What if? A Panther Modification Project

[SoCalBobS]

In the near future I am going to be working on a fantasy modification for my HL Panther. I'll be removing the main gun and turret and replacing it with a Night Vision Gatling Gun. Details forthcoming in the next weeks. Here's a tease:



Are we having fun yet?

[Rubicon99]

Love the "what if" theme projects especially when they are done by someone with your skill set. Looking forward to seeing your project develop.

[Tang - RC.Senshado]

Honestly a PanTiger hull would be great for this

[SoCalBobS]

Honestly a PanTiger hull would be great for this

Great idea, nice use for an otherwise pointless tank!

Another tease. These are 3D renderings. A real one may look different...

[tank_me]

I have bought the E100 this guy also designed. I'm using part of his STLs and part of Inkor's for my E100 project. Yours will be an interesting project. It would be really cool to get those barrels to rotate... :)

[SoCalBobS]

I have bought the E100 this guy also designed. I'm using part of his STLs and part of Inkor's for my E100 project. Yours will be an interesting project. It would be really cool to get those barrels to rotate... :)

By all means, start a thread about the E-100! Have you looked at enough to determine the feasibility of powering it? If so, how? Eager to hear.

I'd love to make the barrels rotate, but I will "build stock" for the first time.

For those following, these can be found on a 3D Printing products site called Cults3D. The designer is called "Austrian_3D_Art". They are NOT intentionally made to be used with 1/16 scale tanks. Making them do so is the responsibility of the buyer. His files include versions in many popular scales, from 1/72 up to 1/16. Here are a couple of examples.

Leopard Terminator. Perhaps the turret could be mounted on a r/c Leopard chassis?



Uberlord. Looks like an expansion of the E-100 file?

[tank_me]

By all means, start a thread about the E-100! Have you looked at enough to determine the feasibility of powering it? If so, how? Eager to hear.



Uberlord. Looks like an expansion of the E-100 file?

I'm using one of those HL dual current gearboxes in it. Currently all I have is the fast versions, but I'm going to try and get a hold of one of the slower ones. So far it seems to power it just fine, but the tracks are really grippy. Neutral turns on carpet are very hard on the tracks. There is a guy on Inkor's discord building that dual barrel navel gun variant of the E100.

[SoCalBobS]

Here are the parts; turret top, turret base, gun barrel and rotation drum, rotation pin, night vision module, two hatches and a mantlet cover.

[SoCalBobS]

The first task is to sand and grind the rotation drum, pin and mounts on the turret base to get a smooth movement. This took a couple of hours. As mentioned before, this was not designed to be operational. Variations in actual material were not taken into account, hence the need for my fitting work.




Two teasers again, showing the potential range of elevation:

[SoCalBobS]

Biggest modification. This is the critical milestone, had to be done before anything else. The underside of the turret base had this ring which was too big for the well in my tank so it had to be removed.



I used a Ryobi rotary cutter, essentially a Dremel in steroids. So far I have about 4-5 hours of grinding, sanding and fitting, but the gross segments are done.




After this it's how to activate the elevation. Either a servo, or preferably a HL motor/gear module. We'll see.

[Rubicon99]

The first task is to sand and grind the rotation drum, pin and mounts on the turret base to get a smooth movement. This took a couple of hours. As mentioned before, this was not designed to be operational. Variations in actual material were not taken into account, hence the need for my fitting work.




Two teasers again, showing the potential range of elevation:

That turrets looking awesome!!!

[tank_me]

Looking good.

Have you tried using your slicer to modify the files so that you don't have to do all the cutting and sanding? I used his E100 turret for example. It didn't match up with Inkor's turret ring. I used the Bambu slicer to "cut" the turret ring off the turret, added a circle to fill the hole, and then added a negative cylinder to create the new hole in the bottom of the turret to accept Inkor's ring. Also using the slicer, I added a circle to the build plate to use as an adapter to Inkor's turret ring.

Just some suggestions to save you resin and modification time in the future.

[SoCalBobS]

Looking good.

Have you tried using your slicer to modify the files so that you don't have to do all the cutting and sanding? I used his E100 turret for example. It didn't match up with Inkor's turret ring. I used the Bambu slicer to "cut" the turret ring off the turret, added a circle to fill the hole, and then added a negative cylinder to create the new hole in the bottom of the turret to accept Inkor's ring. Also using the slicer, I added a circle to the build plate to use as an adapter to Inkor's turret ring.

Just some suggestions to save you resin and modification time in the future.

Unfortunately you're talking Greek to me. I don't 3DP. I commissioned the print, and am adapting the printed product with bench tools. But thank you anyway. If I could do as you suggested, I would. If I get another of his products, I'll have to research your suggestion.

[tank_me]

NP...I thought you had printed your T-35.

[SoCalBobS]

Progress last night. Motor actuated elevation wasn't feasible, so I grabbed an old HL 6.1S and made a linkage. The advantage is a high angle of elevation. Useless for IR battles, but cool nevertheless.




The turret base plate is glued onto a Sherman base, to facilitate rotation via ring gear.

[SoCalBobS]

One more step. I mounted Tang's five pin socket & cable product for the LegoDEI IR receiver. When painted, it'll bled into all the other protrusions.

[Rubicon99]

One more step. I mounted Tang's five pin socket & cable product for the LegoDEI IR receiver. When painted, it'll bled into all the other protrusions.

Taking shape fast. 👍👍

[SoCalBobS]

The last major component has been added, the IR emitter. After trying another option that didn't pan out, I added a Clark 3DP IR emitter shell to the to of the barrel. This required some cutting and fitting on the shroud, but mainly drilling through the large rotation drum to route the wires into the turret. Fortunately the resin is a good material for this type of thing.




My only real step before heading off to the paint shop is to figure out how to attach the turret shell to the turret base. No glue her, I gotta be able to remove the shell for maintenance. I'm leaning towards magnets.

[SoCalBobS]

1946...

The Panther is 90% done, needs weathering and some detailing. Here's how it looks now.

So, what's that marking on the turret? Well, after a stinging defeat in the winter of 1944 and a successful assassination and coup, the German Army capitulated on the Western Front. However, the Soviets on the Eastern Front continued their assault, moving past Berlin into what was then Western Germany. By 1946 it was apparent the USSR planned to overrun all of Europe. It was evident reconstructing Germany and the other European countries were in no condition to resist. Pragmatically, the Allies began to unify, using war material from all sources. As the USSR's air assets were heavy in ground support with limited high altitude bombers, low level anti aircraft weapons were deemed effective. 20mm Gatling guns were mounted on existing chassis, in this case the Panther G.

Or at least that's my story!

[MrChef]

I dig it. I like your backstory and your build is cool and creative. Reminds me of Jnewboys 1946 Panther.