Not feeling it unless the price is less than $15.

Hate to be a nuisance... How would this compare with the Tamiya Panther circa 1980? I've only built one tank simce then, the Academy Tiger 1 late to which I added friuls. Would the Torsion bars be moulded in a single piece with the lower hull? Thanks, Gaz

I would guess that the Tamyia tank is better. Seriously though just build a Dragon Panther and get a fantastic kit

Hard to discern what exactly they've upgraded--maybe my monitor has too much contrast. Italeri's Ausf. G as previously sold, was a Frankenpanzer, mating Italeri's own 1980's Panther A hull and suspension and turret with an Ausf. G upper hull originally tooled for Dragon's 1994 vintage Panther Ausf. F (which was designed to fit the Italeri parts originally). The current Dragon Panther Smart Kits or even the older Gunze Sangyo Panther Ausf. G kits (once offered as Shanghai Dragon) would be much better choices. Tamiya didn't offer a Panther in the 1980's. Their Ausf. A dates from 1970, and is easy to build but inaccurately proportioned in the turret, with a sumplified suspension. Their Ausf. G kits date from the 1990's, and are much better, generally.

I've built their Panther A a couple of times and found it to be an enjoyable build and looks the part when finished. Quite straightforward, the fit was good, the instructions were clear and pricewise very good. Obviously if you buy a DML one, for twice the price plus a bit, it's going to have more bits like the torsion bars etc but who sees them? It's all well and good having these extra bits of detail but if you can't see it it's a rather moot point. It's just added work for no gain. If something has an open top I think it's probably worth spending the extra and going for Dragon but if appearance wise the dimensions are near enough on, you won't notice a huge amount between the two if it's a competent modeller building it. I looked at the DML one a while ago and decided that it was overly complicated (plus their instructions are always rubbish-utterly confusing) and expensive for what it is. If somethings expensive I want to enjoy building it, not have it become a chore as I knew it would if I'd gone for DML. I never have been and never will be a rivet counter as I enjoy the hobby too much for that and like everybody I watch the pennies when buying so Italeri are a good bet I find. Some kits are crap but some are great, the same as all manufacturers. I'd been debating getting a G model for a while and now I've seen this I may buy one rather than the Tamiya one if it's cheaper. The PE stuff is a bit of a winner here. I bought the reboxed late Tiger with zim a while back and that had the PE upgrade. Skirts,exhaust guards and grills so that saved me quite a bit as I'd have had to buy the grills anyway. Hoipefully someone will do a build review on it and we can get a full picture of what it's like.

If this is similar to their Bergepanther, yes it does come with the engine grills, but the tracks are really nasty, so you need to budget for replacing these at minimum. Otherwise it will build into something looking like a Panther - much better than the ancient Tamiya A, but nowhere near as good as a Dragon kit or the more recent Tamiya G. You pays your money you gets your choice. It may be that the price differential between Italeri tank + AM tracks and DML or Tamiya kit makes the choice for you.

All I can say .....Nice Box Art !

those tracks look gross. You would have to put some metal tracks on it. I have to be honest, I do enjoy building italeri kits, I like the Opel Blitz kit & Demag Pak 38 kit. Tamiya & them are in the same kinda category, simply, decent detail...except the tracks in both need replacing.

The two piece barrel turns me off more then the tracks. But looks like an easy build.