204sailor:

If that Panther's elevation unit is like the Tamiya ones (you dinna say if it was Tamiya or HL) you can scavenge the solid gears out of one of the Tamiya toy motor sets.

This was discovered by a member (now banned from this forum) who tried to capitalize on it at $10 a gear. Then I recognised the gears as the same ones from the 'toy' gearboxes they pack in the new static kits like the King Tiger and T1. Now they just pack 'em with unpopulated DMD-gearbox frames.

The Tamiya look-up number is: 72005, the 6-speed gearbox [link=http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=72005](here)[/link]

Hope that helps ya out.