I started the surveillance radar today. Not a piece of cake at all.
Panda designers goofed in numerous parts. The tubular structure is a pain to clean. Some inner parts are too short or poorly molded. So I had to make new ones from styrene.
After some hours working I managed to obtain a sufficient result.
Then I tried to assemble the radar pedestal. I followed the assembly sequence of the instructions to discover that it doesn’t allow you to get the right result. The pedestal is surrounded by a squarish part you are supposed to glue first which I did. Then you should insert the pedestal into the square. It simply is impossible.
The pedestal has a part at the bottom which prevents the insertion. So I had to unglue the square and delete the positioning rod on one face of the pedestal.
Olivier
6 Likes
You made that cake look good. 
3 Likes
That’s great work there Olivier even with all the problems. That radar frame looks like a nightmare to clean up!
4 Likes
Definitely 
and I only showed the front part.
Olivier
3 Likes
Despite all efforts from Panda to discourage me to complete this build I managed to finish the turret (or close to).
The pedestal has been modified to insert the squarish part (see the message above). I needed to add a piece of styrene as a part was too short.
Then I test fitted the radar onto the pedestal and with no surprise it can’t work. The radar axis is designed to be workable and is larger than the pedestal hole. This one should be built around the radar axis for the system to work.
Another issue is the weird design of the part surrounded in yellow. You are supposed to insert it between the tubular structure of the radar frame. Whatever you do it is impossible so I ended by cutting the upper part, gluing the lower part as requested and adding the upper part from above.
I finally assembled the front face of the turret. No big trouble there. Some positioning rods were not aligned with the corresponding holes so they were deleted. Some others were not present on the parts.
I decided not to glue the radar to the pedestal to make the assembly easier. You can see that the pedestal can tilt forward. However when doing so if the radar base rests on the designed stops, the radar arms do not.
Olivier
8 Likes
