Straight Cut Gears Panther Tank Full Interior Kit

As well as those, a turret and upper hull are included, as well as two track building guides that well look at soon.

It had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz.

It was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther until 27 February 1944, when Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral V be deleted.

Contemporary English language reports sometimes refer to it as the Mark V.

The Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34 and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV.

Nevertheless, it served alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war.

It is considered one of the best tanks of World War II for its excellent firepower and protection, although its reliability was less impressive.

While having essentially the same engine as the Tiger I, it had more efficient frontal hull armour, better gun penetration, was lighter and faster, and could traverse rough terrain better than the Tiger I.

The trade-off was weaker side armour, which made it vulnerable to flanking fire.

The Panther proved to be effective in open country and long-range engagements but did not provide enough high explosive firepower against infantry.

Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armour, transmission, and final drive, were simplifications made to improve production rates and address raw material shortages.

The Panther was rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk despite numerous unresolved technical problems, leading to high losses due to mechanical failure.

Most design flaws were rectified by late 1943 and the spring of 1944, though the bombing of production plants, increasing shortages of high quality alloys for critical components, shortage of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of crews all impacted the tanks effectiveness.

Though officially classified as a medium tank, its weight is more like that of a heavy tank, as its weight of 44.8 tons puts it roughly in the same category as the American M26 Pershing (41.7 tons), British Churchill (40.7 tons) and the Soviet IS-2 (46 tons) heavy tanks.

The tank had a very high power to weight ratio however, making it extremely mobile regardless of its weight.

Its weight still caused heavy tank-esque problems however, such as an inability to cross certain bridges.

If this was a Mustang or Bf 109, the whinge-fest would be on about everybody releasing the same subject.

Personally, I am super-pleased to see new incarnations of the Panther, and in brand-new tooling also.

Takoms plans for the 2018 are very much Panther related, with 3 kits now in circulation, and a further five that will come to market, including two Bergepanther variants (cue the excitement with the latter).

We have been lucky enough to receive the Ausf.A Early Production, which we see in this review, and the Ausf.A Late Production which Jeroen Peters will look at in the very near future.

Printed on a plain white box lid, the illustration is a simple line drawing, with the kit title.

However, on the sides, we have some nice colour illustrations of cutaway and interior sections of the new kit, definitely supplying a little eye-candy to proceedings.

Now, lift that lid at your peril, because removing those contents and getting them back in again afterwards will be a task.

Straight Cut Gears Panther Tank Full Interior Kit

The box is absolutely crammed with styrene, as you can imagine with this being a full interior kit.

Each of the TWENTY-NINE light grey sprues is packaged into a separate sleeve to protect the many small and fragile parts.