First steps in my attempt at Heisers' resin Panther D w/upgrades. It seems resin kits were all that was left in the stash. I'll add some stuff from the bits box (dark yellow plastic).
1/87 Heiser resin Panther D
- Thread starter minitnkr
- Start date
A_J_Rimmer
SMF Supporter
Cool!
Nice. Seated front row by Arnold
Will likely do 'A' upgrades. Never understood D, A, G designation progression. Why D first & where are B, C, & E? I think schmalturm is F?
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Same, and they did similar weird stuff with the Tiger: the first one was Ausführung H1, later renamed to E, and the second — but a 100% different design — was Ausf. B?
Either that or Panther II, but I can never keep those two straight.
Some progress. Adding 'A' upgrades. Don't like supplied (white) spare tracks, will look for plastic ones like (rust colored) example.
Progress pic. Getting closer.
Nice. Are you going to put it on your diorama?
A_J_Rimmer
SMF Supporter
Very cool!
Thanks. Donno Lee, just cleaning out the stash.
First coat after construction complete.
I think this is your best one yet Paul.
A_J_Rimmer
SMF Supporter
That's very nice!
scottie3158
SMF Supporter
Paul,
another miniture masterpiece.
another miniture masterpiece.
I'm only good for one hour of hard labor anymore. Then I need a cool down, cold one, and a break. Getting old is a bitch.
Hey Paul,
Love the resin Kitty and it is looking really good as it is now. Decals will set it off even better. Don't get too hung up over the D, A, G designations, or the Panther II and F...
MAN, in Nürnberg, was the factory behind the Kitty story. Other factories built them, but MAN was the head of Ops. D's were the first produced and quickly sent into battle in the Kursk offensive. Overheating, carb fires and bad final drives were the cause of most losses. They had a drum cupola. The rest of the D's were issued/tested at Grafenwohr, where they were rejected for service due to probs. Efforts to fix them there didn't go well, so they were refurbished at MAN. A's were built on the D chassis at first and fixes were introduced. They had the new cupola with periscopes and a mount for the AA MG, ball MG mount on the hull, as well as a Zimmerit coat.
Changes were made to the chassis on later A's. The G's had a redesigned simpler chassis and improved engine cooling. Steel wheeled Kittys were made on the G chassis too. The Kitty II chassis was built and tested in 1943 and the 2 made, sat at the factory. It was supposed to carry the Schmalturm with range finder technology, but it never happened. One of the Kitty II chassis is in the museum at Ft. Knox. They put a normal G turret on it for display. The F was to replace the G and used steel wheels G chassis and the schmalturm with range finder was to be mounted on it. Never made it into production as the war ended.
Sorry to put you to sleep My friend. I love my kitty's as they were built down the road from where I live. If you do need any info on them, just holler. Got any G's in the stash???
Prost
Mr. Ketchup (aka) Allen
Love the resin Kitty and it is looking really good as it is now. Decals will set it off even better. Don't get too hung up over the D, A, G designations, or the Panther II and F...
MAN, in Nürnberg, was the factory behind the Kitty story. Other factories built them, but MAN was the head of Ops. D's were the first produced and quickly sent into battle in the Kursk offensive. Overheating, carb fires and bad final drives were the cause of most losses. They had a drum cupola. The rest of the D's were issued/tested at Grafenwohr, where they were rejected for service due to probs. Efforts to fix them there didn't go well, so they were refurbished at MAN. A's were built on the D chassis at first and fixes were introduced. They had the new cupola with periscopes and a mount for the AA MG, ball MG mount on the hull, as well as a Zimmerit coat.
Changes were made to the chassis on later A's. The G's had a redesigned simpler chassis and improved engine cooling. Steel wheeled Kittys were made on the G chassis too. The Kitty II chassis was built and tested in 1943 and the 2 made, sat at the factory. It was supposed to carry the Schmalturm with range finder technology, but it never happened. One of the Kitty II chassis is in the museum at Ft. Knox. They put a normal G turret on it for display. The F was to replace the G and used steel wheels G chassis and the schmalturm with range finder was to be mounted on it. Never made it into production as the war ended.
Sorry to put you to sleep My friend. I love my kitty's as they were built down the road from where I live. If you do need any info on them, just holler. Got any G's in the stash???
Prost
Mr. Ketchup (aka) Allen
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- Jakko
What I find so odd is that Panthers kept being plagued by final drives that lasted for only about 100–200 km, yet Jagdpanthers got reinforced ones that gave very little trouble. Why didn’t they put those onto Panthers too once they had been developed?
I’m not exactly an expert on these tanks, but AFAIK the difference between Panther D and A is solely the turret. If the tank has the turret with the later cupola, no pistol ports, etc. it’s an A, even if it has a letterbox hull machine gun mount, for example.
Jim R
SMF Supporter
