I have bought the Panther A from Tamiya, from a friend of mine. It looks like a decent basic kit, not much detail though. The tracks however, are just crap. The 'outside' looks quite acceptable (although not at all correct), but the 'inside', with the pins, looks awful : no detail, the links aren't presented seperately, it looks like one big track, made of one big piece.
I thought about buying metal 'workable' tracks, but first of all they'd cost me more than the kit itself and second of all, I don't feel like spending the amount of time in the tracks alone.
Does anybody has any suggestions about making these dings look better? I've been thinking a lot about it, but I can't figure out something satisfying.

Cheers!

Hey Florre....

There's always the alternative to buy the Tamiya single track links; they're not too expensive, instead of the , beautifull, Fruil tracks...and they're quite easy to assemble!!

Just my two cents...good luck, John.

I know how you feel i brought the kit last week, its not one of tamiyas best so ill just build it for the sake of it.the tracks well theres not much you can do with them ,my suggestion is muddy up the panther a lot so the tracks are full of mud that way you will hide a lot of the so called detail,other than that buy a set of friulmodel tracks or buy a cheap model panther from Italeri and use the tracks from that kit.hope this helps

If it is kit number 35065 I don't think I would waste the money buying Fruils for it. IIRC this kit has some serious flaws. I think it is even missing the entire inner set of roadwheels. I built one a while back and am going to use the turret from a second to make a static bunker.

Just my 2 cents.
Like Tiger said, not one on Tamiya's best kits, but it is a fun quick biuld if you don't mind the accuracy problems.

Shaun

Geese Keenan..Don't even bother using the turret the angles are all off and the mantlet is too wide ...Grab an old Italerie turret if you must but not that one ...uuugggghhh!

Rick

Here's a suggestion for tracks... why don't you buy the DML Panther A and use the tracks from it? It's as cheap as a set of Fruilmodel or Kasten tracks.

As an added bonus you can replace the turret, wheels, hull... well... _every_ part of the Tamiya kit with parts from the DML kit... there's nothing correct in that Tamiya kit.

Paul.

Its indeed the 35065. Why don't I just buy a panther from another manufacterer and use that one as a whole
But it's a pity not to build a kit you have... I'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll do the mud-trick, that's the easiest and cheapest one

Thanks a lot guys !

btw, I've been searching on the net to the Separate Track links of Tamiya. I only found the Panther Type G tracks, but they look exactly the same. I can't find how much they'd cost however. Do you know a site where I can buy them? Thanks!

Why don't you just ask to see if anyone has an extra set of the Tamiya Panther G loop tracks? For example I have an extra set from when I replaced them with Kasten tracks. This'll save you a lot of money.

Paul.

your only alternative is to get some other tracks, besides trying to mud them up, I built the kit some time ago and I also notived that theh have no interior detail!!! I mean, there are some tracks that are inaccurate, but this one is just one flat piece of rubber band!! come on Tamiya!

"C'mon Tamiya!"

Guys, this kit was produced in the mid 1970s. Give them a break. The shame is that it's still marketed. As Paul Owen stated, there's not much of anything on this kit that's correct. If you don't want an inaccurate kit, do it as a build along with a youngster and enjoy it with them (I gave away my Tamiya Panther A and older Tiger I. I'm doing the M5A1 with my seven year old daughter).

Great idea! How much would you want for it?
Thanks a lot!