Gary Gore provides an in-box review of Atelier Infinite's resin Panther II (88mm L71) Turret in 1/35 scale.

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Thanks!

Nice write up and product and at $28.00 not a bad price!

I want one!

Thank you. I purchased this one from Rainbow 10, but Hobbylink Japan also has them as well. I'm actually planning on using the barrel, mantlet and trunnion's on a Cyber-Hobby Panther F turret.

If anyone is interested Atelier Infinite has made snaplink tracks for the E-10 and E-25 as well as 4 new turrets and hull for DML's E-100.

Thanks for submitting this one Gary. Now that you've contributed a Review to the site, you've gained "Contributor" status and should be able to access the Contributor's Forum. https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewforum&forum_id=127&page=1

There is a very disturbing error in the description of this turret if Atelier Infinite calls this a Panther-II turret.

The Panther-II or 2 never got a definitive turret designed. Rheinmetal made 2 preliminary designs based on the request for a Turm Panther mit Schmaler Blende (Narrow mantlet Panther turret).

When the Panther-II program was cancelled, the responsibility for designing a new Panther turret was transfered to Daimler Benz.

In their design, Daimler Benz used nothing from the earlier Rheinmetal designs and therefore came up with a completely new design. This design evolved into the Schmalturm that was destined to be mounted on the revised Panther hull thus resulting in the Panther Ausführung F.

Daimler Benz were asked to make a study of the feasibility of mounting the 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 gun in the Schmalturm. A full scale wooden mock-up for testing the inner space of this request was found at Daimler Benz at the end of the war. It had become clear to Daimler Benz that they were running out of space for handling the larger 8.8 cm ammo in the Schmalturm.

Regarding the possible use of this projected turret, only one vehicle and one vehicle only would be used, the Panther Ausf. F.

Never was this turret designed for the Panther-II as this program was already cancelled well before Daimler Benz even got the orders for designing the new turret.

The E-50 and E-75 both were chassis only designs, no turret was ever conceived for either vehicle.

It is really a shame that the corrected and new data recovered by Jentz and Doyle is still being ignored on such a large scale, and the myth of the Panther-II with an 8.8 cm Schmalturm just lingers on and on and on and on...

Just a small update to this.

After 6 months of trying to get a new barrel turned, it has been completed.

When I received the kit the barrel was slightly warped, so I decided to see if I could get a custom turned barrel.

Well it took a month to find a person to do the CAD drawings (Jeffrey Nelson, callsign majjanelson, excellent work), then when I had the drawings I was off to find a shop to do the job. First I looked online, was given a quote of US $700.00 for 1! Then I was directed to another shop near by, they quoted CDN $150.00 (not bad), but I thought I could better. I just happen to get a new job at the local college recently and they have a machine shop on site, so I asked around and the rest is history.

They completed the barrel and I know have a nice addition to kit.

I have decided to not use the cast turret, but use a turret from the dragon steel wheeled Panther F and just use the resin mantlet and trunnion bulge from the kit.

Here are the pictures of the turned barrel.