This is Matthew Quiroz''s Panther What If tank destroyer. This is a nice change of pace from what we normally see here so please enjoy.



Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

That is one interesting TD! Neat concept.
Darryl

Very nice work Matthew! I know this is totally what if but I really wonder how this room in t hat superstructure for all that equipment. The breech alone is massive, then there is the gun mount, ammo, streoscopic sighting system, radios, not to mention crew members.....

I'll probably be torched for this posting but I guess there should be some element of reality even in sci fi.(Im not a big fan of the MiG production walking Panze rfor some of the same reasons!

Your construction, painting, and weathering is top notch

Chris

Thanks for the kudos guys. Glad you like it. In all honesty....I forgot I had submitted this. Yeah, been a little busy.. Thanks, "Q"

Matthew,
Nice finish! I love the liebmunster inspired cammo scheme.

I've got one on the shelf with all the spare fiddly bits all set to go, but have not gotten started for some reason. It resurfaces to the top of the build next pile, but never quite makes it to the bench. It's been a while since I even looked in the box.

How was the casting on your copy? Mine is a bit rough, I maybe able to save one of the range finder blisters, but the other is a total loss.

The fun things about whot-if-ers is that they dont have to make much sense..

Mike

Thats cool,really like the pipes!!! Dont let Herbert see it he may have a problem.

Nice looking TD I think this one would have really worried the allied tank battalions. Top marks Ps Great news to the extra part of your Tribe LOL Geraint . Love the late war camo, really is a very good " What If". Wouldn't have taken much to put that beast into production A1! What gun did this TD carry? looks like a biggy to me.

Thanks for the kudos. The casting on mine wasn't horrible, but did require some work. Numerous pinholes that didn't get noticed until it was painted. There was a slight bit of warp from front to rear, but I was able to overcome this with some careful grinding inside the resin super structure, and use of 5 minute epoxy to secure the bottom and top halves together. Had a bit of flash on my range finders, but nothing that wasn't easy to clean up.


Using my Mk-I eyeball I would guestimate a 128mm. Thanks for the kind words on the build. It was a fun project. "Q"

Hey Q, Your Panther TD is Very Very COOL!!!! regards, milvehfan

Thanks Milvehfan, much appreciated.
"Q"

Matthew,

I have always liked the looks of this kit. You've done a very outstanding job. I especially like your crew figure, it adds life to your monstor TD. Great looking Zimmerit paste job . . . looks field applied. The steel wheels puts this what if over the top for me. I sure would like to add this one to my small collection of 35th scale projects if its still available! A good job on the faded camo.

-Eddy

Eddy, Thanks for the kudos. Glad you like it. If you can find one, be fore warned about the instructions. They are mere copies of a copy of a copy. Written entirely in German, with just a couple of really poor black and white pictures to go by. I pretty much had to wing it when it came to the armored skirts on mine, but since they were warped, I left them off. Thanks again for the kind words. "Q"

Wow! Great job, Matthew. The camouflage came out really nice and I like the look of the damaged side skirts. Are these the warped ones from the kit or did you scratchbuild them? Maybe a little warping can go a long way

A very unique looking beast!

Thanks for sharing

Hi Jesper. Thanks for the compliments. The side skirts and fenders are Eduard PE items. I bent the skirts up using different tools. Decided to use just some of them to impart a little more character to the vehicle. Thanks, "Q"

Hello.
Wow! Great job, Matthew
I want to.
Where can I buy the kit for the transformation?
What bar gun you used?
Greetings.

Excellent work, but totally agree with Chris Smith's scepticism about the design...

It looks like it would suffer in the same way as the Elefant did - limited gun traverse and elevation (especially looks like the gun can't depress at all) and that bow machine gun is somewhat limited in the same way.

I suspect that commander is trying to look around the corner cos he thinks he saw a pesky Russian tank hunting team sneaking up on him, and they're just about to chuck some molotovs into that right hand engine grille!!

Still, doesn't mean it is that off the wall, as those guys were clearly going a bit strange in the head by the end.

Thank you. I bought the conversion kit off of a friend. It is made by FCM. I am not sure if it is still available though. The metal barrel came with the conversion kit. Thanks again for the compliments.
"Q" "

Thanks for the kudos Matt. Limitations or not, I still dig the way it looks. Thanks again, "Q"

Nice work it is nice to do a what if, as it gives you alot of freedom and nobody can say this or that is wrong or its the wrong colour. REALLY like your model, enjoy your bikes, models come close but bikes rule

Just found this post... excellent!!! definatly my cup of tea!!! love all the Panzer 46/Paper Panzer's stuff, will be checking out FCM I think...

I can see the proplem with getting everything into the superstructure very good point Chris! but I saw a AS-90 the other day at full elivation and you would swear the breach would be sticking in the mud!

Is ths model based on any plans (was there any)??? for the JagdPanthers planned replacement?

There was a whole 'umbewafenung' plan to upgun a whole series of existing panzers, most if not all proposed by Krupp, but all of these got rejected on sound reasons. This included the Jagdpanther where effectively a 128mm was proposed. The model Matthew made looks very similar to what is shown in Panzer Tracts (20-1 paper panzers) and in a very old publication I have 'German Tank and Antitank', but it's not quite the same.

Cheers,

John

Almost all if not all of these upgun ideas were in the end dropped for one and the same reason:

Absolutely not feasible.

The upgunning of the Tiger-B to a 105mm gun was rejected because the 2 part ammo would bring down the rate of fire, the ammount of rounds to be taken on board plus it would require a second loader, where space in the turret would be even more limited than with the 88mm gun.

The same holds for the JagdPanther II, upon which this kit is based. The 128mm gunmount would fill up the whole of the superstructure, leaving almost no room for crew and ammo. Also, the vehicle would be severely overburdening the running gear, even with steel wheels.

This is something that keeps coming back in "What if" models, a complete lack of thinking about what is going on inside. Even Trumpeter didn't when they nicked their E-100B turret. There's no way that would fit in that turret, absolutely no way. You can't minimize a gunmount to fit a turret, the turret is designed around that gunmount.