Watch This!

Transcript*

Intro

Hey there. Welcome back to the Loisirs vers le soleil YouTube channel and quick model kit reviews. Today we’re going to be talking about Meng’s 1/35th Panther. This is specifically TS-038, the one released in 2018. This is one of those kits where if you take all the information I am about to give you, this is one of those kits that’s unfortunately just on the cusp of being [music] classic, not quite a true classic where people will talk about for ages to come.

So, we’ll give you a rundown on the good, the bad, and the ugly of this kit. Uh, but it still has it where it counts. The peaks of this kit is quite high, but the lows. But before we go on, I just like to point out that the real-time inventory, our website, sunwardhobbies.ca, is in the description down below.

So, if any products [music] shown in this video, including the tank, uh, interests you at all, please visit us down below. sunwardhobbies.ca. [music] And the second thing, we’re about to hit 20K. So, yeah, that’s a much faster than we were expecting. Beginning of this year, we thought that it would be till December. If you want to speed things along and help us, uh, please like and subscribe.

The Good

Chapter one, the good positive number one is its price point. As of right now, though, of course, as you know, subject to change, it is priced at $73.99. That is an insane price point for a kit as large as this. This is a 1/35th scale recreation of the infamous Panther tank. So, for positive number two, it’s well worth it. Let’s count the amount of sprues that it has. [music] All right. 1 2 3 4 five the clear one. Uh then we have six and seven right here in this bag. We have eight.

And if you were to count the three photo etchings over here, then we have 9 10 11 12 13 right here and the tracks 14 and 15. So, 15 sprues for the price of $73.99. [music] This is an insane deal, especially considering it comes with photo edge, three sheets of it, [music] and decals. Insanity. Great deal. Positive number three is the attention and level of detail [music] is unprecedented for a kit of this scale.

And that is because this kit was made in partnership and with the help of the Bovington Tank Museum, one of the best tank museums in the world. So yes, the attention to detail in this kit is insanity, guys. I can’t even emphasize it. And they proudly announce it. It’s on the box itself. Pause if you want to read. In addition, uh I’ve been looking off camera for any sort of imperfections, flash marks, an excess amount of things that I have to sand or anything like that, like mold lines. And guys, I haven’t found really anything. So, I guess this kit is like technically perfect. Uh when it comes to the sculpt

The Bad

chapter 2, the bad. When it comes to the bad, there’s one major, one minor. Let’s start off with the minor. This one is basically just a nitpick, but it might confuse you and catch you off guard if you’re not careful. [music] Basically, um there is some sort of misprint on the numbering of some parts of the instruction manual. I found this out when I was doing research regarding this kit online. Some people have reported this, [music] but again, it’s only a few of them.

And plus, this is just a Meng thing. Yes. Should I be giving out free [music] candy essentially to and free points to someone that makes mistakes? No. But they’ve been doing it for years. People are kind of just used to it. It happens every now and then. And now the major uh the road wheels can move. That’s a light positive. The the road wheels that move are being held together by polycaps.

Guys, why are we still doing polycaps? [music] Even in 2018, poly caps were outdated. Wait in be [laughter] I thought we learned from Gundam. Uh poly caps are terrible. Oh my. You know what that means, right? Because the road wheels are movable. They can [music] spin and being held together by tiny poly caps that when you flick a little bit, they disappear off to the ether, never to be found again. By the way, [music] um the tracks are solid and they don’t move.

So there’s a juxtaposition there. Meaning, if your poly caps come loose and you found it magically and miraculously [music] and you manage to assemble it, before you even try to assemble it, your tracks are in the way cuz they don’t move. They’re stuck there. So, you’re screwed. And that makes for a hand grenade recipe, meaning it’s an old term for Gundam. You breathe on the Gundam wrong. Um, on a hand grenade Gundam, it falls apart. Yeah, these are the size of the poly caps, by the way. relative to the body. That’s ridiculous. [laughter] That’s Wow.

The Ugly

The ugly. Oh, you thought that was me. That was ugly. Well, this is uglier. Trust me, I would know. This is [laughter] This is ridiculous. It’s almost opaque from a certain distance. Like see. It’s not even see-through anymore. Yeah. Um, also we posted this tank on social media nearly two months ago. It’s still up there. It’s actually pinned on our TikTok.

And a lot of our regulars who [music] are vastly more experienced than me, 30 plus years of experience, basically said they’d kind of just [music] rather die than do the tracks on this tank because this is ugly. It’s It gets to a point sometimes. [music] The attention to detail does get to a point. For those of you who aren’t aware, there are actually three [music] types of tracks that you’d find in an everyday model kit. The first one is the oldest method. It’s just a rubber band but black [music] and has the texture of tracks. Yeah. So, basically, you would stretch it, put it into place, and cement it.

But over time, it ages poorly and it actually might snap over the course of months to years depending on if you accidentally put too much cement or not. The second most common one these days is something called link and length. Basically, entire segments are [music] already made for you and all you have to do is assemble it with cement and whatnot and over the road wheel or under the road wheels [music] and over them as well. And plus, you know, on the body, which as a side note, this kit, the M4 Sherman early production, is a really good beginner tank kit. [music] And yes, I know this has polycaps.

I ragged on polycaps, but this kit’s made from 2003. So, uh, yeah, jokes on you. That’s no longer relevant. at least the poly gap issue for this one. Anyway, this one right here is the third and final most complicated uh duh, which is something called individual working links. Uh [music] so yeah, this is it. the the pinnacle of complexity for tanks. [music] But even in some of the tanks that have this sort of track feature, they would still have some sections that are about this size [music] in terms of length, obviously relative to scale, but they would have a mix of link length and like you know working tracks [music] like individual tracks.

So about a 90/10 mix typically, but this is just basically 99% individual links. There’s maybe some on the other sprue, but otherwise this is the main shoe spruce. This is brutal. You’re This is a $73 kit, so it’s cheaper than other options out there, [music] and yet you’re paying to lose. [laughter]

The Verdict

If you’re a masochist or someone who loves the little tiny details, [music] a lot of ship building guys do this or or the cockpit guys for planes. They love building the little tiny things and it keeps them going and it actually relaxes them. And if you’re one of those guys, one of those two, then this is a 10 out of 10 kit for you genuinely. Maybe a nine because of the polycap road wheels issue, but yeah, for others because of our immense customer [music] base and the social media post, a lot of them would probably give this kit a seven out of 10. So yes, I will give it a seven out of 10 as well.

So basically in addition to the tracks obviously the [music] poly caps and the uh the road wheels as well which it would have been a non-issue if that you can remove a part of the tracks [music] and maybe just slot it slot it back in and out. Um so to make it easier to insert again [music] um but hey you can’t have it all of course. Plus the polycaps themselves you can lose it very easily. Just cement it down guys. Just cement it. Removes all headaches. Well, that’s it for me today.

Thank you guys so much for watching. Uh, despite this being uh labeled a quick review, this kit is a lot more complicated than others, so it is longer. Also, because it is a quick review, no builds. Maybe we’re crazy enough in the future to actually build this monstrosity. Otherwise, we will move on to the next. [music] Uh, so yeah, if you enjoy this video, please like and subscribe. Also, follow us on all our socials. We briefly mentioned it, but yeah, they’re down below in the descriptions in addition to our real time website, sunwardhobbies.ca. [music] So yeah, my name is Paul. Peace out.

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by
Daniela Castellano and Leo Nguyen
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano