Bergepanthers--early vs. late question(s)

[RickC5]

ICM has a 1/35 kit of an "early" Bergepanther, and Italeri has a kit of what seems to be a "late" Bergepanther (297 vehicles produced in WWII). I have seen a few photo references of the late (Italeri) version, but have yet to come across any photos of the early version.

 

Does anyone have any idea how many "early" versions were produced? Where were they deployed? Russia? No spade or winch, so what were they used for? Simply towing disabled vehicles, or as a prime mover of some sort?

 

Any known photo references of an "early" version?

 

For those who built the Italeri kit, what major modifications (aside from adding PE) did you feel needed to be made to the kit? It seems several builders have used Tamiya or Dragon road wheels & tracks. Using different tracks is totally understandable, as the Italeri tracks are pretty much useless junk, but why the need for new roadwheels? I have a set of old Modelkasten tracks to use, but really don't want to buy a Dragon or Tamiya Panther just for roadwheels if I don't have to.

 

Any additional data, references or ideas about modeling a Bergepanther are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Mark Aldrich]

Rick,

Here are a couple links.....these might help if you read through them. The first is a build blog of the Italeri kit.

 

http://www.militarymodelling.com/forums/po...h=26575&p=1

 

 

http://www.track-link.net/articles/42

 

http://www.track-link.net/articles/43

 

Best of luck on your build!!

[RickC5]

Hey Mark,

 

Thanks for the links. The Build Blog was a bit tedious to read, but all three contained many good ideas that I will likely incorporate into my build--whenever I proceed with that. At this time, the kit has been relegated to the storage shelf for the forseeable future. Too many other "90% finished" kits sitting around that I really need to complete before I start something new. I really mean too many, as in 20+ easily!

 

So now I need to look at my steel-wheeled Tamiya Panther to see if I got a full set of spare road wheels in that kit as one of the links mentioned. If so, I'll likely use them over the Italeri parts.

 

UPDATE--45 minutes later: YES! The Tamiya kit contains a FULL set of spare roadwheels. That will save a few bucks for sure!

Edited August 25, 2010 by RickC5

[Mark Aldrich]

Rick,

Sorry about the blog link. I figured you could make your own decision if someone explained in deatail the "what and why" of the build. Osprey seems to think that only 100 "early" BergePanthers were produced. There are a couple in the Panther Variants book but no unit assignments are given. Not Very useful. It wasneat to see that early on the 2cm gun was designed to be added but was actually not ready when the first 30 rolled out.