Fujimi (ex-Nitto) 1/76 Panther ausf G

[BWP]

Well, the final volume in my epic 1/76 Panther trilogy is now completed ... the Fujimi (ex-Nitto) kit.



The overall accuracy of the kit out of the box (as an Ausf G) is, on the face of it, not too bad, and it offers features that the Airfix and Matchbox kits omit -- most notably the external tools. However, they're not very well done, and they're moulded integrally with oversized tool racks, and not all are in the correct position. The kit provides an interior, of sorts, but it's wasted plastic -- firstly, what they have provided is not very accurate, and secondly, they have omitted more than they have provided. What was the point?



The trend of providing terrible, terrible tracks in 1/76 has not been bucked here, so once again replacement link-&-length tracks were stolen from a Revell kit (I have a lot of 3rd-party Panther tracks in 1/72 to source when I get around to building the Revell Panthers!). The supplied gun barrel is not awful, but the plastic Dragon barrel is still better so one was used here. (The Dragon Panther and Jagdpanther kits between them supply lots of spares.)

Since the pointless interior on the bottom hull leaves large empty spaces on the bottom of the vehicle, I decided to cover it with some plastic, using the plans provided in the "Panzer Tracts" books.



Some other minor detailing odds and ends were added. The turret needed the most work.





On this kit I made use of a Voyager "Panther grills" PE set to dress up the rear hull.



The kit would look (considerably) better with a replacement resin "tools" set from Dan Taylor, but I decided to make do with the kit parts. I did use the anti-aircraft MG resin mount though (since I did not use that part on either of the previous two Panthers). The kit provides (rather thick) side-skirts, but the vehicle I was building did not require them. If it had, I would have replaced them with more Dan Taylor PE examples. It's not in the build photos here, but I also applied zimmerit in the same manner I had on the Airfix kit, i.e., a thin layer of Tamiya putty, softened with liquid cement and the pattern formed with a small screwdriver.





The scheme was inspired by a profile in "To the Last Bullet". Decals were from the spares box. Painted as usual in LifeColor acrylics, weathered with pastel chalks. Since this vehicle was from near the end of the war, I figured no-one would have been wasting time cleaning it, so I made it very "dirty" overall.

[ntrocket88]

As I said elsewhere, excellent work. Your finish on the tracks is especially effective. I think that when I make another one of these, that I will use the drive sprocket as well as the tracks from Revell, as the Nitto/Fujimi one has too small a diameter and too few teeth. None of which detracts from your work, of course.

[BWP]

Thanks Neil! My problem is, I don't like to steal parts from other kits that I can't replace (i.e., I don't buy kits to just act as sources of spare parts). In 1/72 there are 3rd-party track options for Panthers in PE or resin ... but no replacement sprockets that I'm aware of! (I know that's not an issue for you since you like to build 1/76 exclusively.) However, if I was going to buy "kits for parts", better to buy the Airfix Panther, since it's cheap and easy to obtain. That gives you replacement exhausts as well ... and I'm not sure that the Airfix road wheels aren't better than the Fujimi also.

[ShaunW]

An interesting end to your Panther trilogy and nice work. I see that the Revell kit is donating parts - is that kit a worthwhile build for a small scale Panther? Currently I only have a 1/35th Tamiya Panther G in the stash and wouldn't mind building a smaller scale example as well (the little fella doesn't necessarily have to be a G model, an Ausf D or A would also fit the bill).

[BWP]

Shaun, there are two Revell Panther kits (one is a D/A, the other a G), as well as a Jagdpanther kit, all (nominally) in 1/72. They also do the ex-Matchbox Jagdpanther in 1/76. (I say "nominally" because the 1/72 Jagdpanther is closer to 1/76 in dimensions, which is not only odd in itself, but odder still since it was released after the Panther kits! I guess no-one at Revell thought to do a side-by-side comparison?) All three of the 1/72 kits use the same link-and-length tracks, which are quite nice but ever-so-slightly overscale (so the sprockets have fewer teeth than they are supposed to so that they fit). (The 1/76 tracks on the Jagdpanther are the dreadful vinyl tracks used on the MB originals, and are worthless.)

As for the Revell 1/72 Panther kits as a whole, I think they're fairly nice overall, but they have some issues. The good and bad is nicely summarised here.

As stand-alone kits, I think I prefer the Dragon 1/72 releases, but they also have a variety of issues, largely stemming from Dragon's insistence on sharing mouldings with their die-cast vehicle range. The kits are a frustrating combination of beautiful detail and accuracy in some areas and awful simplifications and errors in others. It's really quite bizarre -- accepting that there is no such thing as a "perfect" kit, you would think that for a famous and popular subject like a Panther, somebody somewhere could release just one kit in braille that doesn't get some component ridiculously wrong -- but you'd be wrong. (The Zvezda 1/72 "quick-build" doesn't look too bad, but I don't yet have one to examine in detail for myself.)

Sorry for the rambling!

[ShaunW]

Thanks for taking the time to put that useful Panther info up Bruce - I don't mind a good old ramble I agree wholeheartedly that it would be so much easier if some bugger enterprising manufacturer did their homework and made an accurate small scale Panther in the first place. It's a famous/iconic enough vehicle surely!