While the early release Tamiya Panther kit's, such as my kit had their share of issues, as has been mentioned above, the Panther kit tracks were also faulty, kinked, held a distorted shape and felt rubbery to the touch. So hopefully Tamiya corrected the kit track issue too.

Tossing bucks at all the mentioned issues corrected the kit problems, but pissed me off for having to do so to get the thing setup to run as well as my far cheaper to setup Tiger I.

The costly purchase and installing the Impact tracks, new Impact drive sprockets, Impact glacis plate guides to fix a poor fitting kit deck – glacis plate, Daryl Turner gearbox mount, DT barrel sleeve etc etc helped my Panther to become a silky smooth runner.

And I am happy with my Tamiya Panther G rc setup and I am now over the additional cost thing.

But for all the good things now said about the merits of the club battlefield Panther, probably, started by the Tamiya stealthy rc tank marketing reps; my Tiger IE with Bob's ETO basic gear reduction setup mounted on Tamiya stock gearboxes; sitting atop a Daryl Turner gearbox mount; running kit plastic tracks does make the basic Tamiya Tiger IE a far more agile and capable fighter than the $1275.00 after market parts improved Tamiya Panther G. LOL.

And importantly, my Tamiya Tiger IE tank cost me exactly 1/2 the cost of the Panther build.

So, if you really want a Tamiya Panther G, well, it is very cool but I think still a costly kit to build.

And if you really want to win at your club battle day: set your Sherman on "9 hits" and I just blow away the Kraut armor, if you don't cheat you are not trying.

And remember the Sherman is cheaper still to build, setup and fight than either the Tiger IE or Panther G.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, John