Converting an HL Panther "G" to an "A"

[ALPHA]

BOOK STUFF 3..MID "A"
ALSO NOT A PANTHER

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

BOOK STUFF 4 LATE "A"
A PEEPING PANTHER

ALPHA

PS... THE IMAGES THAT WERE ONCE POSTED ARE NOW GONE...HOPE YOU ALL MADE COPIES OR TOOK NOTES....FELT BAD AS THEY HAD COPYRIGHTS

[jeff1101]

I think the hardest part of the conversion is changing the new style Flammenvernichter exhaust into the old style exhaust of the A. Also there are G version of the panther that has zimmerit, ie. battle of the bulge panthers but none of the later G types with the Flammenvernichter exhausts had zimmerit.

[jeff1101]

Oh shoot, I think even harder is converting the less steep angle of the side armor of the G to a steeper one for the A and also adding that triangular vertical "wedge" were the side armor tapers off at the rear near the idler wheels. Not impossible to do, but very difficult on stock Heng long upper hull. I think it would be better to order the panther "A" kits from Chris.

[ALPHA]

Oh shoot, I think even harder is converting the less steep angle of the side armor of the G to a steeper one for the A and also adding that triangular vertical "wedge" were the side armor tapers off at the rear near the idler wheels. Not impossible to do, but very difficult on stock Heng long upper hull. I think it would be better to order the panther "A" kits from Chris.

Pantigers have that entire rear bulkhead already... so that part is easy

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

I think the most noticeable difference of the early A was the lack of a hull machine gun and the existence of a vision port for the driver....the exhausts were a minor detail which could have been the one on the Pantiger or the more normal dual on the G...subtle weld differences on the turret ...all in all would be a nice project...

ALPHA

[ALPHA]

After finishing my Panther G... I removed the commander from my old Pantiger... and noticed the turret is also appropriate for the Early A version...the mantlet armor plate might need a bit of adjustment...about a 1/4 inch back..to shorten the overall length of the thing... but it's a good representation

ALPHA

[dgsselkirk]

I can hardly wait to get started. I have a bunch of figures I am doing for Michael and then it's on to my 2 Panthers. The pantiger is massively distorted. Turret too short, too wide and lots of details that are wrong or missing completely. The same with the chassis. It is wider than it should be. It's almost like someone did the cad drawings and compressed the whole thing down and wider than it should be.

On the exhaust, Alpha you are right. They were mixed and matched through out the war. In fact just to be different I an going to put on the triple pipe exhausts on both models I am building as there were 2 months of cross over in production were A's and G's got this exhaust. In fact there is a pretty famous picture of a British soldier checking out a mid to late G with the triple pipes showing. Having said that if someone just wanted to have the single pipe version it is easy to cut the cooling tubes off the Pantiger exhaust and fill it in. And they are cheap you just have to watch for them. I picked up 2 complete Pantiger back plates with the exhaust for about $20.00 each including shipping.

The side armour will take a little work but should be pretty straight forward using proper drawings and some previous examples done here. Yes the kit would be nice but that takes half the fun out of it! Or is it 1/2 the frustration???

Also it keeps the cost down on the tank as there is enough being spent on extras!

[ALPHA]

I can hardly wait to get started. I have a bunch of figures I am doing for Michael and then it's on to my 2 Panthers. The pantiger is massively distorted. Turret too short, too wide and lots of details that are wrong or missing completely. The same with the chassis. It is wider than it should be. It's almost like someone did the cad drawings and compressed the whole thing down and wider than it should be.

The Pantiger's turret is actually longer than the Panther G's the mantlet is appropriate though as it doesn't have the underhang the Panther G has... the width is about the same... top back and sides as well....it is missing a few of the little bits ... but those are pretty easily added ...
It wouldn't be worth modding a Pantiger... I think stripping a beater...and combining with the present Panther G is a better route...that way as far as the lower is concerned .... you just add a view port and remove the machine gun dome on the front glacis plate

ALPHA