RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

General Jumbo01 wrote:With all these facts and figures regarding Panthers, maybe l could ask - the Panther F. When did it see battle? I have read it was in Berlin for the final bash but even that was disputed by someone who claimed it was a G with a prototype F turret. Does anyone here know or can refer me to some reliable text?

Panther Ausf F hulls never recived their Schmalturm's but there are images of a supposed Ausf F hull fitted with a G turret in destroyed Berlin, these are all the same tank as they have identical damage to the front mudguard/fender, I belive it is indeed an Ausf F hull as the rails for the new driver/radio operator hatches are just visible in the second image and the opening of the empty Stg 44 Mg ball looks slightly more square than the Ausf G versions but without clearer images i cannot say for certain if it is an F




Any image of a Schmalturm on a Panther chasis is from initial testing of the first two turrets on Ausf G hulls


This image is the second turret, you can see it does not have the monocular gun sight hole and the rain guard over the mantlet has not been fitted yet

Production Ausf F would not have muzzle breaks due to the new recoil system in the Schmalturm
One thing I find interesting about these images of the trial turrets is that they are using left over early Ausf D tracks
As a side note no Ausf F was ever fitted with steel roadwheels, this was a trial run on the Ausf G only, if the war had progressed further then the F could have had these wheels depending on the results of the trials but likely would have used standard wheels for most of the time

Hope this helps

The history of design changes to the Panther is interesting to say the least, in several instances it was the case that the factory ran out of the 'current production' part and asked for a waver to use up old stock, or had to report that the mandated design level part was not available from that factories' supply chain on the date that the change was supposed to cut in.

Also to add: In this day and age there are a whole lot of very talented people producing very high quality fakes out there on the internet, be very sceptical of online image sources

So...and my research matches yours both, there was never a proper F operational during WW2 and probably not after. Why then are there so many models available in all scales, some depicted as being in Berlin. The model l'm thinking of even has kill rings on the barrel!

Despite all this, my new Taigen ltd ed Panther F is one of the best molded and detailed models l have and drives the best too. Ah well, it's still a great 'what if', had the war run for another 6 months. Does that mean l should build a T34/100 then?

As long as you don't present that as a real thing, who cares? I have seen a guy on RCU do a couple of 'what if' M41's that have given me some very bad ideas

Go on...do it!

Thanks for your help guys. I'll just park it next to my Pantiger. That's not s bad runner either!

My first tank was a Pantiger. While I've not yet managed to learn how to apply the paint job I want, it is still probably one of the very few Full Option Tamiya equiped examples out there

STHV wrote:I have spotted some errors in the performance data too
The Panther Ausf D according to this site has a front plate angled back at 35 degrees lol, it should be 55 and there is zero mention of the HL 210 engine despite it being fitted to the first 250 Panthers
It also lists a large number of completely fake vehicles like E-90, E-100 ,Tiger Ausf B and Panther II with a schmalturm and an 88mm

In all fairness 35 degrees measured from a horizontal line is the same as 55 degrees measured from a vertical line.