WWR - Tamiya Steel Wheel Panther G #35174
Trivia - the all steel wheels didn’t work well on the Panther as the tracks tended to crack or break under the forward road wheels.
Nostalgia - this was a top notch, highly sought after kit in 1994 with two sets of wheels, infrared device plus periscopes. It was the best overall of Tamiya’s Panther G trinity of the early 1990’s. Panzer Police would stab your eye out with an X-acto knife to lay hands on a copy this kit. It was a most holy relic. If by 1995, you didn’t have two copies, your Panzer Police membership was suspended until one was acquired.
Wizdum - Don’t stand too close to a vendor table with one of these kits for sale in the $25 to $30 range…it’s a Holy Artifact…
…and Panzer Police, although diminished from their heyday, still patrol…and some collect these holy relics… 
2 Price $67 Amazon & Ebay, I was in at $38 back in the day for my three copies.
5 Instructions - Clear, Concise & Correct, the 3C’s. However, these kits are seldom built out of the box and the build can get complex with aftermarket add on’s.
5 Molding Quality - no flash, no short shots, no mold shift. no sink marks to speak of. Minimal mold seams for the 1990’s era
5 Plastic Quality - outstandingly good
4 Parts Clean Up - very straight forward, the tow cables are bad to clean and should be replaced. Kit track links have solid guide teeth, drilling out isn’t really fun.
3 Ease of Build - out of box (5) but this kit needs aftermarket to look correct and credible as a Panther. Adding aftermarket can be as simple as engine deck screens to as involved as a full resin interior (1). I think most will be in the middle of those extremes and based on my multiple builds of Tamiya Panther G kits in general went with (3), engine deck screens, new tracks, aber brass MG’s & antenna, metal main gun and zimmerit application. YMMV
2 Accuracy - There’s just so many areas to improve with details in WWR’s opinion even without any serious dimensional errors. Idler, jack and spare track rack, gun clean kit are lacking in my opinion etc. It’s deathy by a thousand little cuts.
However, steel wheel Panthers, in fact most Panther G’s had a reinforced armor over the top of the front hull. Tamiya missed this or decided to make the upper hull accurate only for every early Panther G’s. This is also fairly difficult to fix for later Panther G’s on this kit. There also the usually this or that is off a scale inch etc typical of 1990’s era Tamiya kits.
Takom/Das Werk’s get this correct but I don’t believe anyone else comes to mind that does. The Das Takom Werk’s Late SuperBlitz Panther G or something like that.
4 Fit - Very good with good parts clean up. Built one close to stock and built one with a ton of aftermarket including interior & engine.
2 Doesn’t Require Aftermarket The kit need basic aftermarket love when released, PE screens & new tracks at a minimum. Today this increases with more aftermarket items benefiting the model.
3 Details Built Out of the Box slap the skirts on and hide the kit tracks after super gluing them to the appropriate wheel tops and it’s passable. The engine deck won’t look exactly right without screens but the screen guards or whatever they are called help cover up the deficiency. The kit is late so zimmerit can be skipped etc.
35 out of 50
35/50 => 70%
Not Recommended
With all of the New Kids on the block plus some of the Old Kids, seem to have a superior offering, ofter at a better price with easier availability. This kit can have a place as a 1st AFV build, new to the hobby build, fun build, weekend slam, nostalgia or campaign/group build if it’s already in your stash.
