I had a business meeting out of town lastweek, and it ended early so I decided to take the scenic route home and swing by afew hobby shops on the way back to the office. While at one I bought Tamiya's Panther Tank, don't know which kit it is, but it seems pretty simple.
Planning to try putting zimmerit on it, and was wondering who makes good detail accessories for this kit? Also who makes a good reference book on this tank? I know squat about German armor. One of things I have notice from fotos of German tanks, they don't seem to have the piles of stowage on their tanks, like the americans. Or is this just me?

Ron C.
Ashtabula, Oh

No Ron - it isn't you - German WW II AFV's are characteristically "clean" like that. They didn't festoon the vehicle(s) with a lot of extra gear typically.

Gunnie

Not sure if this will help
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz4.htm#panther

http://stolz.by.ru/

hope these have good info for you.

Ron,
Depending which model (Ausf.) the kit is, there are many aftermarket detail sets. Aber, Eduard, On the Mark, for photoetch. Jordio Rubio, Elephant for barrels, Cavalier for resin zimmerit sheets. Just go to your favorite online shop.
For reference, try and find Squadron Signal "Panther in Action" or Concord Publication's book on the Panther.
The Panther units seem to have kept their vehicles pretty squared away. OTOH look at some pictures of various Stug abteilungen, rails welded across the back deck with all manner of duffel attached. It seems there was a bit more room inside a Panther than the PzIII chassis that the StugIII was based on.

It's the old one if the vinyl tracks do not have detail molded on the inside surface. I haven't heard anything good about the old Panther; however, for some reason, most people criticize any Panther tank kit. I don't know why, the Panther kits usually "look" like Panthers to me.

Thanks guys...You are right Rob it looks like a Panther to me, and it must be an older kit. I don't have the kit number, I am at work and it's at home. It has the openings in the bottom to make it a motorized kit. Does anyone really do that? Saturday night I picked up a book called Patton's Tanks, or something like that. It has some great photos of US tanks and a couple of nice photos of Panthers. Blowed up, blowed up real good!

Ron C.
Ashtabula, Oh

Sure do...lotsa fun. A couple of years ago I got a Tamiya JadgTiger off Ebay, built it with the motor and wired that sucker up. Great fun chasing the dogs around the house with it.
Then one of my dogs broke the gun barrel off trying to get away from it.....
You have to get a really old kit to get the motor in it.

That sounds cool Ron...you could get your camcorder out and make a godzilla movie! Or have mutant 50'ft dogs go back into time and save the world from Nazi Germany. It could happen. LOL

Ron C.
Ashtabula, Oh

I have several of the remnants of old motorized Tamiya kits. I have obtained a few new kits without motors and added the gearbox to them to let the kids play with them. I re-did an M-41 Bulldog and an M4A3E8 this way. Some of the older motorized kits that haven't been refurbished are the M1 Abrams, Chieftan, Matilda, M-36 Jackson, M113, Centurian and a KV-1C and an M60A2. Some even have the wired remote like the M1 (turret traverses too), Cheiftain, Centurian and Matilda.

Since this is definitely the old Tamiya kit, I would not suggest putting a lot of high priced aftermarket accessories into it (good money after bad and all that), that being said, Italeri makes a German Tank Accessories WWII kit 424 that includes injection molded zimmerit sheets and several other things like track links, machine guns, track tools, etc. Good value and will add to a your kit. Cost me about $5-7 for the set.
A standard one would be Squadron Signal's Panthers in Action or Ospreys New Vanguard Panther Variants.

I agree Rob, I think I will use this kit as a learning tool. Like finding out a little more about German armor, and I wanted to try the zimmerit effect like Paul Owen described. That's main reason I bought the kit, and working on weathering. This is where I need alot of work on my skills.

Ron C.
Ashtabula, Oh