Anybody here ever built one? Pros and cons.
I picked one up at a local yard sale still sealed in the box like New for $8. I dont know why. I trying to get rid of most of the Stash🤣. I plan on getting an aftermarket gun barrel for it and a set of Tamiya rubber tracks. I hate those individual links. Its the 1994 kit. Thanks…
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I think half of the kit is the Italeri Panther. I’ve got one in progress. The kit has no periscopes, just the empty guards, the turret is too wide, and the photo etch that comes with the kit is passable but a bit less detailed than what you would get in modern kits. The hull machine gun looks pretty dreary, but other than that, it’s an okay build.
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I built this kit a few years ago and used Jentz & Doyle’s PANZER TRACTS No. 5-4, Panther II & Panther F. It has blueprints in 1/35 scale to accurize and detail the model. Also, the Panther F had a St.G. 44 for the hull mg so look for one in a late war German infantry weapons set.
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Do you mean this kit?
I built that long ago but turned it into a what-if (long before I knew that term) Bundeswehr 1960s-upgraded Panther. Anyway, one thing I remember is that the turret is too short because they screwed up the engine deck somehow, and compensated by shortening the turret behind the bend in the side. I didn’t find correcting it that hard by cutting off the back and scratchbuilding new rear sides, but some may not want to do that. In any case, I had the advantage that I was changing the whole engine deck, so it wouldn’t be obvious that the length somewhere is off.
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“Bundeswehr 1960s”? Do tell - or rather, show us a pic!
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Thats the one I got. Wanted to get it or the Panther II when they first came out but didnt want to pay alot. But for $8 I couldn’t pass it up.
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Aside from correcting the turret length and some minor stuff, I replaced the engine deck and hull rear by something reminiscent of a Leopard, the tracks by Leopard ones as well and added an M48 bore evacuator and blast deflector to the gun. I then painted it in Bundeswehr colours and markings.
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Ye-ah - the tank that would be…
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As per the one I did post 
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I painted it as if it had been snowing.
No, wait … that’s dust 
After some hard work removing the turret — it’s on very tight — and some less hard work with a soft brush, it looks a bit better:
I had done more work on this than I thought yesterday. The tracks and drive sprockets are not Leopard but from an Academy M48A5, whose tracks are far too narrow for an M48 but just the right width for a Panther. I got rid of the bow gunner, put Leopard hatches on the turret, smoke launchers from a kit I don’t recall, a gunner’s sight from a Tamiya Marder 1A2 (as it has a spare Marder 1 sight), tools etc. from a Leopard, Leopard 2 rear mudguards and lights, etc. The louvres on the engine deck are the cab window shutters from a Dragon MLRS, the fuel filler caps are headlight covers from a Dragon StuG III and the louvres on the rear are cut-down Leopard 1 parts. The vent above the former bow gunner’s position is the end of a Dragon T-72 or T-80 snorkel, the rack on the rear of the turret is scratchbuilt from plastic rod and some leftover kit mesh, the rearview mirrors also seem to be from a Tamiya Marder, and so on.
Here’s how I lengthened the turret:
I cut off the back just in front of the bend in the armour, used plastic card to make new rear sides and a rear plate according to drawings of the turret in an issue of Military Modelling and made the bend by glueing scraps of resin into the gap between the plates, then carving and sanding them to the necessary curve.
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That really is excellent work - and I like the plausibility of it all; as though the Germans were saying to themselves, “Right, we’ve got a green light for a new Army, we’ll need some tanks, let’s see where we left off and what can be done with it”. So this re-vamped Panther comes into service to hold the ring while the designers at the drawing boards get on with the Standardpanzer Leopard.
Perhaps the Leopard is delayed - or there’s not enough to go round immediately - and this beast soldiers on until the mid to late 60s. Absolutely brilliant and well executed.
Well done Jakko - always with the plausibility(!)
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nice idea, on the panther F, I got the rye field and the more modern dragon kit
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What a novel “What if?” idea! All it needs is a Bundeswehr commander figure. 
Now someone needs to build one with NVA East German markings.
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Thanks The only things I think are not really great are the tracks and the paint job, but 20+ years ago, what options were there for the tracks?
That was pretty much my idea, yes: What if they had upgraded the Panther instead of taking American M47s? The gun is intended to indicate this is an 8,8 cm that been adapted to American 90 mm ammo, BTW.
It would have anyway, given that the Leopard took until the mid-’60s to come into service.
I think I did intend to put one in, but never got round to it. Most likely is that I didn’t have any suitable figures at the time.
There’s an interesting idea! A Panther with, say, a Soviet diesel engine and ZiS-S-53 gun.
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New in 1994 , Dragon tooled. You can see the path.
I did the panther II kit apx 8 yrs ago..put on metal tracks. It was ok.Scalemates is a good site to research kits & which other kits share parts etc…
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