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Old 05-15-2009 | 08:44 AM
  #15  
tac23
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Default RE: Panther 2


ORIGINAL: Panther F

ORIGINAL: tac23

and here's the turret it should have carried...

Now that is the production turret for the Panther F. No turrets for the Panther II were ever produced even though they were similar, they were to be completely a different design for the Panther II.
Thats correct - there seems to be some confusion about this, and no definite answer. As I understand it options for the turret were: (slightly modified) schmalturm turret from the Panther F OR the 'narrow mantlet' turret which never saw the light of day - and either could be fitted with a modified version of the existing 75mm gun OR the KT's 88 (not surehow they'd have got that to fit in the schmalturm!).

All of the above options (either turret, with either gun) are mentioned somewhere in surviving communications and memos as being 'the' chosen turret, so chances are the final decision hadnt been made as of the breakdown of government at the end of the war.

From a modelling stand-point I like the schmalturm - partly because we've a better idea what it would have looked like (1 was captured) and partly because it looks significantly different from the panther D, a and G turrets, and so marks the Panther model out clearly as 'not a Panther 1'.