This is the notorious Panther kit that most everyone has built or read articles about correcting. It is possibly a good toy but is kind of a disaster as an accurate representation of a Panther. It is very old and has poor moulding quality compared to recent kits. It also has a very large number of inaccuracies. I built it straight out of the box about five years ago and I still have it.

If you want a kit for a young person, this is not a bad choice because many of the parts are moveable. Almost all the hatches, including the driver's vision hatch, may be opened, the hull machine gun is moveable, and the wheels and tracks turn so you can push it along on the carpet. There are holes on the bottom of the hull for a power switch and gears. Many of Tamiya's early kits have these holes, but I have never seen the motors or drive mechanism for them.

For the serious modeller, there is really no longer a reason to buy this kit because Italeri has a Panther A that is much better and is approximately the same price. The Italeri kit is just slightly out of scale but comes with optional Zimmerit (they are panels that you can attach to the hull) and an engine compartment. Check out the review of the Italeri kit in MMiR "The Early Years", which should still be available.

Here is a list of most of the problems with the Tamiya kit, along with suggested improvements.

1.The sponsons have gaping holes in the bottoms (just above the tracks). These are visible even from the side. It is easy to fix this with sheet styrene.

2.The tracks are vinyl bands with no inner detail at all (not even creases between links), and the outer surface should have traction chevrons. Of course the guide teeth are solid, but they should be hollow. Many companies make individual track links now which are correctly detailed (except they usually have solid guide teeth), or you can borrow some from another kit. I know that DML has good Panther tracks in their Jagdpanther kit, perhaps they sell these separately now like their Sherman and Pz. IV "Quartermaster" track kits.

3.The middle road wheels are single wheels, they should be doubled. You can buy two kits to get extra wheels and mate them, but it is much easier to borrow them from a newer Italeri or Tamiya kit. I think that you can also buy road wheels separately.

4.The track roller is missing from the final drive housing, and so is the housing itself. This can be borrowed from a newer kit.

5.The tools are very poorly moulded. These may be borrowed from a newer kit, or are available separately from several manufacturers. Tamiya makes a tool kit for the Pz. IV that can be used.

6.The turret shape is incorrect being much too large and high. Also, the bend near the cupola should be rounded. Should be totally scratch-built, except for the ventilator, cupola, and escape hatch.

7.The mantlet shape is incorrect. It is much too large and is especially too wide. Borrow from another kit.

8.The hull light is much too large (almost double what it should be), so borrow from another kit. These are now also available from cottage industry companies.

Perhaps a conversion could be performed by combining the Panther A with a new Tamiya Panther G early (catalogue #35170) and use the entire hull bottom, tracks, and wheels from the Panther G. Add the Panther A hull top but replace the tools and the hull light with Panther G parts (it should be on the hull, not the fender, for the Panther A). Use the Panther G turret but cut off the personal defence weapon. Use the front fenders from the Panther G. The main surgery will be modifying the rear plate of the Panther G to fit the different back hull sides of the Panther A. It may require some extra work because the Panther G lower hull slopes down at the rear but appears level on the Panther A. The exhaust style of the Panther G early was also seen on some Panther A (but without the exhaust guards), or you can use the older kits rear plate. I remind you that I have not personally made this conversion but the two kits are very close in width and length so I believe that the idea has some merit. On the other hand, the idea really only had merit before the Italeri kit was released. Time would be much better spent adding small details to the Italeri Panther A.

References

"Tamiya's Panther Ausf. A in 1/35 Scale", by Gerard Degays, FineScale Modeler, April 1988.
    The author shows how to add the missing road wheels, fill the motorization holes, add sponson under sides, and adds some super detailing. A template for side armour plates is also supplied (it is just a 28mm by 15mm rectangle).

"Accurizing Tamiya's 1/35 Scale Panther Ausf. A", by Tony Greenland, FineScale Modeler, September 1990.
    Here Greenland calls the kit "Tamiya's worst", shows how to make Zimmerit with Milliput, and how to super detail the kit. The most useful part of this article is a complete set of 1/35 scale templates to make an accurate turret. It is interesting that Greenland has changed his mind about some of his techniques. For example, here he states "I never install the wheels until after painting". In his recent book, all the unpainted models are shown with the wheels and tracks attached. He started doing this because the individual link tracks like Model Kasten's shrink a little after gluing and don't fit correctly if you remove them to paint. If he does this on tanks with overlapping wheels, I wonder how he paints the inner ones.