The steering of Jagdpanther 411 is now responding very well. She is now within a whisker of ideal steering setting. The second Jagdpanther project is temporarily on hold as we focus on the armoured car project. A troublesome track pin that came loose during Tankfest has been rectified. We are to fit the correct late Notek convoy lamp on the rear of the Jagdpanther once it is assembled. This is due to start next week.
Good progress in the wire frame drawings for two of the armoured cars – the Ausf A 3 Serie Sd.Kfz 223 and 4 Serie Sd.Kfz 222. The hull drawings for the Sd.Kfz 223 are now complete. The significant number of original panels will now be let into the wire frame drawings at the correct position and marked on the drawing and on the artefact accordingly in readiness for the welding process. The Sd.Kfz 222 is much more difficult as no complete 4 Serie Sd.Kfz 222 survived with the exception of ours. We fortunately do have a good number of panels but are not able to work from a complete example to simplify matters. Using known panels and working from them is achieving the best results so far. We are not far away now from having a drawing of a complete hull that is correct. The front half of the hull wire frame drawing is now correct. The panels are being drawn individually and will be matched to each survivor. The next step is the rear of the SdKfz 222 Ausf A. This will be easy as we already have half the rear intact.
The VW 166 Schwimmwagen received the paperwork this week from VW in Germany. This goes some way to helping us determine how she was finished back in 1943. The detail here will be covered in our online magazine Inside Track. The tyres have been fitted but the rubber gaiters still require attention as they are ill fitting. More test drives have been conducted this week and the drive experience has improved significantly. The wide tyres are a lot more tricky to steer with than the older VW82 Kubelwagen variety it used to be fitted with. The steering is also receiving additional attention as the right hand wheel is offset and needs adjustment.
A breakthrough in the steering fitting for the 5 Serie Sd.Kfz 261 happened when we discovered the wrong angled steering fitting had been fitted to the 3 Serie Sd.Kfz 223. Result! Now all that needs doing is to locate an original angled steering set up for the 3 Serie Sd.Kfz 223. A good fall back solution would be to use our 4 Serie Sd.Kfz 222 and commission patterns and cast and machine.
