Originally Posted by cleong

For the IR battler the Panther tank is pretty much "there" right out of the box - you need only minor tweaks to get it going, and replace parts as they wear out. Due to the way the tank is designed with a front mounted drive sprocket which bears the brunt of frontal collisions, I have a set of Impact gearboxes on standby. Thankfully I have not needed to use it yet. Although I also have a set of Impact metal tracks, the plastic stock tracks have held up manfully to the rigors of Danville so far.

You would have to buy a JagdPanther gun mantlet parts tree to get the regular exhausts and standard crew fan grille. The Panther G also does not come with PE engine grilles, even though the Tamiya JagdPanther comes with it. Tamiya also skimped on accessories - no jerry cans, not even crew, or a cupola mounted machine gun, which was pretty much de rigueur for the late war period so serious the Jabo threat was. Aside from the commander's hatch, none of the other hatches open.

I've made some minor aesthetic upgrades that aid durability - such as swapping to a cast metal rear tow pintle and cross pin, as well as purchasing metal tow shackles recently (the plastic ones were getting chopped up pretty bad running into rocks).