Is there any difference I know the turret and the sweet looking smooth bore 88mm but is the exterior hull the same as a Panther Ausf G

I don't believe that they are the same. I'll dig out my Panzer Tracts to see any specific differences.

I know the glacis plate has a steeper angle making the top plate a bit longer on the panther II than the G. That’s the major flaw with the hull on the old DML kit.
There is also a debate regarding what turret and what cannon was intended for the Panther II.

Mats

The engine deck incorporated Tiger II grills. The only Panther II ever built is in the US. It was restored to running condition in the 1970's, and was displayed at The Patton Museum at Fort Knox for many years. It never got a turret, so the US Tech Intel people installed a final production MAN Panther G turret before it was sent to Aberdeen for trials in 1945.

The project was ended before a turret was finalized, and the Doyle drawings in Panzer Tracts depict the turret using dotted lines, indicating it is based on a written description, not an actual plan. Model kits depict the Panther !! with various Schmalturm variants and armaments, but they are totally speculative.

Yes, the "Panther II" is not the tank many people, and Dragon, think it is. The small turret version is the Panther Ausf F. The only Panther II ever built as stated already is at APG and has the normal Panther G turret according to Thomas Jentz. It was only a development tank prior to the Panther G appearing.

Hi, All!

The older RYTON "PANTHER & JAGDPANTHER" book by Uwe Feist(?) (I don't have the book at hand as of this writing, otherwise I would have checked, for sure) illustrated comparisons between the "Panther F" and the "Panther II", both of which were conjectural, or as Gerald has stated, "speculative'. These illustrations were done as pretty "detailed" line-drawings...

The "Panther II" drawings and accompanying captions in the RYTON book showed an "alternative" Road Wheel-arrangement and spacing. The number of Road Wheels was reduced to seven sets of single "Tiger II"-style "steel double-wheels" per side, as opposed to the eight sets of the more complicated and more numerous Road Wheels of the conventional Panther "D", "A", and "G" models...

I chose to build my "Panther II" about 20 years ago, following the RYTON book's illustrations, just because I happened to like the way the tank looked, even though it very well may have been "all wrong" had the real "Panther II" ever come to fruition.

I used the old DRAGON "Panzerkampfwagen PANTHER II" #6027 as my base kit. It was "an exercise in frustration", as the old saying goes, but I thought it was worth it in the end. I basically had to rebuild the entire bottom section of the Lower Hull and "re-engineer" the Road Wheel positions and spacings in order to match the Lower hull in the RYTON drawings. The positions of the Rear Idler Wheels also had to be lowered accordingly. I "recycled" a pair of spare TAMIYA Tiger II Rear Idlers for this little task.

I had bought the old ACCURATE ARMOUR "Panther II" resin Turret thinking that it would save me having to "re-build" the kit-supplied Turret, or worst case scenario, having to "scratch-build" my own. I found that IT didn't really match the RYTON drawings either, so guess what? Dennis wound up re-building PART of the DRAGON Turret, and "scratching" the rest. This, was also a "joy" to undertake, because I didn't know at the time that the "Schmalturm" for the "Panther II" never really existed, and that I could have (should have?) used the ACCURATE ARMOUR Turret, anyway... (sigh) You live and you learn, Bubba... So, what next?

I thought that the 7.5cm L/71 main gun looked a little bit puny, so I "up-gunned" the thing to a Tiger II-style "88", without the Muzzle Brake, by using an older ABER turned-aluminum Barrel. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the looks of the kit-supplied Gun Mantlet, so once again, Dennis fabricated his own, following the RYTON book's drawings. This, from an earlier-style, TAMIYA "Porsche" Tiger II, i.e, the larger-diameter rear portion of the Gun Tube; the Mantlet itself, I wound up "scratch-building", too.

The Tracks and Sprockets I used were FRIULISMO's TIGER II Transport Tracks and Sprockets, as the book stated that this was to be the Track-style that was to be used for the "Panther II". I made my own "Track Pins" because the FRIUL-supplied wire was a pain in the ass to cut and to keep "anchored" in the Track Links. Lesson learned: I've been using my own "supplied by Dennis" Track Pins ever since this episode by using the Green metal "Flower-Arranging/Crafting wire that I can buy at Walmart for a song. It's easy to cut to length, and it fits the holes in the FRIUL Track Links a lot better than that damned wire that FRIUL chooses to supply in their various Track sets. I did the same with my next project, which was my ITALERI M24 not-so-hot kit/resin FORMATIONS M24 Conversion kit build... Ohhh, boy... That was definitely NOT a "Shake the box and PRESTO! A beautiful kit completed"-effort...

Today, we can easily buy either the BRONCO or the AFV CLUB M24 kits in virtually any flavor we like... No muss, no fuss, just easy building, either way. I still say that you younger guys have NO IDEA of how easy you have it today...

The Engine Deck of my "Panther II"- Yes, I grafted a Tiger II Engine Deck onto my "Panther II", with the addition of the raised Fan Box on the Left side. A LOT of other detailing went into this build, including the use of a Tiger II Commander's Cupola and Hatch assembly. I used an M-44(?) for the Bow Machine Gun, and an MG-42 as a Ring-Mounted "auxiliary" Commander's Weapon... Being that this was a "Paper Panzer"-project, it does not occupy a prominent place in one of my display cabinets...

If I were to build another "Panther II", I would "cheat" and buy one of the AMUSING HOBBY kits, instead...

Here are the proposed armor thicknesses for the Panther II. These can be compared with the other three models.

Wow i May just go with the Dragon kit I have and call it a day. You all have a ton of information for sure I guess the Dragon F is more accurate than the Panther II for sure.

But the F was a real tank I believe

It was an actual design, and was approved for production, but it was delayed repeatedly because Allied bombing of the assembly plants created a backlog of Panther G components that had to be used up first. There were three Ausf F hulls on the assembly line at Daimler Benz outside of Berlin in April 1945, when production ended, but no F models were recorded as having being completed.
The prototype F turrets photographed during trials were mounted on Ausf G hulls (apparently with some kind of adapter ring, as they "sit" a little high).

There were some differences, Sprocket (?), track, different interleaving of the road wheels, the road wheels were spaced further apart toward the rear hull, 7 sets of road wheels instead of the standard 8, different idler wheel, and steel wheels to name a few if I am not mistaken. Look at the walk around for the PantherII at the Patton Museum.

Panther II

http://www.armorjournal.com/Walkarounds/Tanks/Panther_II_NACM/Panther_II_001.JPG

Panther G, steel wheels

https://www-d0.fnal.gov/~turcot/Armour/pz4_files/panste.jpg

Panther II rear deck

http://i.imgur.com/qQgq8DG.jpg

Panther G rear deck

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_5WcJt93qHw/maxresdefault.jpg

Amusing Hobbies has a Panther II on preorder.

https://www.modellbau-koenig.de/en/Vehicles/Military-1-35/Tanks/Tanks-WWII-Axis/Wehrmacht/Panther-II-Rheinmetall-turret