Panther Gs Detail upgrades

[STHV]

Yes, this whole build is very good

Sorry, got a dumb historical question, would they have hidden the numbers like that behind spare tracks?

Yes i believe they did, i have been putting a lot of time into researching the Panther Ausf D and by extension the Ausf A as it is essentially the same hull for my Panther D project that i will post soon (just waiting for the last of the parts

[Son of a gun-ner]

Thanks

So weird, why they bother with numbers

[Soeren]

Thanks guys. Maybe they started with numbers and then realise that more protection would be worth covering that. The turret sides were not particularly well armoured.

[jimbo_wa]

Lovely attention to detail, you know it’s there ready to be uncovered...




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[Son of a gun-ner]

Yeah, they probably had to give extra protection to their diminishing numbers as the war got nearer the end, so identification was far less important.

I'm enjoying all the extra history lessons I get on his forum from you guys

[Soeren]

The other day I added the remaining hooks to the left side around the cupola. The gunner and commander should feel safer now. I added some rough weld marks and then blended the paint on by brush adding some discoloration around these. Guess they wouldn't spray the entire turret again for a perfect match in such a field modification.

[HERMAN BIX]

Great result. Looking real authentic now

[Soeren]

Thank you Herman. It also gives me another excuse to not finish this one
I had a look at the Panzer Tracts unfortunately it doesn't have a picture applied track links on a turret. The Dragon kit has plastic or copper options, while the latter are from round wire, the plastic ones are more square. If anyone here has closeup pictures of such a Panther maybe you can share them with us.

[Soeren]

Found plenty of reference pictures in various forum posts. Rod and slat shaped hangers were used. And they were welded to the roof or the sides. Thickness wise they could have been thinner. I used 1mm brass, but .7 would have been closer. Track links were hung either on the pins or from the 2 holes that the sprocket would grip into.
Mounted the the wheels and the plate for a dklm gearbox. The latter needed some washers under the plate. The corleis suspension builds up higher so the plate doesn't seat as it should. Hope that won't cause too many problems.
Speaking of the suspension, that is what makes the wheels not sit right as it is too weak in the Taigen version.

[HERMAN BIX]

That’s looking real good.
On the track hangers, some tanks had the guide horns facing inward so the hangers would have been made accordingly.
One thing I have never seen a picture of is any track other than Panther hung up.
I get that it’s smart to have plenty of spare track in case of damage or failure, but from a pure extra armour point , there would have been a better use of other material saving the proper Panther track for its intended use on running gear.
If each Panther carried say a quarter of a full track on it turret, 8 Panthers had the equivalent of a full tank s worth of track, meaning a factory had to make another set for a new tank to actually run on, so in and so on.
A lot of added manufacturing pressure at a time when they couldn’t cope.
Just a thought anyway