Earlier this year I decided to change tack with my hobby. After 50 years of being involved with steam engines in all shapes & sizes (full size, miniature live steam & ‘O’ gauge) I was getting a little fed up with paddling about in mud building miniature railways (SMET & ESME) combined with the associated dirt, grime & hassle of owning steam engines.

Operating my good friend Roger’s petrol / mechanical set up with all its sophistcated controls at an open day at ESME last year:

It set me thinking, especially as I went home clean for a change!

Tanks have always appealed & initially I started with the Heng Long range of WW2 models. All the sound, smoke, air soft BB guns & the ability to ‘fight them’ using infra red sensors was really cool. The bug bit, I wanted something bigger (as one does, doesn’t one?!) so I sold my collection of steam & purchased the Armortek 1/6th scale Panther tank kit in March of this year.

What a beauty! I am hooked.

The next stage is to add the external detail such as tools, accessories & camourflage. Then finish installing the electronics & the motion packs.

In addition to the 1/6th scale tank I have the Heng Long 1/16th scale WW2 tanks as well. Something smaller to operate in the garden with friends. One of the models is the late 1944 version of the Panther which was a useful guide when building the larger model. I thought it would be interesting to see a comparison…….

The final step after first testing in the garden to iron out any bugs (and there was one big one unfortunately, but Armortek replaced the faullty Module ‘A’) and let me set up the transmitter to fine tune the actions of the model. Then it was off to the Almondell Model Engineering Centre for a full ‘shake down’!

And here is the Panther making its shake down run…..