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Panther Ausf.G Engine Set
1/35th Set #3028

Review by Terry Ashley
This new interior set from CMK has a full engine, engine compartment and the two side air intake fan assemblies for the Panther G series and is designed for the Tamiya kits (35170, 35174, 35176). Also included is a complete new engine deck with all the panels/doors separate as they would be when removed for major engine maintenance, just the thing for dioramas.

The set consists of 52 cleanly cast resin pieces and two etched metal frets produced by Eduard for CMK so you know the quality of the etched parts is good.
The resin parts are cast in a light grey resin with very crisp and well defined details with only the usual casting blocks to be removed, there were no blemishes or breakages of any kind on the parts in my set.

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The engine is the centre piece and has the main block cast in one piece with the cylinder heads and two large side exhaust pipes included with most of the other fittings and accessories as separate parts for good detail definition.

What is different with this engine from many other resin big cat Maybachs is that the two top air cleaners are included as separate parts (with additional etched details) which allows the inclusion of the four carburettors between the cylinder banks. The detail on these and the whole area between the cylinders is superb with very deep relief and just cries out for the air cleaners to be left off on the finished model to show the excellent details.
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All the other fittings such as flywheels, oil reservoir, magnetos and other smaller fittings are all separate parts as well as diagrams showing the location of addition wiring to be added for a very complete and busy looking Maybach.

The engine compartment has the forward bulkhead to which is added small details as well as the two side engine bay bulkheads with appropriate hole for the torsion bars and cut-outs in the panels.

The two side compartments receive the sponson mounted fuel tanks and associated plumbing as well as the large air intake fan tubs which again have nice details included. Added to the resin parts are etched fan blades and front and back louvers for very fine details.

At the rear of the engine compartment are the fuel filler tank and cooling water expansion tank with etched mounting brackets as well as etched framework around the central engine bay and side bays.

As mentioned there are new parts for the engine deck and this requires you to cut out the deck from the Tamiya kit, but this shouldn’t pose any problems.
The central engine deck panel also has a separate inspection door with additional etched details plus new left and right intake grill panels and right hand circular grill all of which have etched screens as well as the shutters fitted to later Gs.

Instructions:
These are in the form of exploded view drawings in eleven separate steps and are quite clear and easy to follow, something definitely needed with such a complex update set and CMK have done well here.

Conclusion:
This is an excellent detail set with fine castings and the multiple parts and additional etched parts makes for a very complete and busy rear end to your Panther, as mentioned it would be almost essential to display the model with the engine bay exposed to show off all this excellent detail.

Highly recommended.

The Resin Parts
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CMK Update set are available from NKR Models in Australia.



Page created 30 May 2004

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