I am almost finished with the painting of my Panther D early kit. But I do have a question about a couple of things on the tank itself.
1.On the hull,right side there is a box or a block by the cleaning rods,what is it for?
2.Is it a box or a block of wood?
Thank you.

Most German tanks did carry a block of wood, used for the jack. It is possible that is what you are talking about. The location can vary by the tank, variant, and unit.

It is a wooden block for the jack to help with lifting in softer ground. It can be wood or over painted in the camo color if the paint job was done in the field.

There is some evidence that the jack blocks were sometimes treated with a dark preservative like creosote too. Camouflage paint may then have been applied over that.

Jody,

Just to clarify the issue is the item circled in white in the image below the thing that you are inquiring about?

Cheers,
--Jan

DSC05865 by Jan Etal, on Flickr

Yes that is correct!

Below is how I painted mine, like wood. It is I believe the jack block, note how it is fastened on with a strip horizontally across the middle. In Jan's photo it seems to have an X shape.

The crossed rods attachment was the original configuration. During the remanufacture program, in May 1943, this was replaced with the single strap attachment configuration. So, you will see both configurations in the early vehicles.

Matthew, in your Panthers case (and for the most part Most cases) I believe that the item is a "Wooden Jack Block". However, in the case of my Panther the item is questionable. The prominent raised "X" strongly suggests that the item is metal but for what purpose? Is it a storage container that holds a wooden block inside? Could it be merely a top cover to hold the block in place instead of the crossbar that yours' has? For this reason I've refrained from speculating on what the item is and perhaps if we saw a picture of the model we could form a more educated guess?

Cheers,
--Jan

Edit = Obviously Mark has come to our rescue so I defer to his knowledge.

Jan,
What you have is the jack block with the original crossed rods forming the "X" pattern that attached it to a bracket frame. It may be the quality of the molding that makes it look like a steel container.