Joseph Leoce shares some pictures of his Panther Panzer on a railcar in 1/25 scale.



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Thanks!

The PZ IV with skirts turret looks good on a Panther hull .
(a glorified Stug)
Nice camo to

Hi

Nice build in 1/25th scale.

There are however a few inaccuracies in your build which when pointed out are kind of obvious, and not entirely impossible to rectify if you so wish..

The rear turret bin and rear curving section of the additional armour plates were not fitted. This is to allow access to the engine bay as the fixed turret couldn't be rotated to allow access.

I built the Tamiya 1/25 scale Panther many many years ago and really enjoyed it. I still have it gathering dust somewhere although much of the smaller detail has fallen off or got broken off as they do over time.

Sounds like you enjoyed it to.

Alan

Alan, I appreciate the info. Yes, I can see your point regarding access.
I didn’t see any pictures or models that showed that detail.
However, I will not be going back. I’ve always felt that the look, the scene,
the dynamics of a model/ diorama were more important than being totally accurate.
I’m not one to remove rivets and replace them or move something a few mm’s for
total accuracy. I appreciate your comments and yes, I did enjoy the build immensely.
ASLmodeler...Joseph Leoce

Fun topic and a nice setting, Joe. I like the camo and the overall look of the build. Congrats!

I like what you've built and hate to nitpick but.... I really don't believe that any Reichbahn rolling stock including transport cars like this carried the Balken crosses on their sides as you've chosen to do. Even military rolling stock didn't as it was completely unnecessary. "Oh look, it's a German train as I can see the crosses" probably didn't come up very often in conversations trackside. Otherwise I really like the build. And as to the rear bin and turret skirts on the Pz IV turret you've got mounted on the Panther hull: to the best of my knowledge this vehicle was only used by S.Pz ABT. 653 as a command variant and in Munch's book on the unit there are numerous pics of that particular tank, including a side shot illustration on the numbered equivalent of p. 460 in the colour plates section that shows it as you've built it EXCEPT for the turret numbers that you've chosen to apply. I guess engine access was a lady. You decide.

Please note that I used the b-word and not "lady" as the prig program chose to render it. Oh look, we've got a NUN on overwatch! Swearing has little place on any conversation but this is a minor word that we as adults should be able to banter about as a fitting descriptive as applied here.

Great build!!!

I had been playing with the idea of doing something very similar. As I have been looking at photos, I haven't noticed any with tie-downs. Looks like they would roll it up on the front chock, then jam the back ones in then roll it back.
Not sure if they had any kind of spikes to embed them in the wooden deck?

Using spikes in the wooden deck sounds like a time-consuming and destructive option. Normal practice would be to chock with wooden baulks and chain down using tensioners to tighten the chains. That doesn’t damage to rolling stock and makes it easy to secure and release the load.

The metal chocks that the US Army uses have molded on teeth specifically for that purpose. Tears up the decking, but the tank hopefully won't move very far.

Then the chains go on. But like I said, I haven't found photos that show the Germans used tie downs. The box art for Saber models SSYS and Takom has a Panther with a flatcar and neither show cables. Not trying to bag on your build, just was curious to the German railhead procedures

Would it be a weight issue? or a Speed issue as to whether they need them? I Don't know.

We would railhead 14 M-1's, a M88 and 2 M-113's and that train seemed like it was flying. And we would torque those things down.

Ah, I misinterpreted your use of the word ‘spikes’, by which I assumed you meant something like pitons! Teeth on the chocks sounds much less dramatic.

Great looking build Joe, especially like the wood flooring on the flat car and the camo treatment on this baby. Glad you got this posted and hope to see more in the future. BTW,is this one heading to Albany in Dec?

Regardless of evidence of tie downs being used in real life. I think the chains look good and add an extra dimension to the dio.

Seth

I agree wholeheartedly