Tank duel between the Cologne Cathedral Panther and the T-26 Pershing

Started by Louis Gardner · 170 · 8 hours ago
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    John vd Biggelaar said 7 months ago:

    She looks wonderful, Louis @lgardner

    I found that there is a Panther relatively near my hometown, a one hour drive.

    In Breda there is a Panther D on display near a park.

    Since I still have a week off from work next week, I might be able to have a look, just PM me what you would like to see from this Panter. I definitely love to visit it.

    The next link directs you to some information about it:

    The last of its kind: Breda Panther
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    John vd Biggelaar said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

    A bit out of topic, Louis @lgardner, but I just wanted to share these couple of pictures from the Panther tank (Ausf. D) in Breda which I took today. I do have more pictures available but I will sent them via a PM. If others are interested, please let me know.
    As you can see, quite some external elements have been taken, as in robbed, off unfortunately.


    3 additional images. Click to enlarge.

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    Louis Gardner said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

    WOW ! Thank you so much for doing this. This Panther tank looks amazing even though it’s missing a few pieces here and there. Just being a Panther tank that has survived the War is a rarity in itself.

    I apologize for not responding to everyone sooner.

    Unfortunately I have been very sick again. I think I had a relapse of my last illness. It was all I could do to even get out of bed. I thought I had Covid again (just like the last time), but once again I was tested and thankfully the results were negative. This illness lasted about a week this time.

    I believe I have fully recovered this time. It is the best I have felt in several months now.

    Yes sir any additional photos you can send me through PM would be sincerely appreciated.

    Thanks again my friend and take care.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

    Most important is that you are feeling fine again, Louis @lgardner
    I'm glad to be able to help you on this topic. The other pictures are on their way.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

    Great that you are feeling fine now, my friend @lgardner.
    These are wonderful pics, my friend @johnb! Wish I were there too, having a beer in Breda!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Spiros and John.

    I wanted to let you guys (and everyone else) know that recently I have realized how much time has passed since I have made any updates about this project.

    Before we know it, March 6th will be here.

    I have been working on a pair of family tribute builds and this morphed into getting back to work on the Cologne Cathedral tank duel.

    The nice thing about building armor is that it goes together very quickly as long as the parts fit correctly. I have been very fortunate with this aspect.

    I have been able to make some great progress and have a bunch of pictures to share. This will take a day or two to simply get caught up again.

    Meanwhile here’s a little teaser.


    Since the Panther is 99 percent finished I got to work on the Pershing.

    The road wheels and support rollers were assembled.



    The hull was assembled too.


    The turret was glued together and then I addressed the seam with glue. I was able to make it look as if it was a single molded part. The fit is very nice.

    The turret was placed on the hull temporarily. I just couldn’t resist !

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 month ago:

    Good to see you back, Louis (@lgardner). I didn't remember that you had started on this, so it will be cool to watch your progress. I have been itching to do some armor, but there are several things with wings ahead of the models without wings.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Several years ago I was working on a M4A-1 76 wet VVSS Sherman model. I have been keeping it stored in a box since then. It is very close to being done.


    It is a 1/35 scale Italeri kit. It was pretty much out of the box except for the addition of a metal main gun barrel and a set of individual track links.

    Originally I was hoping to make a tank of each one that was involved with the core of the tank battle that took place in front of the Cathedral.

    It just so happened that this Sherman is the exact same type that was knocked out by the Panther, killing several of the crew,


    including Lt. Kellner who had bailed out of the stricken tank after his lower leg was shot off.

    Sadly he died a few minutes later in a nearby rubble crater.


    Here we can see the Panther as it sits right now.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    Thank you George R Blair Jr (@gblair)

    I have been very busy lately with everything but bench time. It’s great to be back and posting again.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 month ago:

    Good to see you back at the bench, Louis @lgardner
    Happy New Year.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 month ago:

    So good to see you back at the bench, my friend @lgardner!
    Looking great so far!

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    Paul Barber said 1 month ago:

    The size difference still amazes! Looking fantastic. Very interested to see the next steps in this project!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)

    Paul Barber (@yellow10)

    Thank you very kindly for your continued support with this project, and we wish you all a Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Building these kits are a very nice change of pace for me. I have been able to get some things done with the Cologne project and have grabbed some pictures of the progress along the way.

    I will be posting them up as time permits.

    I’m just as amazed as you are by the difference in the size between the Sherman and the Panther.

    Ironically the Panther is my all time favorite tank from this era.

    But I also have a biased opinion on this matter. The Abrams is the absolute best tank I have ever had the opportunity to play in. The M-60 was also a very good tank. The crew and how they were trained was the deciding factor.

    This still holds true today.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    This is what I have planned to make for the Cologne tank duel. I want to cover the major players in the engagements.

    This will involve another Sherman tank. It was a M4A3 75MM.

    I have two of these older Tamiya kits in the stash. I’m going to build one as the second Sherman tank which was damaged by the Panther. Going from memory it received damage to the tracks and was not mobile anymore so it was abandoned by the crew.

    You can see it sitting on the opposite side of the road from where Lt Kellner’s Sherman was hit in some pictures and possibly the film footage of the incident.

    There’s another key player involved here as well. From what I’ve read there was another second German tank that was there. As best I can tell it was a Panzer Mk IV.

    I have had this Dragon DML kit in ye olde stash for years and it is the perfect opportunity to get it finally built.

    This particular model is the last version that was built during this period of the war. This last version of the Mark 4 was changed from the earlier version in several ways to help speed the production process on the assembly lines.

    One of the major changes was this version did away with the powered turret. So this Panzer Mk IV "J" late version relied on the brute strength of the gunner who had to manually crank the turret around. It also didn’t have any Zimmerit coating on it. So this will speed things up considerably for me with the assembly.

    It also had some side skirts added to help defeat shaped charges. The ones depicted look more like a chain link than the typical skirts we see. This will be a nice contrast when it's sitting next to and being compared to the other completed 1/35 scale Mk IV's I have in the display case.

    I’m not 100 percent confident of this model being the exact same one that was encountered by Clarence Smoyer just before he engaged the Panther, but it is a pretty good candidate.

    I’m going to build it up as a possible weapon and keep it simple with minimal markings visible.


    The road wheels, sprocket and idlers have been assembled and are ready for painting.


    I have a Jordi Rubio metal barrel for the Pershing.


    The turret and hull were assembled too. The fenders were simply pressed in place for painting purposes only.

    They’re coming off again once the OD Green is finished.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 month ago:

    The painting was done. All of the pieces were sprayed with OD Green for the Pershing.


    I have to completely paint the tank in stages in order to get the road wheels and tracks done to my liking.



    The fenders have been painted on the underside. They have been pressed into place to help keep paint overspray from getting into the glue joints.

    The turret and hull have been sprayed and are drying here.





    I have a Korean War era Pershing that I had been building as a tribute for my Dad. It has been languishing in the shelf of doom for years now.



    I was not happy with how the markings had turned out. So they were removed and the turret was touched up with OD Green. The Korean War Pershing has a M2 .050 MG installed on the turret roof. The Cologne Pershing doesn’t have any weapons mounted there yet. The one that will be eventually used will be covered with a protective bag like the real thing was.



    I recently picked up a new circle cutter. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.

    I’m using it here to make my paint masks for the road wheels and support rollers.

    Once the paint had dried enough the fenders were removed again. The areas around the suspension were touched up as needed.