Plastic Panther/Jagdpanther and Uhu's

Hi all Coxer here. 

I recently got my hands on the new plastic Panther/Jagdpanther (GBX84) Boxset, what a little beauty, Firstly I like the art work in the box, and again the QR code is there to take you straight to the instructions. Saying that the instructions on the back of the box were clear and easy to follow.

In the box you have three sprue per tank, the main one with the Panther/Jagdpanther bits, the existing accessory and the existing track sprue as well.

The first thing to note is that you have all the bits to build both the Jagdpanther and Panther bodies, I've put magnets in the base of the hull to allow me to swap, but they hold together pretty well anyway.

The kit itself is lovely, It fits together well, with minimal flash and mould lines on the model. There are probably only two bits which I thought could have done with improvement, the first is the rear of the turret, it's details seem a little flat, and the side skirts you can add have some obvious round depressions which I assume are part of the mould process. Otherwise though it's a great kit, with lots of stowage pieces, and the Mg's are nice and sturdy too.

The whole kit fits together easily, and there was minimal 'fiddle' I think the only bit I struggled with slightly was the IR gear which seemed to want to do anything but adhere to the tanks.

I painted the model with vallejo air colour, and it adhered to the plastic brilliantly, I found that I had no problems with any of the paints/enamels/washes staying on the tank.

And there you have it 5 assembled and painted panthers.

Pros

Versatility for both the Panther and Jagdpanther

Easy to fit together and assemble

Lovely design and quality of the product

Cons

Few areas lacking in detail

Doesn't have the 'heft' of the old resin ones on the table

All in all a solid 8.5/10 panthers panting! 

Now onto the Sd Kfz 251/20 (Uhu) Platoon (GBX82)! This was actually my first play with battlefronts new plastic 251 kit, which I have to say was a real breeze to put together, really quick and easy to assemble, I've been so impressed the following Friday I picked up a box of the new transport platoon option!

The major additions are the IR searchlight, now this comes in two pieces, and i'm certain you've heard the major issue - it's unbalanced. The number of times the ruddy model decided to rest on it's back I've given up counting. To solve this in the end I placed a but of stowage on the front and it's helped with the balance. 

There are a couple of other pieces such as the IR gear on the hull, and the racks at the back, all were easy to add onto the halftrack, with minimal flash. I've left the crew off these for now, as I tried to position them on the kit, but they just made it looked really really crowded. 

The big departure from reality for my painting of these kits is the red on the IR - now I did this for aesthetic reasons more than anything else - i used a technique which i used to paint the gems on eldar vehicles when i played 40K, think it worked well. I only noticed after taking the photos i'd forgotten to add the gloss varnish to the lens's - it really helps I think now looking at them. I've only added decals to one of the halftrack (so it fits in the same platoon as my panthers) the other one I've left blank until i come up with a platoon for it to join.

Alongside these you get the pair of IR searchlight markers in the box, I think this leads to my biggest question - I know why you get two per box, but in every list I've done so far, I only need one... oh well, might just give it to Fez or Alex to help with their Tale of Gamers lists...

Personally I like the kit, the only big drawback is the lack of balance, if it had more counterweights it's score higher, but a solid 7.5/10 for me. 

Hope these reviews have helped and look forward to my thoughts on using german armour in the near future. 

Coxer