Kursk Panther

[Vincent Power]

Time to step up with a new build.

This time I'm building an Ausf D Panther during the July '43 Kursk offensive. With this project I want to show the ferocity of the battle and what better way is there than doing a knocked out Panther. Clearly, the logical choice for an Ausf D would be the Tamiya kit. Seeing as I don't have that one so I'm going with the Dragon version in my stash

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I decided early on that I would need burnt out wheels so I bought some aftermarket ones. Unfortunately those ones turned out to be incorrect as they had the wrong number of bolts per wheel. So I decided to make my own. Each wheel required delicate use of a Dremel, a round file and lots of sanding. After the first few I decided that I could leave some excess residue from the dremel on some of the wheels to simulate left over burnt rubber. I spent an entire afternoon making twelve wheels.

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The hull is covered with Tamiya putty to get some texture, very subtle texture but its there just the same. The hits have "lips" made with liquid plastic.

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At the rear I added a hit and did some damage to the exhaust and it's mounting. I tossed up whether to use a PE stowage box but in the end I stayed with the kit supplied one.

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Still a lot more to do before I get to put some primer on but it's been fun so far.
Cheers,
Vincent

[Philipp Gross]

Oooooh, I like where this is going

Those wheels....that's some serious effort

Philipp

[Steve Hutchinson]

Very nice start Vincent

I am totally shocked and stunned by your choice of a ""knocked out"" tank

The wheels had 32 bolts rather than the first production 16 bolts?

The storage box looks OK and all the shot damage looks really good too

You could, perhaps have one of the several escaping a tank crew with this one?

It will get you into figures?

A nice little base, perhaps with Russians overrunning it ?

Never a better time to try something new with figures

Another masterclass in rust and damage to come, will you do plenty of photos and an SBS too

regards

Steve H

[Vincent Power]

Oooooh, I like where this is going

Those wheels....that's some serious effort

Philipp

Thanks Philipp. Yes, the wheels did take an awful lot of time to do but I'm confident they will look the part with some paint.

Vincent

[Vincent Power]

Very nice start Vincent

I am totally shocked and stunned by your choice of a ""knocked out"" tank

The wheels had 32 bolts rather than the first production 16 bolts?

The storage box looks OK and all the shot damage looks really good too

You could, perhaps have one of the several escaping a tank crew with this one?

It will get you into figures?

A nice little base, perhaps with Russians overrunning it ?

Never a better time to try something new with figures

Another masterclass in rust and damage to come, will you do plenty of photos and an SBS too

regards

Steve H

Sorry to shock you Steve The AM wheels had the wrong number of bolts. I assumed they would have 32 and I could just snip off every second bolt but when I started to do that they looked weird. When I counted 20 bolts I knew it wouldn't work. I guess I can use them on another Panther.
The stowage box is a compromise really but it'll do.
The base will reflect the Kursk landscape of the time so lots of grass is required.
Not too sure about figures yet. Thanks for the prompting though as I know I have to get started on doing figures at some point.

Cheers,
Vincent

[Vincent Power]

I've made some progress. The hull is together and some PE is on. Addiitonal damage and hits are the main changes. Slow and steady so far

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That's all for now. Thanks for watching

Vincent

[Philipp Gross]

Poor little kitten

Philipp

[Raoul Kunz]

Slow and steady so far

Nah! It's looking seriously great already!

And the ferocity of "Zitadelle" is definitely best illustrated with a Panther D, because of the 204 deployed with the somewhat experimental Panzer Abteilung 51 and 52 of XLVIII Panzer Corps of 4th Panzer Army during the battle two caught fire before combat even started, 85 where damaged but repairable from regimental resources, 56 had to be left on the field (of those 49 where blown up, 7 went to the Soviet forces in possession of the field as spoils of war) 16 had to be sent back to Germany for repair which left a whopping total of 41 operational Panthers when operations ceased because of the Allied Landing in Sicily.
Now remember that the start of operations had been delayed twice in order to get more Panthers onto the field and you know why it took until the arrival of the A for the Panther to be regarded as seomething other than an expensive failure by the German armoured forces .

Numbers from Glantz' volume on Kursk.


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz

[Vincent Power]

Poor little kitten

Philipp

Really, he didn't feel a thing.....trust me....

Vincent

[Vincent Power]

Slow and steady so far

Nah! It's looking seriously great already!

And the ferocity of "Zitadelle" is definitely best illustrated with a Panther D, because of the 204 deployed with the somewhat experimental Panzer Abteilung 51 and 52 of XLVIII Panzer Corps of 4th Panzer Army during the battle two caught fire before combat even started, 85 where damaged but repairable from regimental resources, 56 had to be left on the field (of those 49 where blown up, 7 went to the Soviet forces in possession of the field as spoils of war) 16 had to be sent back to Germany for repair which left a whopping total of 41 operational Panthers when operations ceased because of the Allied Landing in Sicily.
Now remember that the start of operations had been delayed twice in order to get more Panthers onto the field and you know why it took until the arrival of the A for the Panther to be regarded as seomething other than an expensive failure by the German armoured forces .
Numbers from Glantz' volume on Kursk.
Best regards
Raoul G. Kunz

Thanks Raoul. Those numbers are very interesting. The reliability factor is very important and underestimated. I can only wonder how the crews felt seeing their Panther go up in flames before the battle?

Vincent