1:35 Waffen SS Panther Loader (Operation Zitadelle / 1 Figure)

Passing up long rounds was nothing easy

The gun of the Panther had an unusually long cartridge case for its caliber, and it was precisely that which determined the loader's work. In the cramped turret he had to pull the round out of its stowage, turn it and introduce it into the breech so that it did not catch on anything: at a higher rate of fire it was a very precise choreography, which crews drilled into an automatic reflex. The vehicle's stock ran to around eighty rounds, stored mostly in the side bins of the hull.

The vehicle and its crew

The Panther was worked by five men, three of them in the turret. The radio operator with the machine gun and the driver sat in the forward part of the hull, separated from the rest. The loader had no observation devices of his own and away from combat he therefore liked to linger at the open hatch, from where he had at least some sort of overview and fresh air.

Building recommendations

The casting is resin, unpainted and unassembled. Fine details such as the edge of the collar or the headset will take a magnifier and a sharp scalpel during cleaning up. It pays to paint in two phases: first the face and the hands away from the model, and only then the whole figure after it has been glued into the turret, so that the shadows can be tuned to the real lighting of the scene.

Inside the turret

The space between the breech and the wall was narrow enough that one could not turn in it without knocking against something. Even so it was precisely from there that the rate of fire came, which mattered most in an engagement. For a modeler a simple guide follows from that: the figure never stands upright, it is always slightly leaning with one shoulder lower. It therefore fits better into a vehicle with the hatch open than into a machine buttoned up tight.