Suyata 1/48 Panther A - with Zimmerit & Full Interior.

[Gorby 18,713]

Suyata 1/48 Panther A - with Zimmerit & Full Interior.

 

There's really no point me repeating here what I'd have pinched from Wiki anyway, so if you're interested reading more about the Panthers history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panther_tank

It's a very capacious box for a 1/48 tanky thing - stuffed full of plasticy goodness.

 

In total there are nine sprues/runners/whatever and two, surprisingly large body parts in yellowy plastic. The body parts clip together beautifully and my hope is that they won't need to be glued so that detailed interior will still be viewable. Having now built it, you have to be very careful not to get anything inside even a small amount out of place as it will stop the body parts clipping together. I made a bit of an error which caused a very noticeable gap.

The detail is reeeeeaaaaally nice.

Sprue 'A'

Sprue 'B' x2

There's two sprues for the running gear/tracks.

 

Sprue 'C' x2

The sprues are lettered in a way which doesn't seem logical as I'd have thought the accessories would be at the end. The kit includes six barrels, two Jerry cans and a stepladder.

Sprue 'F'

The parts are amazingly well moulded.

Sprue 'G'

I couldn't find any flash on my kit although on many of the parts the mould seam is quite prominent and needs some work.

Sprue 'K'

This sprue includes the main gun in plastic if you don't want to use the metal barrel and muzzle brake which is included in the kit.

Once the mould seam is dealt with the plastic barrel is surprisingly good, the metal barrel is on the left. 

Sprue 'L'

Notice the question mark. For some reason the figure, which would have been here, isn't included in this kit, although his arms and face are included (to the left of the question mark). It seems odd to make the effort to withhold the figure – it actually looks like it's been clipped off the sprue. I know it isn't supposed to be included as it is crossed out of the instructions.

 

This is the Zimmerit decals. They are applied the same as you would normally deal with water-slide decals. Fitting many of them isn't easy as the border on all the edges gets in the way. I ended up removing all the boarders which was a bit of a pain but made them much easier to fit. Also the decals don't seem to slide on the surface which made it difficult to place them in the correct position.

With a coat of primer the effect is quite good. Although as you can see, they are fragile when completely dry. Apparently some zimmerit did chip off in service. I used a bit of filler to fill the space (and a few others) and shaped it with a knife when partly dry.

One of the things I need to point out is the significant number of noticeable ejector pin marks on many of the parts. This is an example:

 

36 EPM one one part! There is also some lettering on this bit which also needs to be removed as it isn't covered by another part. Cleaning up the parts took a looooong time with this kit.

As mentioned before there is a metal barrel and muzzle brake as well as a small sheet of PE and a length of metal cable.

 

The instructions are more of a booklet and a beautifully illustrated colour booklet at that.

 

The instructions start with a few illustrations showing the interior colours and decal placement. The colours are show here only as the Mig Ammo paint numbers. It would have been better if they had also added the colour name for those who don't have Ammo paints (which I would guess would be most of us) like they do for the exterior paint schemes. At least the illustrations are in colour so you can get a reasonably good idea.

 

Then it goes on to show the kit contents. Difficult to believe that this is all going to be squeezed  into one 1/48 scale tank.

 

This is the instructions for the Zimmerit decal placement.

 

The instruction booklet is quite long so this is just an example page. As you can see, it's very clear.

 

Accessories assembly instruction - which shows the redacted figure.

 

The decals are for four schemes.

 

Three of the schemes look very similar to my eyes and It would have been nice if the schemes were a bit more varied.

 

Conclusion:

What a fantastic looking kit!

I paid just under £30 from @BlackMike Models which is a bargain considering the scope and quality of the kit. I believe Duncan has had to put up the price a bit (due to circumstances which are out of his hands) but it still seems very reasonable for a state of the art kit (some still available here). The Tamiya 1/48 Panther is about £23 and it looks archaic and Spartan compared to Suyata's offering.

The quality of the moulding looks exceptionally good and it seems to be light years ahead of the other available alternatives. However, this isn't a kit for beginners. I've got quite a bit of experience now and I struggled with getting a good result. The biggest problem with this kit is the mould seam lines and the ejector pin marks, of which there are many.

If you want to read the full build report, please click here.

If to want to see more photos of the completed model, please click here.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Gorby
Updated

[Grunhertz 17,464]

That looks awesome thanks for the review mark 

[Hutch6390 2,495]

Ooooooh, that looks really nice!  And for £30 (or even a little bit more) it looks even better, thanks for sharing.

[BlackMike Models 9,460]

That’s a great review, it’s nice to actually see inside the box.

The price rise is unfortunately due to my original source not being able to continue supplying Suyata kits. My new price is still under the U.K. RRP though.

Duncan B

[dixieflyer 4,731]

That's a great review. Wow, that's a lot of modeling goodness for that price, so much in one box!

Warren

[DC3 3,879]

The figure is the mechanic from the crane kit and not a crewman, probably why it's been removed, still a bit weird though.

[Gorby 18,713]

5 minutes ago, DC3 said:

The figure is the mechanic from the crane kit and not a crewman, probably why it's been removed, still a bit weird though.

I assumed that was probably the case. It just seems to more effort required to remove it. I assume the fuel barrels are also intended for the other kit, so I wonder why those weren't removed as well