A follow on from
the Jagdtiger II which I posted a while back here. Here's another spawn from this Alternative History WWII setting (based on
A Kill in the Morning I've been making models for. A Czech built Panther II.
The Panther Tank had first saw service midway through 1943, as a direct competitor with the Soviet T-34. On the modern battlefield, faced with Soviet T-44s and ISU-3 Tanks that original incarnation was ageing. Having gone through several iterations the ultimate development of the Panther tank was given the revision name "Panther II".
The Panther II featured several innovations which would set the groundworks for future German tanks. Thicker armour, a completely redesigned turret with improved sights, and of all things a jet engine allowed the Panther to remain a competitive vehicle. Namely the inclusion of Tiger II tracks alleviated the design of the crutch earlier models had related to poor weight distribution, permitting the further modification.
The Panther II produced in Czechoslovakia was a different beast. Following the success of the Panther II, German command were still not wholly satisfied. The original pretence was for the vehicle to supplant both the Panther and Tiger I tanks, with a focus on reducing production times and costs. What had resulted was a tank with many battlefield benefits, but which were still trickling through to the fronts. In an effort to resolve this issue Germany looked to Czechoslovakian industry.
The Czech built Panther II (dubbed Panther II (t)) visually had little in common with the German production model. The hull was largely cast, which the Czechs had a deal of experience with in their pre-war tanks (though crews also noted that this made field repairs incredibly difficult, if not impossible) The original Panther II design had incorporated elements from the Tiger II where possible. In the Czechs case this was taken to the extreme, along with also integrating parts of the newer E-50s (records indicate that a substantial number of sub-par parts were offloaded from these other two projects this way, giving the Panther II (t) a poor reputation for reliability). The whole production was plagued by multiple design plants attempting to "improve" the vehicle, but which resulted in multiple conflicting, and at times redundant systems being fitted (whilst totally missing the point that this was to be a "budget" tank).
The end result was a vehicle with comparable performance to its predecessor, but (partly from internal corruption) had done little to remedy the cost factor. Records indicate that no more than a few hundred were built before the project was cancelled, in favour of the E-50/75 design which dominated German Tank development in the late 40s. These did make it to the front, and whilst many were lost to mechanical failure, a handful survived to be offloaded to Germany's foreign allies in the mid-50s.
And well, if you've made it through yet another spiel...
This one started life as a Rubicon Panther. The whole conceit of a cast hull Panther (on this one made just by slapping some milliput with a stippled texture on) is that the Germans in the real world weren't making enough tanks, and so could have outsourced a simplified design to the Czechs or French. The model also steals its tracks and track guards from a Tiger II, and turret design from an E-50 (which is actually entirely coincidental. I made that turret up, then later found out that the E-50M in World of Tanks looks rather similar). For bonus points the barrel's made from a 1/48th Tamiya lamppost ...because I needed something beefier than the regular Panther 75mm barrel and that thing just called to me.
Well that's that thing. You can find my other junk in my gallery, or the thread I keep for this over on the
Lead Adventure forum (alternatively I'm that arse who keeps posting this crap on the Bolt Action and Konflikt 47 pages on Facebook).
