I have owned every one of the Tamiya IR tanks except for the Pzr IV. I just sold my JP and KV1 recently and have battled them all in the hottest test bed for IR tanking, the AAF Tank Mus. in Danville, VA.

The Panther G and the M26 Pershing are without a doubt the best IR fighters. Any unreliablility of the "Flawed" Panther is is blown way out of proportion. It is VERY reliable tank bone stock. I got one of the earliest Panthers and built it overnight in my motorhome in the museum parking lot the day I bought it from Karen. A hastey build should have brought out the worst in the beast. The only issue I had was the spacing of one drive sprocket which was fixed in 30 seconds with some tape to shim it out. I ran it bone stock for 4 years til this past fall. I added a D T elevation arm after two years and finally wore our a right gear box battling with the boys from Texas Armor this past September. I finished the day driving maily in reverse and no one noticed. Daryl is a great friend and make super stuff to make any tank perform even better.

It is the best and most reliable tamiya tank to date. It is just that simple. I M H O !

Like I always say about opinions... There are like rectums, everybody has one and they all stink....LOL.

Buy whatever Tamiya tank you like. There are none that are "too much trouble to run" they all have their faults but none are significant enought to rule it out.

Good luck and have fun, Bob