Hi All,
I've been researching for a Panther G w/steel wheels. I know that a limited series of 24 vehicles were fitted with the Steel wheels in Sept. '44 at M.A.N. But beyond that, there is no discussion of the results of the experiment. Were they unsatisfactorily mechanically? Was it a supply line difficulty to switch? I was curious if anyone could point me to an English language source or knows of commentary in other languages. I always figure there are some interesting comments in those Japanese publications, but I can only enjoy the pictures. Thanks.

Kevin

I think that the work done was used when it cme to designing the Panther II. The idea being that the 24 SW G's were produced and used to see how they fared on the battlefield before proceeding. That's a guess but that would be logical. Does anyone know of references?
Rob

Sounds logical, but the Panther II was developed in early 1943 and the inital prototype was delivered in August of that year. The steel wheels of the Panther II were actually Tiger B running gear which was to institue interchangable parts on the vehicals to easy production. The steel wheeled Panther G was delivered in late 1944, and the Panther II program had been caneled well before.
Kevin

The Panther II's steel wheels are 800 mm while the M.A.N Panthers had 860mm wheels the same size as the rubber lined ones

Aaargh!

Did the SW Panthers really have 860mm road wheels? I could swear I read in Jentz's GPT that they were 800mm (don't have the book right here with me), and actually took the trouble to replace Tamiya cat's road wheels (which scale to about 860mm) with ones taken from a Tiger I. Mind you, I had to remove (or hide with mud/ snow) all those backing plates (or whatever you call them) for the bolts on the wheels. Not to mention all the trouble with removing the hubs from the inner pairs of road wheels and inserting them into T I wheels

I wouldn't have replaced the wheels except that I built a model representing that "225" with one normal road wheel (a photo of which appeared on ML some months ago), and in the photo at least there seems to be a difference in size between the steel wheels and the one with rubber rim.

Regards,

Kalle

(not a happy camper if all my effort was wasted)

I think it's been well established that the Panther steel road wheels are identical to King Tiger/Tiger 1, ie 800mm diameter. As you say it is mentioned in Jentz's Panther book.

Cheers

DC

Hi Kalle,
No you are quite right, Tom Jentz states that the steel wheels are 800mm, same as those used on Tigers, both late Tiger 1's and Tiger II's. It was part of an anticipated standardization program that began with the proposed Panther II in 1943. That is why the DML steel wheels differ in diameter from Tamiya's.
There are numerous earlier source materials( earlier than Jentz' GPT, that is) out there quoting the 860mm value- off hand both Achtung Panzer and Ground Power show that number.
So your hard work wasn't in vain!
HTH
Bruce

Hi Kalle,
I think you're safe having gone the 800mm route. I was about to happily build the Tamiya SW Panther until I read the Panther tweak list in The Think Tank. I've since scrounged up a set of DML SW's. It's unfortunate because except for the diameter, the Tamiya wheels have much crisper detail.
Upon closer research I have found there is much contradictory information concerning SW diameter in some of the leading reference books on the Panther.Speilberger's "Panther and it's Variants" calls out 860mm on pg. 142. Ironically at the top of that same page is a cross section view of both wheels. Scaled out and compared to the rubber rimmed wheel, the SW comes out at 800mm. Tom Jentz corrects that mistake in his book, "Panther Tank, The Quest for Combat Supremacy" and states they are 800mm and the same as Tiger SW's except for the hub.
Achtung Panzer #4 Panther, can really confuse someone. On page 39 they call out 860mm as the diameter for Ausf G SW's. But the SW's in the 4 view drawing on page 47 scale out at 800mm!On pg. 54 the Panther II wheels are noted as 800mm and on Pg. 56 they are 860mm!
I'll put my money with Jentz and the fact that the Panther II was to share wheels with the Tiger II. The clincher is in the few photos of late Panthers with a SW on the last station, they are noticably smaller.

Hello All
IMO Kevin is absolutely right . We had this discussion many months ago .
Conclusion was : there were no 860 mm steel-r wheels . The best proof :
take a closer look at a side view of steel wheel "Panther G" (Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WW II - to name a few) the gap between "outer" road wheels and how much it covers "inner" wheels will give you clear answer .
You can always try it with Tamiya and Dragon (Tamiya's Tiger I late or Tiger II) steel-rimmed road wheels on your model to see the difference .

Regards
Janusz

Yeah,

I checked Germany's Panther Tank as soon as I got home and was much relieved. Thanks for everybody who took the time to comfort me with your knowledge about SW diameter.

Best regards,

Kalle