Someone passed this on to me sometime back. I'd assume it was taken during the war. Some good level of detail for this Panther -- i.e. tools, tracks, travel lock. I recall seeing another pic -- of soldiers building a model Tiger I for while kids were watching. Am curious as to would there be commercially available kits during WWII? or would they be built samples for display? Cheers

Good question and nice pic. This model is probably all scratch. I guess wood and sheet metal.

Yes a very good question. My curiousity is aroused. Anyway as far as the pic goes, I wonder ,could it be a pic of maybe some Hitler Youth during a properganda type briefing on the new Panther tank thats going to help win the war for Germany. I am no expert on the subject but from the fashion of the clothes being worn ccould it be WWII Germany ? Food for thought. Very Cool, milvehfan

The clothes mark this as definitely WW II and, therefore, German as not even the best Allied intelligence services would have/could have made such a model even for themselves. Nor would they ahve displayed them to the public! It's very likely a manufacturer's maquette for publicity purposes and, of course, completely hand made.

Detail models of AFVs weren't available until well into the 1950s. Even aircraft, a subject for models from much earlier, weren't available with this level of detial until the 50's. WW II models (of aircraft or ships) would be mostly the carved wood or balsa/doped paper sort. Injection moulded kits didn't arrive until the very late 40's and didn't get even moderately detailed until the mid 50's. As a commercially available kit, what you see in the photo wouldn't be available until the late 1960's and the advent of Tamiya's 1:16 and 1:25 kits.

Paul

Two things catch my eye in the picture, first, the corner guides at the front of the Panther. I've never seen those on Panthers before. Then there's what ever is below the kids elbow in the power right of the picture. What IS that?

Looks like a flower to me.

I saw that too. I dunno.

What I also see is in the background a man in what appears to be a Wehrmacht officer's overcoat. German for sure.

This would not have been a commercialy available model kit, it would have been either a propoganda piece or something else purpose made. As has been pointed out model kits prior to the widespread availability of injection molded plastic were generally made of wood. For many aircraft you can think of the "Gullows" brand of semi-flying kits. Ships and the like were largely made by hand, generally from plans, generally scratch built. Most Army subjects would exist as toys rather than kits. My reference for this is my Father, while he was too busy during WW2 to work on kits (this little thing called "being in the Army" kind of got in the way) he pointed out that prior to the war, "kits" were generally not available, and certainly not in styrene.

Here's another shot:



From the first pic the little girl came out of hiding and now seems to be fiddling with the gun travel lock. The elder girl seems to be holding on to something -- the remote control maybe?

Am trying to look for another pic I have somewhere -- I recall its a tiger model being built in public. I had my doubts on whether kits (or toys) were available to the public especially if there was a war going on -- the level of detail is quite fascinating though. Would this be in 1/16th?

I think those four kids were at AMPS last year...
Shaun

There is a company in Fort Worth, Texas which produces resin reproductions of WWII ID models used by the CAP. I've seen several of them and they were quite accurate for their time. Wish I could remember the name of the company...

My dad had photos (which I can't find now) of models he built in the mid to late 30s. Most were wood that he had to carve out, but some were I think pressed tin. He had tanks that look like they had working tracks (or pretty good quality fixed tracks) and rotating turrets. The main details were still fairly simple but I was impressed. He had tanks, trucks, artillery, aircraft and a blimp. He built a fort out of cardboard and wood. He took a lot of time with the kits he built and said it was all up to the builder to make it look right. Not the same as the Panther in the photo, but it was what was available at the time.

Interesting photo's. from my view it looks like the front drive sprocket is not quite right (to flat) looking. I think the elder girl is holding an engine bay hatch ( dang it she broke it). Still an interesting set of photograph's. Any more of these pictures around?
Joe

I recently watched a program on the military channel called..The world at war... partway through adolf hitler was shown examining a model very similar to the one in the picture,being on satelite tv im sure it will be re run soon

I only have those of the Panther. Am still looking for that Tiger model I mentioned earlier. Here's one Maus that got the big boys looking

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/127767#1057687

Finally found the pic. OK, so they did it using paper and wood -- but then again, did they have to scratch this? Would they have had templates or plans to refer to? Also, they had time to do models in the field? Amazing

I think it's the engine compartment door.


Probably 1/12 or 1/10.

I bet this photo was taken in late 1942 or early 1043. The Panther is prototype maquette as it has a pistol port on the turret side, the driver's visor and no MG ball mount, making it a Ausf D design but witht he pistol port, whch I don't think any Panther's were ever built with. I doubt the photo was taken prior to the start of production, but once in production there would likely have been some official photo ops even if they weren't for widespread publication. Maybe an internal factory newsletter? The workers at the plant would certainly have known what they were building and perhaps the families were let in (or some of them) to see what was going on??? An odd mix of a super secret weapon system and the propaganda machine. I'd love to know the real story behind these photos.

Paul

This is a simple propaganda shot, read the caption, how the good German soldiers are "entertaining" the young Russian boys.

Cool pics, thanks for sharing. I think the object is a flower, an orchid or a lily maybe, probably put on the table as an accent or centre piece.

Those aren't Magic Tracks, that's for sure.....lol



Bob

Next Cyber Hobby release maybe- a model of a ww2 German model

This was the model shown to Hitler and his top staff. It was part of a presentation to show off the new Panther by M.A.N. Maybe the children were Reichsminister Goebbels? Or some other High ranking German. The picture of the Tigers must have been propaganda pictures. Firms development teams would make working models of new prodjects, just like today

HeavyArty seems to have all kinds of time, and he's in Iraq! At least one chopper and one armor piece. I'm not even that prolific at home. I'd like to see how much he can do once we're able to bring him home.
He's even online most times . Hope the enlisted guys have the same kind of time.