Matthew Lenton reviews Dragon’s latest small scale Panther Ausf.A, this time a Late Production. Does it improve on the disappointing Early version?

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Thanks!

For me the price is the part that would hurt in this scale. Excellent work as always Matthew. Yes getting older is a pain bud.

Dragon's recommended prices for 1/72 are completaly [auto-censored]ing insane now, the 1/48 Tamiya 1/48 panthers cost less than this.

Totally agree on the price, another £5 seems to have been added to their prices in the UK, not sure if the same applies elsewhere or if that's the exchange rate - or both.

And they are saving money recycling their old 1/35 artwork for 1/72!

Any other manufacturer that is so cheap they would be doing this as well?

Cheers,

Christophe

At least this time they didn't have to pay someone to doctor the painting to make it match the contents.
Still, there are cheaper ways of doing box top art work, like just taking a photo of the completed model.

Plus, the box art is a total misrepresentation of the kit - showing zimmerit when there is none! I'll wait until Flyhawk releases one!

Matthew- Not totally as disappointing an offering as appears to be the Dragon "New Norm" but disappointing none the less. To continue with no Zimmerit, engine grilles or spare track and an annoying end opening box with increased cost will have more potential customers looking for a more reasonably priced alternative (Revell?). To be fair and as you mention in you informative review, at least it is an improvement on the "Early A". Again, a great review and eye opener!

Cheers,
Jan

To be fair, from what I can make out, none of the 1/35 versions boxed under that artwork ever had Zimmerit either, and I see that the PMMS review didn't even mention it, while Vinnie Brannigan did point it out in 2006, but still thought
"It's another of those kits from Dragon that just hits you with it's quality when you first open the box!"

It is the spare track links that irk me the most though. I have to wonder if the team sit there in a meeting and make a conscious decision to penny pinch.

All the analysis and discussion is sorely tempting me to get the toolkit out and commence building it, fixing every single issue, but... I have several other kits in the review queue, so I'm just going to have to close that box flap up (I would have said put a lid on it) and put it in the cupboard to mature.

Jan, other Panther kits - I've never seen either of the Revell items, but I liked the Zvezda D kit you may remember, and it's less than half the price of this one.