Egg, George;
The first one MAY have existed, in so far as the Germans did deploy some IR vision devices on Panthers (though generally on G versions)- the cupola device appears to be the stock-model IR light-and-bildwandler system as kitted by Tamiya and some AM parts from folks such as LionRoar. There's no real reason they couldn't have stuck one a these IR sets on an "A".
That double-barrel thing... Yikes! A Lupara-Panther! Bet that pic came from Sicily.... LoL!
As for Panther number 2 with those gas tanks....
Actually, yes, this was a real vehicle- one of those few tanks and other armored vehicles outfitted with BOTTLED GAS - propane or butane - for use as "fahrschule" (driver's school) training vehicles. Not a "holzgas" wood-burner nor a coal-burner, but a liguified-gas vehicle. To compare with what a vehicle with a holzgas or kohlengas device looks like, see the Italeri kit of a late-war Opel Blitz w/ holzgas...
Cyber Hobby has kitted this very "Panther D with Stadt-gas" ("city gas" - used for cooking) in their white-box limited-run series. They also have kitted a similarly equipped StuG III G and Marder III M.
PS: The kit is pretty cool- those tanks are just the bee's knees of strangeness on a tank- imagine carrying around a 1000 lbs or so of compressed bottled gas on your rear deck in a battle... every guy out there would be having all sorts of dreams of glory as he sighted in on those bottles! One can only imagine what sort of jokes went around at the training ground when guys met this thing...
The letter home that evening could have read something like... "Well, Dad, today was a Big Day at the front for your bouncing baby boy! The Krauts sent another of those big ol' Panther tanks out at us this morning. Strangest thing I've seen yet. Looked just like one a their regular types which murder all those poor slobs in those Shermies, but it had these big gas bottles all over the rear deck. Dang! But I managed to bag it with only one little shot from my trusty M-1! Just one shot - bang! and up she went with a whoosh and the biggest darned fire-ball I've ever seen! Stupid Huns actually mounted a bunch a propane cylinders right up on the back... can you imagine? See you soon! Love, Steve"
Bob
