers

Very,very nice Cappy.

That is one well executed conversion and it certainly looks the part.

I guess your next build is one very strong transport box to keep the brute in,anything too weedy and it'll fall through the bottom when you pick it up.[X(][X(][X(][X(]


Miggers

Captainbertie

Hi Miggers and thanks a lot for the compliments........she is darn heavy with all the metal in her......good job I re-inforced the hull with 1/4" square box section to stiffen it up.......the tank drives just how I guess it would...fairly slow and controllable with alot of presence.....

Cheers

CaptB

proulxlaw

My Feedback: (3)

OK. Just so we're clear... I bought Mato Panther metal track set and metal road wheel set and I have not attempted to install them yet.

These will all fit without using spacers or other means to install them?

17012345

Looks great, very nice

regards
peter

Captainbertie

Hi,

To answer your question.....No they wont...I offered up my Mato track set to my Tiger and the tracks were touching the inner hull wall, because the middle runner on the track is more central than the Tiger track.....you will need to space the wheels a bit to get it running right although
Swaffy says otherwise......darned if I could get them on mine........

Cheers

CaptB

proulxlaw

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks. I am just going to get a Tamiya Panther kit and use the track set on that.

Will the mato metal road wheel set fit the Tamiya Panther?

Captainbertie

Hi,

I think that buying the Tamiya panther would solve a lot of the problems.....I am considering this for a Jagdpanther.......The Mato Wheels set and tracks will not fit the Tamiya panther.....the sprocket is different and I think the shaft size is also different.....I think the Mato stuff was made to swap out on the HL Panther but it's not as simple as that, possibly requiring the spacing mod
to get everything to fit.....personally I think this is not worth doing since the pantiger is so wrong, adding scalish tracks just does'nt cut it without the full makeover.......good luck with yours......

CaptB