German Panther Medium Tank

This 1/35 scale Panther tank is scaled about right, it's large, but it doesn't have as much detail as I would've hoped for on such a large model. For the price though, I suppose it makes sense. POSITIVES: I like the wheels on this one, they show the rivets well, and they roll very smoothly. There are a LOT of moving parts which I consider a plus. The driver top hatch, coaxial gunner top hatch, driver forward hatch, turret escape hatch, ball machine gun, and commander's cupola all can move. The gun carriage latch is not supposed to move, but with some careful cutting of discarded sprue, I got mine to rotate. Also, it comes with a driver that can be placed looking either from the top or forward hatches. NEGATIVES Turret back armor plate has some fit issues and required some putty The jack had very weird instructions. I ended up cutting off the guide rod and glueing it where I saw fit. The instruction's resolution is a bit low - it's difficult to tell the orientation on on some small parts There are no directions on where the tow wires should go - you can basically put them anywhere, but it'd be nice if they said that

This kit turned out very cool. The tank itself is larger than I would have guessed based on the size of the box. The quality of the kit is very good. My only complaint is with the one piece treads. This kit's treads only have one row of pins connecting the two ends, and it was difficult to get the connection satisfactory. Most of the Tamiya kits I have done before have at least two rows of pins - unfortunately, this one did not. The treads aside, the model is awesome. As usual, the kit comes with tools for the tank (shovel, sledge hammer, crow bar, jack, cables, etc.) A commander (full figure) and a driver (torso only) come with the kit, but the detail of the figures seems a bit lacking. Overall, even with the few slight drawbacks, the kit is impressive and well worth the price.

I have built two of these. The kit has good detail and is easy to assemble. The instructions however have a few areas that they do not depict certain steps. Overall good kit. My advice on this kit would be not to mount the top of the hull to the bottom of the hull until you have absolutely finished your build and paint because you need to access the top of the hull from the inside (driver, commander, open opening hatches, ect.).