Was just wanting how tough that would be and what I need to do to accomplish this. I have a lot of leftover light parts for the dragon panther G and the Tamia panther G which include late mantlet as well as heater unit. Thanks

A big hurdle is the hull - on the A the sponson floors are level with a kink at the engine compartment, while the G has a single slope from front to back. (Google some pics to see what I mean.)

Anything is theoretically possible but turning an A into a G is a lot of work. The turret is the same but the whole hull was different. If you’re up for scratchbuilding a G hull, go for it. Most of us find that there is a more cost-effective route however.

My suggestion is to get your hands on the Shanghai Dragon Panther ausf G night fighting Panther kit and use the left-overs on that one. It's a good, if dated place to start, but the devil on that kit is in the details. so most of your parts should help to bring it up to spec nicely.
Regards,
Georg

No, too many differences, big and small.
Buy a current Ausf G kit.
The Shanghai Dragon kit isn't worth your money:
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/shanghai-dragon-9045-pzkpfw-v-panther-ausf-g-night-fighting-panther--155301

Panther D:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Panther_D_tank%2C_Wilhelminapark%2C_Breda%2C_pic_1.JPG

Panther A:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panzer_V_variants#/media/File:Panther_CanadianWarMuseum.jpg

Panther G:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burnt_out_Panther_AusfG_Battle_of_the_Bulge.jpg

The Panther A's sponson is almost parallel to the hull roof until the engine compartment. The G's sponson is sloped from front to back. That's half the hull to rebuild.

You might use the shirk panels to hide the that major different and tweak the smaller one, not many people could even know.

There would be a tell-tale difference at the rear. The rear plate on the G is wider at the sponson overhang level than that of the A, because of the wider angle of the side plates (G). Just buy a nice G kit! Unless you want to build a one-off factory "Frankenstein" made up of left-over, in-between series, parts!

I have done it before.





This was a Tamiya Panther A and I converted it to a Panther G. There were no G models available like now and it was a fun conversion.
It wasn't difficult. Just make sure to check on all the additional upgrades that occured when the G was created.

Like everyone else says, you could, but it's a ton of work.
The drivers hatches in the G's were hinged outwards while the A models were on rotating pivots in the corner.

The Shanghai Dragon kit is not great, but like the other Shanghai Dragon G models, it's cheap.
You could also source a Tamiya G kit, early, late, or Steel wheeled affordably as well. They're not current state of the art kits, but should also be widely available and cheap.

Weren't the entire G upper hull sides set at a different angle from that of the A? I believe this came about from planning for the Jagdpanther, as the sides extending upwards for the fighting compartment required a steeper angle (than the A) for there to be enough space (wide enough) for the roof. The first Jagdpanthers entered service a few months before the Panther G. Oddly, the Panther G was actually a result of the Jagdpanther.

You are correct.

I changed the angle of the sides of the rear hull plate to the G model . I then cut off the blocky edge of rear upper hull side of the A model shape. I then added a triangle wedge to make the upper hull edge a straight line from front to rear giving it a G model shape. I then scored the inside of the upper hull where the hull top meets the upper hull side. once thin enough I gently bent the upper hull sides to match the modified rear plate. I didn't freak out about hiding the seam of the triangle patch on the upper hull sides because I was going to zimm with Squadron putty.

Every one is correct. They now have many G models to choose from and Just building a kit is much easier than modifying one. 40 years ago there was no G options so you had to convert an A model and Tamiya was king at the time. However the conversion was fun, mildly challenging and required some research and was one of the easier conversions I have done.

It's possible to do the conversation if your willing to invest the time and want to take on the challenge.

Given the major surgery required to the upper hull or scratch building an upper hull, I'd definitely pass on converting the Meng A into an accurate Meng G.

One could maybe buy a Tamiya G upper hull. However most G's had an up armored area where the driver & radio operator hatches are located and the Tamiya G hull doesn't have that feature.