The Panther is one of the most recognizable tanks of WWII, right up there with the slow and boxy but feared Tiger I. With ~6,000 examples per Wikipedia the Panther is the third most produced tracked German AFV after the Stug III (9,408 built), and the workhorse of Panzerwaffe, the Pz IV (8,298 made).
No wonder that number of kits on the market follows closely the other 2 vehicles. Naturally there are various renditions of the vehicle and its details, with the tracks varying from flat to highly detailed. Below are a few examples from 6 different kits:
The Jagdtiger was a last-ditch weapon, a self-propelled anti-tank bunker, that had zero impact on the outcome of WWII. Regardless, a lot of model companies offer both variants of this machine. My main reason for getting the Trumpeter set with Porsche suspension was the small number of parts and the related ease of construction. It promised a rather uninvolved build as I imagined a straight OOB project done over the weekend. Yeah, right 😀
The first session was promising, I managed to remove the main components from the sprues, clean up and assemble the bogies in a couple of hours. Instead of going full AMS I decided to plug the locating holes for the spare track hangers, and go “bald”.
There was only ever one E-100 chassis built, but this project for super heavy armored vehicle continues to capture modeller minds across the world in all scales. Years ago the only 1/72 kit was the Dragon one, which went missing for nearly a decade. When re-released it disappeared from the market in 2 (two days).
Then along come Trumpeter and Modelcollect, and here we are with two more competitively priced 1/72 kits.
What’s common for all 3 of them? The tracks are far from good. Negative experience with DS tracks and the underwhelming releases from the younger competitors drove my interest to, well, OKB, and their E-100 resin track set.
The “King Tiger” tiger needs no introduction, and there’s hardly a company that has not issued a kit of it. While the angles and sizes of various armor plates would rarely be the subject of scrutiny in 1/72 (and even less often are corrected on models), tracks remain an important detail of the kits.
There are several types, including multiple patterns of the wider “combat” and narrower “transport” ones – a situation similar to the first generation of Tiger tanks.
Big machines have always been a thing in the USSR, and that is definitily true for both aircraft and tanks before WWII. In April 1941 some 20 proposals for a super heavy tank competed within the Kotin design bureau. War interrupted this madhouse, all guns built for the design were destroyed. However since men continue to obsess with heavy tanks that were never built in metal – what you will see below is the winning one in resin.
The WWII Panther tank has become a legend mostly based on its looks and long gun rather than its combat record. This has prevented no manufacturer ever from producing a kit of it, and as a result the modeller today has a vast choice of kits to build. Other than the (generally) horrendous tracks the detail that gets your attention the most is the commander’s cupola. Renditions vary, but they are usually molded closed, in soft detail, and with vision blocks having see-thru effect.
Georgi from OKB Grigorov is offering a solution to those problems for your Panther fleets: 2 separate sets of 4 commander cupolas each for the Ausf D and the Ausf A/G, respectively.
The PzKpfw IV is a popular machine in the modelling community, and many companies have produced kits in 1/72. The weak point on the majority of those sets are the tracks and wheels.
OKB Grigorov produces over 30 different sets for the Pz III and IV family of vehicles. There are tracks, road wheels, idlers, return rollers and sprockets. With the recent additions to my collection I was looking to replace the vinyl and DS tracks with a more detailed, durable, and easier to work with option, so below you will see images of
As you are aware OKB Grigorov is also offering the so-called “Mammoth edition” of their injection molded M24 Chaffee. There are several PE frets and a machined brass gun barrel included in that boxing.
First off are the side skirts. You’ve noticed in my original review of the plastic parts that the skirts are represented in styrene, and that their edges are beveled to appear visually thinner. For those of us who are not satisfied a fret numbered P72017 offers replacement side skirts complete with fastener detail.
T-72B in Sofia, National Museum of Military History
The T-72 main battle tank is one of the most recognizable combat machines very much thanks to the mass of real-time broadcast conflicts it’s participated in during the past 3 decades. A lot of companies have released model kits, including in 1/72 scale.
Two types of roadwheels have been used during the 72’s production run: the “8-hole” (early) and the “6-hole” (late) types. They were identical in diameter and rim width – 750mm and 190mm respectively. This scales down to approx. 10,4 and 2,6mm in 1/72.
T-90 has been in the fantasies of a lot of Braille scale folk in the recent years. There was the ACE kit, then more recently the Revell cast and welded turret models. Tracks on all were on the underdetailed side. This set from OKB Grigorov solves the problem.
OKB Grigorov tracks for T-90, set 72111
Now with the Zvezda T-90 out you’d imagine we have the definitive kit with great tracks. Alas, although Zvezda did create an impressive kit, the tracks supplied are extremely tense, and the entire running gear can be snapped away trying to put the track runs on.
