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Friday, October 22, 2010

Panther







Here are some images plus a composite of Dragon Models 1/35 scale Pz Kpfw V Ausf G Night Fighting Panther tank. From Wikipedia "

The Panther was a tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV, and, while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as well as the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panther's excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations' late war and immediate post-war tank designs, and it is frequently regarded as one of the best tank designs of World War II.

Until 1944, it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther and had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz. 171. On 27 February 1944, Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral V be deleted from the designation.

The Panther tank was a compromise of various requirements. While sharing essentially the same engine as the Tiger I tank, it had better frontal armor, better gun penetration, was lighter overall and thus faster, and could handle rough terrain better than the Tigers. The tradeoff was weaker side armor; the Panther proved to be deadly in open country and shooting from long range, but vulnerable to close-quarters combat. Also, the 75 mm gun fired a slightly smaller shell than the Tiger's 88 mm gun, providing less high explosive firepower against infantry, though it was still quite effective.

The Panther was also far cheaper to produce than the Tiger tanks, and only slightly more expensive than the Panzer IV, as its design came to fruition at the same time that the Reich Ministry of Armament and War Production was making great efforts to increase war production. Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armor, transmission and final drive, were compromises made specifically to improve production rates and address Germany's war shortages, whereas other elements such as its highly compact engine and its complex suspension system remained with their elegant but complicated engineering. The result was that Panther tank production was far higher than what was possible for the Tiger tanks, but not much higher than what had been accomplished with the Panzer IV. At the same time, the simplified final drive became the single major cause of breakdowns of the Panther tank, and was a problem that was never corrected.

The Panzerkampfwagen V Panther, next to the PzKpfw VI Tiger, is the best-known German tank of World War II. The Panther and the Soviet T-34 are considered to be the best tanks of World War II.

6 comments:

Pablo J. Álvarez said...

Brilliant camo work.

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Pablo - Pablo actually commenting on a vehicle, will wonders never cease? LOL ;)

Pat Tillett said...

Love that paint job. I'm really starting to also appreciate the information below the models.

-Warren Zoell said...

Yeah I used to write out that information myself but then I realized exterior sources could do it better than I could. As long as it's not politically related where biased view points don't come in to play Wikipedia is very good source for such information.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Pablo and Pat. The ambush scheme on this tank is very nice indeed. Accurate to the schemes of mid 1944 german armor. Tanks are so much fun to build.

The T-34 was the best all around tank of the War........don't think so! I'm very partial to the Panther and Tiger variants(and biased). I have built numerous and I still have more to go. Those newer Tamiya Panthers are great kits. I highly recommend them as a "first tank" build.

The infra-red gear is a nice touch.

Dave

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Dave - You know I don't have a T-34. I have 3 resin cast turrets for a T-34 but no T-34. I suppose I should get one.