Plastic soldier Panthers

Yesterday I went over to the model shop hoping they had some of the new PSC Panthers or half tracks in stock. I scored a box of the Panthers to make a decoy Tank platoon for my soviets. Once again PSC has outdone themselves, while these aren't 100% what i would have wanted them to be they are another fine kit for a fabulous price. I myself like Zimmerit on my German tanks, while I know not all tanks had it and some people just don't like it I found myself wishing these had it. This is the only possible issue I could find with the tanks themselves and as its more a personal opinion as to what I like than it is a complaint. This box gives you 2 options which I don't believe are even available from battlefront, Panthers with no Zimmerit (if that's what your after) and the option to make a Auf G model. Another area where these shine is that they don't have the ball MG mount on the hull for the A and D model, Which my quick research tells me was more common on these models than the ball socket. However if you want to add it it would be very little effort to scrape off the MG hatch and mount the ball socket on to that hull.  Dam, I just admitted there is a benefit to plastic over metal / resin, don't let this get out as my reputation will be ruined.

Fresh from the factory, they haven't even received paint yet

note the lack of a MG ball socket in the hull.

Once again Assembly was a breeze. I did make one small modification to these however. I have taken to using magnets on my tank turrets lately and I regret not doing it with the last PSC tanks I built. I like this for 2 reasons, first the turrets stay with the tank better in the bag and second when one gets destroyed my smoke markers have little washers glued to them so they can stick to the magnets and not keep falling off the tanks.

All I did was super glue one under the deck before putting the tank hull together centered on the turret peg hole. Next I cut the peg off the bottom of the turret and glued a thin magnet in its place.

Magnet under the upper deck

Magnet under the turret

 These worked out really well. I did use a thicker magnet in the hull so I had a bit more pull on it but I think a thin magnet may have worked just as well.

the next thing to do is get these boys painted up so they can start harassing some Germans.

Here are some shots of the sides and rear so you can see what detail is on these.