Dear All,
I've got a basic start on this conversion. I've waited awhile to get this (and the Ausf. D) in my hands. I'm not particularly a Panther nut, but I'd like to build an example of each Ausfuhrung for my collection.
I opened the box and was a little disappointed at first. In my mind the quality of the casting wasn't that great. It took me a day of just looking at it and looking at pictures and reading Bob's small instruction sheet. I decided to tackle the job by first cleaning up the resin. It was chunky, but no casting blocks attached. After getting through all that resin, I could see the reasoning behind the specific molding. Essentially its a thick chunk that has to be ground down, but the parts had no warpage, almost no air bubbles, and cleaned up very well.
I'm building this up as either 800 or 801 of 8/SS-PzRegt.5 of Wiking SS-PzDiv. I'm going to have to scratch a new rear hull. The one provided with the kit is all "zimmed" up and not accurate for either of those tanks. I also didn't like the shape of the lifting hooks on the side plates at the rear. You'll notice they're missing in the photo, but will be replaced later. Otherwise, this is a well made conversion, but like most requires some modeling and research skills to be applied.
Yours,
Shon
Here's a peek of the upper hull cleaned up with the rear and turrent laid on for a better overall view.
