The Sd.Kfz.171 Panther (Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf.A) by Dragon 1:72

[KRK4m]

During WW2, the Wehrmacht used only 7 types of tanks - three light (6-10 tons Panzer I, Pz II and Pz 38t), two medium (15-25t Pz III and Pz IV) and one heavy (57-69t) Pz VI Tiger. In such a "company", calling the 45-ton Pz V a medium tank (as the Germans did) looks at least bizarre. For me (and perhaps most of you) the Panther is by no means a medium tank - it's exactly in the same league as the Soviet KV (44t) and IS (46t) or the Allied Churchill (40t) and Pershing (42t) all of which are considered "real" heavy tanks. Alternatively, you can call the Panther the first true Main Battle Tank, combining the features of both a medium and heavy tank, such as the post-war British Centurion (52t), the Soviet T-54 (36t) and the American M46/M47 Patton (44t) MBTs. But a medium tank? No way…

 

 

It is well known that for most Allied and Soviet soldiers, every German tank in 1943-45 was either a Panther or a Tiger. But the truth is different: compared to 8,700 Pz IV and 5,800 Pz III, only 1,800 Tigers and 6,000 Panthers were built. All Pz V variants, crewed by five and armed with a long barrel 75 mm cannon, were equipped with an extremely powerful (700 hp) Maybach V12 petrol engine.

 

 

Although Dragon Panther A/D kits have been with us since 2012, there is still no better Braille scale Pz V on the market. The #7505 boxing (recently reissued as #7546) contains 118 styrene parts on 5 sprues and two continuous tracks. The parts are crisply moulded and no sealing/sanding is required. The decals are provided for two D-Day 1944 tanks (painted RAL7028 Dunkelgelb with RAL6030 Olivgruen and RAL8017 Rotbraun stripes). The same base was used for my specimen, although the 511 from the 5. Kompanie (2. Bataillon), Panzerregiment 5, 5. SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking" has a temporary winter white distemper camouflage applied over it. According to the photos taken in March 1944 at the Kovel railway station (Poland at that time, 200 km west of the Soviet border - today Ukraine, 50 km east of the Polish border), there were no visible German crosses or the Wiking Division emblems - only tactical numbers on three sides of the tower have been preserved.

 

 

The paints are (as always) Humbrol enamels: 93 for RAL7028 Dunkelgelb, 117 for RAL6030 Olivgruen, 186 for RAL8017 Rotbraun and 34 for RAL9002 Weiss - painted with Italeri brushes. Then the Vallejo matt acrylic varnish was brush-applied overall. The model was made OOB with the exception of enabling turret rotation (two notches cut in the hull upper deck  and a rod glued under the turret), drilling the exhaust (rusty) and manifold cooling (white) pipes, and making the antenna of 0.3mm Aber steel wire. The numbers are from the Zvezda IS-2 kit as the Star Decals set covering this vehicle is only available in 1/35 (# 35C-1134).

 

 

However, the serious problem appeared a few weeks after the flexible "bandage" tracks were painted. It seems that the material Dragon uses for their tracks cannot be enameled as some chemical component of the paint damages the internal structure of the track material, which loses its elasticity and - now being extremely brittle - breaks into several pieces. Parts cannot be glued back together because they simply fall apart when touched with your fingers. So - instead of looking for the aftermarket PE sets - I just cannibalized the old ESCI-ERTL #8363 Panther kit I had bought before the Dragon kits hit the market. BTW - the kit (otherwise complete and very crisply moulded) is available for sale or trade at a bargain price 😉

 

 

The pictures are taken with an LG smartphone.

Comments welcome

Cheers

Michael

[echen]

Nice work and informative description. Sorry to hear of your track troubles. I always use acrylics on band tracks to avoid this issue.

[fpmeyer]

I like Snow Camo. Well done.