Another (Taigen) Late Panther G , 'Müncheberg' IR April 45

[Dr Phibes]

So, the time as come to begin my Panther Build and this time I decided to be a little more specific in regards to what I wanted to do this time. I already had it in mind to build an infrared Panther and had seen some examples here and elsewhere and found this late development quite intriguing, The Consequence of this build plan would mean I needed a clearer example of these unusual Panthers so I embarked upon a little research and found surprisingly limited information. Still, from what I gleaned there appears some consensus regarding the IR equipped Panthers in action that formed part of the 'PanzerDivision Müncheberg' that was formed 5th March 1945. To cut a long story short Panzer division Müncheberg was apparently involved in ferocious fighting around Berlin until the end of the war, including some night-fighting by IR equipped Panthers. One of these was, or so it appears, Nr. 122 which was eventually knocked out east of Berlin late in April 1945:

Notice on the ground the remnants of the IR lamp and the rear right-hand IR equipment storage box that replaces the standard fit toolbox (click on images to enlarge).

It is by no means clear, from what I had discovered, that 122 was in fact part of the 10 or so Panthers that formed the (IR) Panzerkompanie but it seems likely. Regardless, of this it's a good enough template for modelling a specific IR equipped Panther involved in active operations towards the close of the war. The plan, then, is to at least to use 122 as my template, if not a precise representation. To this end, and with this in mind earlier, I decided to start the build with a Taigen Pro-Metal Edition Panther G which arrived as follows out of the box, so to speak:

I was quite happy with the overall quality of the stock Taigen tank. I have several others (or at least started with them) and do think they are generally pretty good compared to some of the other offerings. However, I spotted a couple of minor and unusual issues - gaps at the bottom of the glacis plate and the rear side armour next to the left-hand toolbox are present and quite pronounced;

These are fairly straightforward problems to deal with but not something I had noticed with other Taigen tanks. Anyway, just to wrap up this introduction to the build here are a couple of shots uner the bonnet (or hood) as they say over the pond :

These Taigen gearboxes run 390 motors and are, all in all, pretty good. However, I plan to replace them and replant these in my KT, which could do with some a fresh power pack. Likewise I intend to upgrade most of the electronics, the present Taigen V3 system to be used as part of my waiting P3 build. At the moment just waiting to get together all the necessary re-build parts to start this build proper - the parts list seems to grow by the day!
Anyway, by way of an introduction and start, that's it for now.

[HERMAN BIX]

This is going to be excellent watching.
And a great base model to kick off with too.
I notice on the period pics that the turret flanks have the very unique mounts for the spare road wheels.
I put a link to this feature in my build that deals with the little nuances that give a signature to the various Panther manufacturers.
Also of note is the positioning of the crosses.
That paint job will be a test I reckon, so much masking involved, but thats what is going to make this build so great to look in on.

Just a word of caution, when ordering the I.R. parts, get Mr Painless to order them for you from Asiatam, you'll have better luck getting them than i did (its a thing!)

[AGKPeiper]

Looks an interesting build to follow.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

I will be following along, as I have a few Taigen tanks with or ready to be converted to V3. It looks as if the tools, cables etc. are already installed on your Panther G. Did you get it used?

[HERMAN BIX]

https://www.track-link.com/forums/site_blogs/41118/flat

This has your exact tank subject in it, plus the turret mounted spare wheel hangers, I.R. plugs, a very handy reference for your project.

[jhamm]

Good Morning,
your Panther looks excellent.

The Panther in the pictures can be dated very precisely:
- No chin-mantlet, these were available from October 1944.
- Three colour camouflage => start September 1944
- experimental installation of IR aiming device => September 1944
- no Splinter protection above the chin-mantlet => availaibvle August 1944
- no Rain protection over driver's mirror => availaibvle August 1944
- "Flammvernichter" Exhaust => availaible late September 1944
this Panther was manufactured in late September 1944 by Daimler-Benz.


Yes, once again the "striped panthers" of Müncheberg. The fairy tale just can't be killed.
To shed a little light on this.
The Panthers with the striking striped camouflage actually existed during the fighting in the area around Küstrin.
They are relatively well documented in a series of photos taken near Küstrin in February 1945.
However, these "Striped Panthers" did not belong to the Pz.Div. "Müncheberg".
This opinion was merely the result of an assumption at an earlier time.
Today we know more.

The "Streifen Panther" belonged to the I./PzRgt "Brandenburg",
which was subordinated to the Pz.Gren.Div. "Kurmark" from January 1945 and fought on the Oder Front near Küstrin.
The Pz.Gren.Div "Kurmark" had its own tank regiment (Pz.Rgt. "Kurmark"), but this was not equipped with Sd.Kfz.171 Panther.
And at the time of the battles around Küstrin in February 1945 the Pz.Div. "Müncheberg" had no Panther at all.
It was not until early April 1945 that the "Müncheberg" was assigned Panthers to its Panzer Regiment (1st Company, 29th PzRgt.).

The photos of the striped Panthers show them as brand new vehicles without any traces of use.
These Panthers, according to their structural characteristics, are production lots from October or November 1944 of MNH.
This coincides exactly with the period (September to November 1944) in which the camouflage patterns were to be applied directly to the anti-rust paint due to a lack of colour.
There was a shortage of dark yellow paint.
This circumstance then also partly explains the very unusual stripe pattern as camouflage ... yellow edged dark green stripes on reddish brown rust protection paint.

A very late MNH Panther

MNH1-late.jpg (62.23 KiB) Viewed 5893 times

MNH-2.jpg (33.91 KiB) Viewed 5893 times

MNH-3.jpg (26.71 KiB) Viewed 5893 times

[DzNile4L]

Oooooo loverly

[Dr Phibes]

Thanks everyone for your interest and helpful comments

Herman, thanks so much for the pointers and the Track-Link link, etc. I had looked at this and it was one of the builds that motivated my interest in 122 as a guide to my Panther project too. I remember you discussing the unusual spare wheel mounts and, for sure, I will be re-visiting your thread for reference many times I expect The I.R. stuff (e.g. Fg1250, etc.) I have already assembled fortunately (from WeCoHe) as I committed to the idea of an I.R Panther some time ago. What has held me up a little is delivery of the suspension upgrade parts that I planned to use but thankfully these are now on the way and should be with me very soon, hopefully!

Herr Dr., thanks for looking in. No, I bought this Taigen Panther a fair while ago but as it was just sitting on the shelf waiting for this build to start I simply popped on all the accessories and bits so I didn't lose them (box and packaging disposed of for room) and people didn't keep asking "isn't there some bits missing from this one?" , oh, and it just looked better sitting there meanwhile.

jihamm, thanks for your interest and taking the time to assemble some of the relevant information and history . I am fairly well acquainted with most of this from my own research but I very much appreciate the effort. I think, however, I might have misled you a little regarding the paintwork as my planned re-build (along the lines of nr. 122) will of course include re-painting in, or at least very near one hopes, what this tank would have appeared like in March/April 1945 (before it was destroyed of course). The stripped finish you see in the images is that of the base Taigen tank, as it arrived from the retailer, and which I actually really quite like. This will, though, go if I stick to my plans as a complete strip-down will be necessary.

[Dr Phibes]

A quick update on the planned '122' build. Most of the parts have now arrived and I am, at last, in a position to actually begin. The last of the photo etch is now at hand, although this was not so important as most is applicable to the upper hull and turret exterior which will be tackled later. What I was waiting on more urgently was the Corleis adjustable suspension upgrade which I needed to make a start on the lower hull. Now it's just a case of figuring out how it will go together . Anyway here is the collected pile at last;

A closer look at the Corleis suspension - going to be fun working out how this all goes together/works

A couple of upgrades from Heng Long that may or may not find their way into this build as I'm not sure yet what kind of job Taigen have done on the turret internals - we shall see as they say

And the eagle-eyed may have spotted this little piece of Wecohe magic, which is of course the FG1250 Infrared Night-Fighting Device (as they call it). I picked this up early on in the planning stage when I decided to go the IR route with my Panther and whilst waiting for other parts managed to get ahead and amuse myself by putting it together - micro-soldering some of the detail was a real challenge for my tired old eyes I can tell you!

I opted, as can be seen above, not to go with the dual-current, clutch drive gearbox simply because I may well need the space for the smoke generator which will (possibly) be located between the Taigen gearboxes. So, now it is a case of deconstrusting my lovely new Panther so I build up again - onwards and upwards as the say!

[square4]

Liking the look of this, its going to be a must watch seeing the result of the infra red sight.