I recently got this from an ebay auction and I have come to find from various internet sources that the kit is not accurate. I read some things about the road wheels but from looking at kit parts and looking at actual Panther A photos, I can’t see what they were talking about.
I’m basically a WWII aircraft modeler and know little about tanks and I have little reference. Could you more experienced ‘tankers’ tell me about the glaring inaccuracies about this Tamiya kit? Some have told me just to get the ‘D’ kit for a better OOB model but I hate to give up on it just yet until I see what kind of corrections are necessary .
The Tamiya kit only has only 1 center road making a total of 4 per side. The actual tank has a 2 inner road wheels making a total of 8 per side. I would recommend you purchase the book Armor conversion and detailing projects. This book is made up from articles from finescale modeler and has a good section on correcting the Tamiya Panther A. Some of the other forum members will give you some other good information. Good luck on your Panther A.
mark956
Hmmmm… Maybe some resin recasts of the center wheels. I always wanted to try making my own resin copy of a part. This sounds like a simple first project for that. Thanks for the clarification of the center road wheel problem.
peaple say its good if you get resin upgrades PE and books of how to and what to do im sorry to say it might be both easyer and cheaper just to buy the Dragon kit
the turret on the Tamiya A is too big and looks odd the tracks are one sided the wheels as they said and theres more
Relax, folks have been building that kit for decades until recent times, and word is - they lived to tell about it.
Look at some of the old back-issues of the old Scale Modeler or the other Challenge pub; Military Modeler, and see how many of these old cats were built - and rather nicely too.
Just have fun with the kit, use it as a mule to work on your zimm skills and ambush-painting skills. Then when you do have the ducats to drop an a new Tam Panther or DML - you’ll feel better about your skills when tackling the new version.
Well said nfafan!!! I have built the kit twice and have brushed up on some needed Panther zim with it. Like nfanan said, just have fun with it. If you want an accurate kit, buy Dragon’s Offering.
[2c]I agree up to a point; while Dragon’s Panther kits are more accurate than the early Tamiya kit (and I assume here you are talking about the Tamiya Panther A issued back in 1972), Tamiya’s newest Panther kits beat the Dragon kits by a country mile. The molding is sharper, the bolt detail on the road wheels (and yes, the newer Tamiya Panthers have the double center wheels) is crisper and the center hub is dead-on accurate. Also while the Dragon Panther kits include separate track links, the guide teeth don’t look quite right to me. I know this may sound like splitting hairs (not that I have that many to split), but I guess I am a stickler for accuracy. However, the Dragon kits are cheaper than Tamiya’s by about half, so of course, that is a consideration as well. And make no mistake, I like Dragon kits a lot; they offer subjects no one else does, and their Nashorn, Hornisse, and Hummel kits are stunning.
Also I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of using the older offerings to practice your techniques… great idea![2c]
Nothing said above on either side of the fence is wrong. You gotta do what you gotta do. I’m building that same Panther and I’ve got a lot of am parts for it, including a more accurate turret that’s oop. So just do it the way you’d like it. Having said that, greatmodels.com has some of the corrected wheel sets on sale at the moment. Do a search on “panther 1/35” and you’ll see what’s available. But if you choose to build it oob, it still looks like a big, German tank (and it’s a fun build!).
Ok, ok, now I’m convinced I should to keep it and use it as a ‘practice’ kit. I probably should since I have not built a tank kit in over 15 years -and then it was only 1 kit! Thanks for all replies and I’ll think I’ll check out Great Models.
I picked up the metal center wheel conversion today. About all they give you is the second set of center road wheels. They are patterened after the kit wheels and have no bolt, etc detail on them. But they will still help with the overall effect.
I’ve been contemplating about wether to get the road wheel set, try casting my own from resin (always wanted to try that!) or just get another Tamiya Panthter A kit from Ebay for the wheels. Money wise, that could be the cheapest route of all.
The metal set I bought wasn’t too bad, about $7. They (Armor Research) have a resin set also for about $15 that have bolt detail cast on them.
One problem with going at it yourself is that the spacing of the wheels will be wacky, if they will fit at all, without a lot of work. The sets come with spacers, replacement axles (where necessary) and the resin set even has new final drive housings. (Don’t know what they give you over the kit ones, but they aren’t in the metal set.
I compromised. I got another Tamiya Panther kit from Ebay - the early ‘G’ type. I’ll still keep the ‘A’ kit and get the FSM Sept. 1990 back issue to accurize it and practice my scratchbuilding skills. At least now I can get a more accurate Panther OOB.[:)]