Seems appropriate with all the Panzer Police discussion to share this encounter…this is too long so don’t read it.
TLDR
In 2002, Dragon released #6164 Kursk Panther D. Despite being an adult, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement when this kit was announced. There’s no words to describe how big of a deal this kit was to me in 2002! The only kits that I’ve ever been as excited to see in my life were Tamiya’s Late Tiger I and Panther G. This proved to be the last kit I have ever truly gotten excited with anticipation for counting the days until it released!
So I purchased three copies at the local hobby shop instead of the standard two copies. I had very serious intentions of building two for AMPS & IPMS model contests. One kit of the three was for spare parts to ensure no delays occurred if a part was damaged or I made a mistake. That extra kit also allowed “cherry picking” the best molded part for the build on the bench. Having that extra security allowed building at warp speed and taking chances pushing the kit.
Back in the day getting a new release built FIRST with good basic construction in Region 3 tended to help the models perform better at contests. This kit was new and the judges weren’t as familiar it’s kits flaws as say the mostly 20 year old 1970’s Tamiya kits I’d typically built and competed with very successfully. This would be my own personal modeling breakthrough much like Kursk was supposed to have been from the German point of view. Like 1/35 scale wanna be Gen Erich von Manstein, I too was about to get my tail feathers blistered by “Kursk”.
According all the aftermarket junk I could find at the time was also purchsed. After much arm twisting, I’d built a detailed JS3 instead primarily out of the box for contests. That model had scored several Best Armor awards including one at the R3 Regional. I had No Doubt armed with passion for the subject and spare parts this Panther D build would turn out at least as good!
Competition was a very big deal in those days to my core group of model building friends and myself.
In a matter of days, the Panther progressed to this point…
While drilling out both guide teeth per link and filing to shape…one of the accuracy detectives of the Panzer Police caught wind of what was going on at our clubs second monthly meeting.
This was directly reported to Der Modellieren Furher!
Der Modelling Furher immediately confronted me about those hollowed out guide teeth.
He was visiblely upset 
He explained what a fool I was for engaging in such folly. I should just slap a set of Fruilmodel tracks on the kit and move on. He said I’d never power though all the links, they wouldn’t be consistent and even if I did some how managed to complete the task it wouldn’t look as good as a set of Fruilmodel’s.
Being an arrogant jacka$$/$marta$$/a$$ at heart I replied something like “…but you yourself explicitly explained to me a why a well executed detailed model normally stomps an out of the box built model into the dust on the contest table…shouldn’t a well excuted set of modified drilled out guide teeth kit tracks display superior skill set compared to slapping a set of Fruilmodel’s on this beoytch and help stomp the competition?”
The look and the silence was deafening…he walked away. The Panzer Police called an emergency meeting. Something needed to be done.
After the meeting over the next week I got a barrage of phone calls and visits from 'concerned citizens." Lots well you will run out of track links cause you’re bound to screw up a lot of them doing that. Me being an a$$hat pointed out I sure didn’t have that issue with the Nashorn that I did the same drill out procedure with that won an out of the box award at the 97 IPMS Nationals.
When they learned of the back up kits…for just in case…pandemonium ensued. One guy tried to buy the back up Panther D kits from me for more than what I’d paid for them. The kit was popular and had quickly sold out in our area etc.
Then the barrage of nitpicks and this needs corrected that needs corrected started.
At the time, I couldn’t see it but in hindsight I realized i should have kept the kit home and my big mouth closed. I’d just added fuel to a firestorm 
The fire didn’t stop until until my mojo was gone. That happened one night after a hours long phone call explaining in depth why the Kursk Panther couldn’t actually be a Kursk Panther. Dragon had screwed the kit up mixing A & D features together. I was given an extensive list of Dragon’s goof’s that required fixing if the model was to be a Kursk Panther. Naturally, my model had progressed beyond the stage it was possible to fix those issues. That’s why I was being told in detail what was fundamentally wrong with the kit. My good friend had even contacted some of his friends in the aftermarket business with their own research to ensure he had his facts right.
He was absolutely 
correct 
…and so after the phone call, I boxed up the Kursk Panther D from the work bench and headed own the stairs from the gameroom/hobby room. My wife followed asking what was going on. She’d watched TV in the gameroom a lot of the time when I’d worked on the Panther D and was familiar with it. I didn’t say a word, other than taking some trash out. I went outside and tossed the kit into the trash and ended the debacle with final closure.
At the next club meeting the whole Panzer Police squad was in my face wanting to know the latest on the Kursk Panther D. The looks on their faces was priceless when I explained due to my model being hopeless as a Kursk Panther D the model had been disposed of in the trash.
Shock. No Really what’s up with the Panther?
It’s in a landfill somewhere.
Disbelief.
Then someone wanted to know if they could have the tracks.
Sure if you can find them in the landfill you can have them.
…and to be honest The Model Furher wanted to have a side conversation. He was upset at what had happened and sworn that sabotage had NEVER been his intention. He literally became as upset as I had been when the kit got tossed out. At the time that mostly fell on deaf ears ad my attitude was if it can’t be what it supposed to be it should destroyed. I thanked him for doing me a favor since I wouldn’t be wasting anymore time on the stupid project. In hindsight, I’m sure he wasn’t trying to wreck my build.
Little did I realize at the time this event ensured I wouldn’t touch a Panther or Tiger kit for 21 years and counting. To this day touching a Panther or Tiger kit causes an uneasy feeling and stress…stupid but true.
I’m sharing that because now I think exposing this personal demon to sunlight may help banish it.
…anyway after we’d talked and I’d cooled off unknown to me, my wife dug the Kursk Panther D box out of trash can and put it back in my stash. Later told me she just couldn’t leave it as clearly that model was a very big deal to me…
The finished tracks.
They’ve broken apart over the last 20 years during several moves bouncing around.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Looking back through time the moral is: I like many modelers was way too thin skinned, too volatile
and too serious. I also didn’t understand you can only be friends with the competition up to a certain point. Most embarrassing of all is I think now it’s possible to a fair degree they were actually (yes I said it 
) trying to help but my OCD and Asperger’s colored my perspective and perceptions.
back in the day!
