Panther F Night Fighter

[Soeren]

Hey there, here is my contribution to the group build. Got this Panther F a while back, only to have a spare set of rubber rimmed wheels for another 2 in 1 kit. Not this one made me curious because of the night vision pieces and the air defence armour. Also the artwork really got me.

 

So I will do this in that style. For the brown I will try to achieve the look of the bare steel plates and paint the sand with a washable color. Got a commander figure for it and a full set of dio parts as well, but I guess trying to finish the build together with the figure should be enough for now.

 

 

Even though you get the easy to use dragon styrene tracks, there is a full set of magic tracks. Individual links for a nicer model

 

 

There are plenty of parts inside the box. Two upper hulls as you can build the prototype and the final model. Also the PE for the air defence armour is thick. Should give a nice in scale appearance.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Ive always liked the night fighting tanks. Its on my someday list along with the SDKFZ.251 that goes along with it. 

[SimonT]

Lovely stuff, I like the look of the Schmalturm on the Panther chassis and IR equipment is the the cherry on top 👍

[SimonT]

5 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Its on my someday list along with the SDKFZ.251 that goes along with it. 

I have AFV Club’s UHU for this very purpose

[Soeren]

I bought a few Dragon Panther kits directly from China. And even though they don’t mention the IR stuff for those kits it is just on the sprues. Basically I could build all Panthers with that now.

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, Soeren said:

I bought a few Dragon Panther kits directly from China. And even though they don’t mention the IR stuff for those kits it is just on the sprues. Basically I could build all Panthers with that now.

I bought an early Dragon kit (pre magic or DS tracks) of a night fighting Panther G.  Instructions were to paint it like this:

 

 

 

[SimonT]

That’s a lovely shot. Thanks for sharing.

[Jasper dog]

1 hour ago, Retired Bob said:

I bought an early Dragon kit (pre magic or DS tracks) of a night fighting Panther G.  Instructions were to paint it like this: 

I've the very same kit, half considered it for the build. However that's the very old Dragon/Gunze Panther and i don't think it shares anything with the later ones we tend to see kicking around these days. When Dragon brought out the ausf D and A etc they made a new kit.

Not even how accurate or build able it actually is.

 

[Retired Bob]

5 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Not even how accurate or build able it actually is.

It's one to scare the kids with, individual track links on sprues, lack of detail and no p/e for the intake mesh.  Typical AFV from that period, are we spoilt now or what. 

[Retired Bob]

7 hours ago, SimonT said:

That’s a lovely shot. Thanks for sharing.

I've been reading up on the IR optics used at the end of the war.  That picture shows option A, where only the commander has an IR light source and scope, option B has IR sources and scopes for the driver, gunner and commander.  They trialed option B using earlier variants, D and A because they had the moveable visor flap for the driver in the glacis panel which made the conversion easier.  

[Jasper dog]

29 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

It's one to scare the kids with, individual track links on sprues, lack of detail and no p/e for the intake mesh.  Typical AFV from that period, are we spoilt now or what. 

Doing the Meng M4 at the moment with multipart working indi links and it's just as drag. However when it comes to Panthers....Fruil is our friend!

If that's the worst of it and it goes together without to much sweat and filler, happy days!

[Retired Bob]

8 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Doing the Meng M4 at the moment with multipart working indi links and it's just as drag.

Sometimes kit manufacturers just get carried away. 

[Longbow]

17 minutes ago, Retired Bob said:

I've been reading up on the IR optics used at the end of the war.  That picture shows option A, where only the commander has an IR light source and scope, option B has IR sources and scopes for the driver, gunner and commander.  They trialed option B using earlier variants, D and A because they had the moveable visor flap for the driver in the glacis panel which made the conversion easier.  

Yup. 

Ausf. A fitted for IR. 

 

 

 

Ausf. D fitted for IR. 

 

 

[SimonT]

9 minutes ago, Longbow said:

Ausf. D fitted for IR. 

 

 

Wrong, that’s a ‘Royal Tiger’, says so at the bottom. You lost your glasses again? 

[Longbow]

3 minutes ago, SimonT said:

Wrong, that’s a ‘Royal Tiger’, says so at the bottom. You lost your glasses again? 

Darryl said he needed them back

[Jasper dog]

1 hour ago, Longbow said:

Darryl said he needed them back

For the love of God and all that is holy how did my readers get over the pond!

What's more, surely BM can manage more than one pair of glasses between us all.....

 

Sure Lee's done this to nobble me, if my readers have to do 14days quarantine once back in the country then I'm going to be at least two weeks behind everyone else!

 

Lifes so unfair!

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, Jasper dog said:

What's more, surely BM can manage more than one pair of glasses between us all.....

I've got a spare pair of vari-focals if you're that desperate, bet you didn't see that coming. 

[Jasper dog]

10 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

I've got a spare pair of vari-focals if you're that desperate, bet you didn't see that coming. 

As long as it's at range, no sweat...up close😳

[Retired Bob]

11 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

As long as it's at range, no sweat...up close😳

That's OK then, I'm the same. 

[Soeren]

To get back to the topic, the lower hull is done now. It is perfectly standard and I really like to push those torsion bars through and the bump stops etc. 

We are left with a complete set of rubber rimmed wheels and a pair of spare idlers. This set has the additional larger late idler. So we have the standard pair for another build. There is also to sets of tools. One is with the molded on clamps and another set complete without that 

[Soeren]

So here we go, the lower hull

 

Back plate detailed

 

The night sight parts, as this sprue is included 4 times you obviously get 4 sets

 

Here is the commander, he looks really nicely detailed and refined.

 

 

[badger]

Nice project - I have something very similar to do one day in 1/72

[Jasper dog]

Great to see a start made, looking good, complete with figure. 👍

[Soeren]

Here we are with the next update. The kit is just nice. So nothing new for anyone who ever built a Dragon Panther kit. Now this is an F upgrade so there are all the older G parts on this kit, despite the G turret as this is on a separate sprue usually. But there are plenty of MG covers left and a spare ball mount as well. Speaking of the MG ball mount, the F was meant to use the self defence MP 44 instead of a MG 34. The MP was attached with a barrel elongation. As you will never see the MP on the inside anyway, why fit it at all? Another spare for another build.

 

One great stuff about this topic of a late war, semi blue print tank, you can use whatever part you like. This is cast echaust covers in my case, skid shoe instead of wheel and the latest type of sprocket that I bought a while back to have the 2in1 JP make a second JP. So here I get the free sprocket from the  F kit for that.

 

So here we go, front part done and started work on the engine deck. Drilled out barrel ist always nice to start with.

 

Also had another stash find, not sure if I manage to build these during the group build though. But these guys should go well hand in hand with the topic of the Night Fighter.

 

 

[SimonT]

Looking good, It is said that you can buy 3 Dragon kits and build a fourth with all the spares.