Guys
Here's the first Images of the ICM Bergepanther





Pete

Looks great allready!! Happy building on it!

Hey

Is it an idea you're going to write a review on this kit? I'm interested in the quality of this kit!

Martin

This is a kit that I was thinking of buying from my local shop. What do you make of it so far? Good detail? How are the figures and so on?

Guys
the thought had crossed my mind to do a build review, I have more or less done an in the box review but haven't decided whether or not to submit it. To be honest there are things I like about the kit and things I don't
i like the fact that on all bar 1 sprue the ejector points are on the sprue frames not the parts, what lets things down is that there are no part numbers on the sprues so you have to refer back to the parts list.

Moulding quality is good, there's very little flash about but I don't think it's up to DML quality detail wise.

The figures look good to me but I'm no expert on figure.

I actually got the kit because it's a fairly rare beast, I believe that only 12 of these bergepanthers were built.

Pete

folks
more progress pics of the Bergepanther







Pete

Please do publish the review, I saw this kit today6, and almost bought it, except for no background knowledge

I have both this and the Panther D kit from ICM , and can confirm that these are very competent models. I have started on the Panther Ausf. D, and the Bergepanther is in essence just the Ausf. D without the turret. This is NOT the Bergepoanther with the square structure on top with the winch inside.
The detail is good, if not as sharp as we have come to expect from Dragon. As far as I have checked it out, the details are coorect for an Ausf. D. No interior detail or mesh grill is provided at all. The hull has a faint surface texture, but all other parts are smooth, and may need some degree of texturing.
The kit provides individual tracklinks, which leave some to be desired. The detail is rather soft, and they are very fragile to remove from the sprue.
The kit seems to be o.k. to build OOB, but would greatly improve with the addition of some PE and After-market tracks.
The figures are not impressive, soft detail and sculpting, but I suppose the two mechanics can be used for their poses. The crew members are best left...

Cheers
Henk

I have this kit as well. The only real gaffe I noticed is thetwo circular engine grills, which are a bit undersized (you can swipe a couple of spiral grills from a Dragon late Panther A, as it comes with two radial and two spiral types). If Dragon had not done their kits, ICM's would be "THE" early Panther kits to buy, as they are far more accurate than Italeri's Ausf. D. Letdown is the track links, which have solid guide teeth. An aftermarket track set pushes the price above what the Dragon Premium kits costs, and those have hollow track teeth plus a full set of photoetch and a metal gun barrel. One workaround for the ICM kit (or the older Dragon kits) is the photoetched Panther track teeth set from Part models. Fold them over and glue two on each track link. It's tedious but relatively inexpensive.

On the other hand, the tracklinks do not have any ejection pin marks... I think it's a big-big advantage. It really was a breeze to assemble. (Think about it that way: the time you save in filling in the marks, you can spend on hollowing out the teeth.)
I so far built the DML Smart kit, and the artillery observation vehicle from ICM, and both are pretty good, build up to nice tanks. If you compare the parts next to each other, the DML kit has amazing detail compared to the ICM (or Tamiya) Panthers.