Dragon has an extremely comprehensive family of 1/35 scale Panzer IV kits in its range. Indeed, Dragon can offer a modern and accurate kit of every member of the Panzer IV family – the A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and J! Although the Panzer IV was built, and widely served, throughout WWII, there was a desire to field even better tank designs. One interesting concept that appeared in November 1944 was to mount a Panther Ausf.F turret upon a Panzer IV hull. However, it was soon decided that doing this would overburden the Pz.Kpfw.IV chassis, and the idea was thus rejected. The Ausf.F Schmalturm narrow turret would have mounted a 7.5cm KwK.42 (KwK.44/1 L/70) gun. The Panther F had been slated for production in April 1945, but the end of the war put an end to those plans.
This 1/35 scale plastic kit represents in plastic the fruition of that project's ambition. The highly detailed kit is closely based on Dragon’s leading model of the Panzer IV, and of course it features an appropriately rendered Panther Ausf.F turret. In fact, to accommodate the new turret, the upper hull has been completely retooled with the correct details. The unique-looking tank also wears a set of detailed side skirts. While the design was destined to be confined to history as yet another paper panzer, this kit offers modelers the chance to build and enjoy something of an oddity!