¹⁄35

Unboxing Tamiya's New Panther Ausf.D

The PE grills & metal gun should be included with the kit. I will buy this kit anyway but geez, come on..stop bleeding cash out of us.

Thanks for the review, very informative with some very useful photos as well. Surprised no one has mentioned the surface texture on upper hull and turret. I guess it is supposed to represent the pitting from the rolling process but it is well over done. Scale that up to 1:1 and it would look like the tank had been subjected to excessive small arms fire and shrapnel damage. I've got to agree about the paid for add-ons. Surely PE grilles should be included as standard in this day and age, especially in kits from premium companies like Tamiya. Apart from the usual superb engineering, I can't see anything in this kit that makes it more attractive than the Dragon or Zvezda offerings.

Really in-box brass grills are a suprisingly rare in modern kits. Bronco had then whole grill moulded into the engine deck for their first SU-152 release and the KV grill meshes are a lot visable on the tank than the Panther's.

Ausf.a late model would be nice as a next project!. I expect it.

I definitly prefer the excellent Dragon Panthers,but no knocking Tamiya as their kits definitly have their place.A well fitting Tamiya kit is always welcome for those who want to avoid Dragon complexity. True about the PE,that at the minimum should be included,at least Dragon includes the grills although metal guns have disappeared from their newer kits.

Anthony I will say that Dragon now has at least one new Panther release where they have not included photo etch at all.

Oh yes,was it the newest one,that was a paper panzer or a prototype ?

Panzerbeobactungswagen Panther D. No photo etch and no clear parts either. a very poor effort on Dragon part. Kit No 6813

Hmm. One of my favourite tanks. Would be good if you could purchase the kit + all the upgrades and a single kit.

CMOT I recall Dragon released a version of that Panther before, it had Panther II parts in the kit...a shame they never included the basics..PE grills.