Although this kit didnt get great reviews, I thought it was OK and less than half price of the tamiya or dragon models, it was worth having a go! I replaced the tracks with fruil metal tracks..... and fell in love with them.
Its the first time I have used link for link tracks and was well pleased with them. I usually build OOB but the Italeri tracks were so bad, each side has 2 parts, soft detail, too short, paint cracked on them, etc. etc. I dumped them and invested in tracks that were 1 and half times the price of the kit. Worth it? definately!!!





As I finished the Panther D at the same time, I thought I post a few pics of the two of them together. They almost look like 2 different scales!


All comments and points of view welcome!

They look pretty good, especially together! I was wondering - I picked up my DML Panther A for about $28, how much was the Italeri kit?

Also, how did you clean up the Fruil tracks, if you did?

Nice work!

Scott

The Italeri panther cost about $17 dollars. There wasnt much clean up needed on the tracks. A few of the little guide horns had to be cleaned ....... I used the point of my knife, and a lot of the holes where the pins are inserted were drilled out using a 0.5mm drill bit and pin-vise. I used stapples instead of the supplied wire as its stronger and easier to slide in. There was only about 5 or 6 little bits of flash on all the tracks. And the great thing is you get so many extra...... enough for armor an stowage, and still around 10 in the box unused. These could be srung together and rolled, and used as stowage on a truck or something!

Nice pieces Plasticbattle! Just a question... just by chance have you got a fully functional tanks factory at home? I've seen lots of models from you in the posts of the last days...
Ciao

nice work, they do look like different scales, interesting pic

Bender

Plastic,

It looks like the left hand side of the turret in the rear shot may be up slightly? Maybe it is just the picture? Great models as always. Send us a pic of th Pnz II next to the Scud Launcher, just for kicks...

Yep sure looks good, by the way wannas ee tiny? compare Heller's 1:35 Hotchkiss H39 kit with a Panzer II in same scale (1:35) then you will be amazed how tiny tanks the french had in the 30's and 40's :-)

Thanks for all the nice comments guys! I really appreciate them!
No tank factory Im afraid ...... but what happened was I started so many projects in the last year and kept moving on to something else. Now I have shelves and drawers filled with built and not painted projects, undercoated and all built kits and different states of completion projects. I decided ..... enough is enough...... time to get some finished! Although these campaigns are a great idea..... you tend to bite off more than you can chew! But its great to have the thrill of a few finished projects! I decided before I go onto something new ..... something has to finish first! I´ll get there someday!
You are probably right, Keenan, about the turret being up a bit. I never glue the turret in place. Some of these might end up in a dio some day, so its nice to have another option!
I had actually planned to place something beside the scud to just show off the size. Its as long as the Panther and panzerII together! I was a bit pressed for time when taking these!
Thanks once again! Cheers!

Its always nice to see someone do good witha bad kit, just don't put next to the corrected DML D and noone will ever know the difference. good work on both tanks. stug

Nice looking Panther you have Plastic, and youre right about the price tack between Italeri and the other compagnie`s .

I like the Italeri offer.

Ronald

Looks good, nice job.

Nice looking finish to both kits Plastibattle. I built one of Itlaeri's Panthers a number of years ago and you're absolutely right about those tracks. #:-)