I would like to know who makes the best quality aftermarket tracks for the Panther D early production model?

Tamiya offers a nice set in styrene.

Gentlemen this IS the BRAILLE SCALE Forum so generally things here apply to small scale models of which I do believe Tamiya does not produce. If Jody is talking about 1/72 scale then your best place to look would be OKB Grigorov who offers quite a few different track types.

Cheers,
Jan

Mea Culpa. I accessed this from the "latest posts" link. Should have noticed the braille scale heading.

Jan,
Thanks for having my back,LOL. Now you were saying, OKB Grigorov? never heard of them. You say their the best in quality for 1/72nd scale? are they resin or metal?
Thank you.
Jody

This answers most of your questions, I think:
http://shop.okbgrigorov.com/product/188/1-72-tracks-for-pz-v-panther-early.html

As far as being the best goes, I think you might not find that many other makes currently obtainable. Looks like Komplekt Zip did a set. You might try the Tracks and Troops online shop, they have a lot of stock and may have alternatives. OKB Grigorov is very active however, and I am sure you can obtain them from him.

OKB without a doubt, I have their early, middle and late sets and they are all superb quality. They now do all the sprockets and idlers for the different Panthers.



This is a comparison between the 1/35 Fruil tracks and the 1/76 OKB ones, might help to make your mind up .

All the best,

Paul

1/72...

Well done Matthew spotting my deliberate mistake .
Of course they are 1/72, goodness knows why I put !/76, I don't even model in that scale .

All the best,

Paul

Hey Paul,
If it helps,I too was once a 1/35th guy.But my living arrangements had me doing 1/72nd scale. So with that in mind,I have the mindset/modelset of if you as 1/35th guys can do all that detail,then why couldn't I do that exact same detail but in 1/72nd scale.
Believe it or not I have and OMG the looks and comments on how the hell did you do all that in such a small area? It just makes me smile.
At my age that's not to bad either.

Hello Jody,

I don't model in anything but 1/72, however, my son bought me the Dragon 1/35 Panther Ausf A for a birthday present and the Fruil tracks for a Father's day present, so I was obliged to build it up. I have to say that larger isn't easier, getting all the detail right at 1/35 is as exacting as at 1/72. I enjoyed making the model and it is primed ready to paint, but I love my little tanks and will stick to them.

All the best,

Paul

Paul,
Have you seen or even tried the panther tracks by armory?
They are link to link sets(individual)!
Now as for the OKB track set,from what I can see they are links that are made for the top and bottom also individual links that would go around the sprockets.
What a dilemma trying to pick the best set out there that would look good on my Panther. Oh yes another thing,the OKB set from what I can find is $12.75 a set.Where the Armory set is individual links at $14.00.
I've looked at both sets and I am unable to see any difference,they both look great.
I just hope that the old saying of you get what you pay for doesn't apply in this case.
Jody

Hello Jody,

I haven't personal experience with Armory, but others have said their tracks are nice. The OKB ones come with just lengths, no links...



But they are easy to bend around sprockets and idlers...



You can use gentle heat from a hairdryer to make them flexible and bend them around the sprocket and idler, not too much heat though as it can warp the tracks.

I usually begin with one length starting at the top of the sprocket and take it around the bottom run of the running gear, then attach another length and take that around the idler to meet up with the first length, you can replicate sag very convincingly with a little heat...

PzKpfw III tracks...



These are done the same as you would do the Panther tracks and show how well they fit around the sprocket and idler. I think you will enjoy using them. They are different and need a little care and patience to get right, but they are worth it.

All the best,

Paul

And they are resin?
Jody

They are and some of the finest resing castings you can get, the detail is better than anything you can hope for in injection moulded stuff. I have been using them now for a couple of years and have sets for most of my future projects already. They are bringing out their first injection moulded kit soon, a Chaffee and I have pre-ordered it already, it looks very good indeed. Well worth browsing their website and Facebook pages.

All the best,

Paul