Detailing 21st Century’s Pak 40
By Mark W. Reasoner

21st Century Toys has released a number of jewels for the 1/6th community, and one of them is certainly the PAK (Panzer Abwehr Kanone) 40 German anti-tank gun. Although it is well done, there are a number of things that can be altered to make it even more accurate and true to scale.

To begin, there are 2 items 21st Century Toys molded nicely, but installed backwards during assembly. These are the large bracket at the left rear of the gun carriage (installed upside down) and the side of the breach block (turned with the forward edge pointed to the rear).

In the picture above, the straight edge of the bracket should be up, and the notch in the side of the breach block should face forward, not to the rear of the gun. You’ll also see different parts of the PAK identified for future reference.

A third item, molded in part accurately, and in part inaccurately, is the kit box located over the barrel on the inside of the gun shield.

 

The kit box is held in place by two screws, over which the lid was glued. If you want a fully functional box, you’d have to pitch it. As I was just concerned with the look, not necessarily the function of the box, I sliced the female side of the screw mounts on the back of the shield in half, to create a new glue support for the box when it was turned on it’s side. The lid was put on with small dollhouse hinges using straight pins glued in place of rivets. A small hook was likewise “riveted” to the lid, while the latch was “riveted” to the box. The Box can open, but I did not bother to do anything to the interior of the box due to its misshapen design.

 

Another item molded well, but easily spotted as held together with screws, was the barrel muzzle. Two screws hold the front of the muzzle together on either side of the opening, and a third one holds it in place on the barrel at the back. The male/female screw mounts in the front of the muzzle are highly visible from the rear, as well as the fact that there is no opening at the back of the muzzle through which a round can pass. I cut out the screw mounts, gluing the two halves together instead and using green putty to fill the holes/build up the area for strength. I also bored out a hole in the back of the muzzle so it would look like a round could come out of the barrel. Painting an opening could simulate this, but I went with drilling. I did keep the rear screw to attach the muzzle to the barrel and for strength. Since it is back inside the barrel a little ways, it is not easily seen. The baffle in the center of the muzzle should be solid, so this area was also filled with green putty, and the mold marks filed off smooth.

 

 

An additional part, molded fairly accurately for shape but not in orientation, are the ‘torsion bar’ type fittings on either side of the gun carriage, shown for comparison in the photo below with the corresponding part of a real PAK 40 (from opposite sides of the gun, photo of real gun courtesy of Dubar).

 

 

 

Modification of this part starts by filing the opening of the shackle the same width as the torsion arm (continues the same line of the outside edge of the arm through the shackle) and then continues by using a razor saw to cut down along the sides of the arm. The semi-circular tube ‘head’ piece is cut free from the connecting shaft that drops down to the bracket. A nut that just fits over the connecting shaft is sliced in half to make two thin nuts, with the new flat side glued on the new bottom side of semi-circular tube header piece.

 

 Additionally, two 5mm nuts were turned in a lathe to produce a pattern on the head of the bolt that is similar to the pattern on the top of the real McCoy. A #10 steel flat washer is used to replicate the look of the real item, and a locking ‘L’ bar was fabricated from a small piece of ¼ x 1/16 flat bar. The locking bar was held in place by drilling two holes through the new lock bar into the semi-circular tube header piece and held in place with two round headed micro screws; an even more accurate depiction would use filister head screws.  See the pictures below:

 

 

 

The open side of the bracket was closed in using thin sheet styrene, and the bracket re-attached to the arm with a nut, washer and bolt. Notice in the right hand side picture above, that it was taken with the modified parts held in place by tension – the lower split nut later used to glue/hold the two pieces (bracket with shaft and the semi-circular tube header piece) together is not shown.