Introduction

Panzerkampfwagen Panther was the most effective medium tank of German army during WWII that employed most advanced technological ideas of German constructors. First produced in December 1942 it was serving in the both Eastern and Western fronts until the end of the war. Moreover, in 1944 a tank destroyer, named Jagdpanther was developed on the successful chassis of Panther tank. Together with Jagdpanther and Bergepanther (engineer recovery vehicle) more than 6000 chassis were made and being a popular subject amongst modellers there is always a room for aftermarket products.

Review

MasterClub is well known for their range of resin tracks which is now being extended to white metal tracks simply transferring knowledge and technology from resin moulds. This set MTL35001 is no exception and is similar to resin product reviewed by Frank Glackin some years ago and a link to that review is at the end of this review.

Packed in a plastic box with a lid on top it contains 210 white metal track links and 440 resin track pins suitable for a Panther Ausf. A or Ausf G. together with vehicles based on these chassis. The metal tracks are finely cast and have open guide horns together with ice cleats on the outer surface. The track pins appear similar although detail is a bit different on the two types so it is necessary to keep one of them on the inner side of the tracks and the other one on the outer. The assembly is really straightforward and unlike the Panzer III/IV set I reviewed recently there is no need to probe the rack pin holes as they fit perfectly without any extra force applied. The track chain that is seen on the images was assembled within 15 minutes. Again, the advantage of these tracks is full articulation after assembly and no need for CA glue. I quickly checked the assembled section of tracks on the sprockets from most popular kits – Dragon, Tamiya and Zvezda (the latter two were provided by Sergey Glubyshev). Dragon and Tamiya have excellent fit while the fit around Zvezda sprocket is not tight as it appears to have slightly smaller diameter then Dragon and Tamiya sprocket.

Dimension-wise the tracks produced by MasterClub perfectly fit the measurements (I checked the track links against the plans of the original track thanks to fellow modellers at tigercorner.ru). Width, distance between horns, pitch and teeth height match these plans as well as examples of real tracks from Russian museums. Just note that the width calculation was based on the drawings that indicate that tracks are 656mm wide and not 660 mm as it says per technical description of the tank. I find it a bit strange but it is the same on real examples.

Overall, this is a great set of metal tracks which articulates after assembly and has great detail achieved by delicate casting and inclusion of resin track pins.

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