Tankograd Publishing

Panther Colours & Details

Panther G - Jagdpanther - Bergepanther

Tankograd Publishing has long been very highly regarded for their extensive line of excellent reference works on armor, armored forces and soft skinned vehicles from many armies and eras. This is an enlarged and expanded re-issue of an earlier work which has added 40 pages, 47 color plates of camouflage and markings, and now includes the Bergepanther recovery vehicle. Also of note - this is a limited run of just 999 copies.

This Tankograd In-Detail volume examines the Panther G, the Jagdpanther and the Bergepanther vehicles. These vehicles are all under the care of an evaluation center of the German Army, with the Panther G and Jagdpanther fully restored and the Bergepanther is well underway. 

Vital Statistics

Format - softcover, landscape format

Page Count - 136 pages

Size - 8.25”x 11.75”

Photos - Black and White period images / Full color contemporary images 

Tables / drawings / diagrams - full color renderings of paint and markings schemes.

All text and photograph captions are in German / English, with side by side columns of text in German and English. Photo captions are in German / English as well.

What's between the Covers?

Due to its simply organized nature, this book has no table of contents. What is contained in the book is largely listed on the cover. There are five distinct sections of the book;

Panther - A Brief History, pages 2-9

Panther G - pages 10 - 56

Jagdpanther - pages 57 - 94

Bergepanther - pages 95 - 110

Panther Colors - pages 111 - 136

The first block of pages in this book discusses the design, development and operational aspects of the Panther series. Historical imges accompany the text in this section, including the interesting image above - showing the relative size differences between the German Panther G and Soviet T-34-85 tanks, rivals in 1944.

The above image also shows how the columns of text are arranged to provide both the German and English language information.

The book opens its examination of the vehicles featured in the book with a detailed look at the Panther G, the final main variant of the Panther as used by the WWII German army. Outstanding full page / full color images are provided of each feature vehicle subject in the book, showing different aspects of them.

Above - if any modern, non WWII era items needed to be used in the restoration / renovation of the subject vehicles, the authors take care to point this out in the photo captions. For example, the modern fire extinguisher located on the right lower hull side beneath the tow cable.

Outstanding in-detail images cover literally all components and aspects of the subject vehicle. These perfectly composed and focused images will be of great help to those studying or wishing to build accurate scale models of the vehicles. 

Above - further illustration of the high quality of the detail images in the book.

Interior views of the vehicles are provided as well, these views are crystal clear with basic captions describing what is pictured. These images are so good that so much is clearly seen, and I do wish for a bit more information on all of the components seen.

Above - another instance of today’s requirements for restored military vehicles which required the WWII ammunition racks be repurposed to hold fire fighting apparatus. At least the modern equipment is contained within the original components, and has not totally replaced them.

The distinctive and iconic Jagdpanther is the second vehicle to be given the wall to wall examination. Again, multiple full page images of the vehicle are provided. These images provide sort of a time traveler look at what these vehicles would have very likely looked like fresh out of the factory in 1944. Further, because these vehicles are photographed outdoors in the dirt and grass, you can easily see the real world build up of dirt, grass and other debris on the tracks and running rear.

Above - a great view of the Jagdpanther from a rear quarter viewpoint, providing nice views of the camouflage paint, markings and anti-magnetic zimmerit paste coating. 

The exterior images taken of these vehicles are taken in the best possible lighting for such images - natural daylight, and are terrifically well composed. 

All components of these vehicles are examined thoroughly, with the bi-lingual captions giving good descriptions of what is pictured. 

Above - a nice visual examination of the Jagdpanther tracks and interleaved road wheels.

Above - a nice interior view of the Jagdpanther, showing the main gun’s breech and associated equipment. It’s unclear to me if ALL component colors are correct for a WWII example of this vehicle, but if the German Army is going to go the effort of restoring their iconic machines from WWII, it seems to me that they’d get it right.

Above - more exquisite views of the Jagdpanther interior, this time the driver’s station.

With these vehicles being fully restored / conserved in running order, they are able to be pictured while running. Above is a really interesting selection of images showing the Jagdpanther tracks reacting to different conditions when the tank is in motion. Most interesting from a modelers perspective!

The final vehicle to be examined is the Bergepanther, which is still in the process of being fully restored. As with the other vehicles examined in this book, really nice full page images of the vehicle are provided. Note the jib crane is erected in the above image, then folded and stowed in the below image.

Above - a good image showing on-board tool and equipment stowage on the Bergepanther. 

Above - As with the other vehicles, outstanding in-detail images are provided. 

Above is a great look at the main 40 ton winch mechanism that’s usually buried inside the Bergepanther, shown here outside the vehicle hull, unrestored and in original WWII paint. A very useful image if building one of the recent Bergepanther kits! Several other assemblies are also pictured ( gearboxes, etc) in this manner.

The final section of the book consists of a whopping 26 pages of single aspect full color renderings of wartime examples of Panther’s, Jagdpanther’s, and Bergepanther’s. Historical info on each vehicle including units, locations and time frames are provided.

No scale is given for these images, but they look to be slightly less than 1/35 scale, and are usually arranged two per page although a couple of pages only contain a single image. These images are nicely done, providing a good look at camouflage and markings.

Conclusions

Most of us who are interested in WWII armor have loads of Panther references, many of them quite good (and expensive). This work is a little bit different, being focused on just three single examples of the Panther family being fully restored to (mostly) WWII appearance and function by the army that used them in the first place. 

This book is largely about the images of these restored / conserved vehicles, and honestly, I found the  images in this book to be of a very high (spectacular, in fact) quality. The text work, seen primarily in the book’s historical background section along with the image captions is quite useful, although perhaps just a wee bit basic. 

But then again, the focus of this work is clearly on the images, colors and details of the subject vehicles. Those goals are very well met in this volume. The overview images as well as the in-detail style images are superb and sure to be of great interest to those with an interest in the Panther family.

This book is well deserving of a place on your WWII German subject book shelf!

Highly Recommended ( A Must Have for Panther fans )

Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review copy

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

AMPS 2nd Vice President, Midwest Region

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