Small Scale Military Headquarters

I think I got mine some time back at WM. I don't think I paid more than $20 for it. I want to say $16.99 or so. I'm pretty happy with it. I like the builing ruins quite a bit. At first, I had no particular feelings towards the Panther, as I'm more into the modern era. The WWII stuff I have is just a scattering of personal favorites, and things that I feel would still be of use to my "forces" today. Jeeps are always handy, and lord knows modern anit-aircraft is lacking, both in 1:32 scale and (sadly) in 1:1 scale, so a M-16 is always a good thing to have along for the ride. Well, halftracks in general seem to be a handy thing to have...

But, I'm getting off topic. My Panther. I've come to like it quite a bit. As I've taken the time to learn more about the actual tank, I like it more and more. At first I toyed with the idea of making it a "destroyed" Iraqi tank (with all the hodge-podge of armor Saddam had about, I figured I could pull it off...), but now I've grown so fond of it that I don't think I could "kill" it. I would not be opposed to modernizing it, but I'm not confident enough with my skills yet to try it, lest I end up with a destroyed tank anyway.

I'll be watching to see what your repaint looks like, maybe it will spur me on to do something with mine.

MV

An interesting note on this is at one time 21C toys sold a very large playset that I believe had a Panther, Stug IV, PAK 75MM gun, soldiers, a bridge, a bunker and some houses. They were for sale at TRU for $99 back in the day and I picked one up. I wish I had saved the box for it as I haven't seen one on e-bay in a looong time.

Anyone, am I correct on the two tanks that came with this? I remember being excited because it was the only way to get the Stug and Pak for years.

Jeez, that's one hell of a playset! O.O

I have this playset the buildings are ok.

olifant wrote:An interesting note on this is at one time 21C toys sold a very large playset that I believe had a Panther, Stug IV, PAK 75MM gun, soldiers, a bridge, a bunker and some houses. They were for sale at TRU for $99 back in the day and I picked one up. I wish I had saved the box for it as I haven't seen one on e-bay in a looong time.

Anyone, am I correct on the two tanks that came with this? I remember being excited because it was the only way to get the Stug and Pak for years.

I think it's called the 21st century deluxe 32 x playset or something like that. I actually saw it on Ebay a lil while ago and it sold for around $50. There was also one a couple weeks before that that sold for $70. Both times though I didn't have a chance to bid on it

If i recall right the big set was put out by JC-Penneys of all places,one year in there xmas catalog.

Not sure but I think it only came with 1 tank...you got either the Panther or the Stug.

They also sold at TRU for $99

The large set came with two tanks, one german and one American, plus the two buildings, a bridge and a concrete bunker. For awhile it was the only way to get the original Stug. Both tanks came in plastic bags in the box which sold for $99 at TRU a long time ago.
But as I recall, this smaller set was also available, more recently, like a year or two ago, when the smaller play-sets first came out.

I really should get that set. Great building pieces and the Panther looks better than the recent incarnation in the "Kursk" playset

The Stug-IV was the old model with the machine gun built into the chassis. An item real ones never had. Still a very nice model. In "ambush" scheme if I remember correctly.

A lot of dealers had that "ambush" Stug for sale seperately back then. Always came in a plastic back. Bought one because I wanted the Stug (only paid $10 for it) and not the rest of the stuff which came in the set.

My guess would be that the dealers pulled it from the set to sell it separately. It seems pretty desirable on eBay.

Picked this up at smalljoes.com for $24.95. Pretty good deal

I agree, a good set and a good value at the price. I have one on display and several of these sets salted away that I picked up when they were available at local WM stores. The buildings in the set are a bit toyish looking IMO when compared to B-A-R or Hobby Bunker stuff, but are still quite nice, and cheap enough that you can buy several and add your own detailing and weathering etc. I picked up this "Kursk-Defeat in the East" set at TRU for $19.99, it has no dio pieces, just a repainted Panther and four Soviet infantrymen, but I think it's still a good value, and the tank has some nice rust effects on the tracks and tow cables. I also picked up an FOV German Schwimmer (Eastern Front 1943) for $9.99, it's packed in an action series box, but has all the items you would expect to find in an enthusiast version, a great deal for 10 bucks IMO, and I may get another. Click the thumb for an enlarged view.

I bought the Kursk playset after almost falling over dead when I saw a new item at my neighborhood WM. I have an FOV Jagdpanther but the model in the set is my first Panther. I think the red tracks are overkill and I might spray and weather them myself but I really like the paint scheme and those tow cables are really nice as well. I'd like to see more like that instead of the thicker plastic variety. For an older model it is really nice and a great value as mentioned above. The Russian figures are also very cool.

I think the red tracks are overkill and I might spray and weather them myself but I really like the paint scheme and those tow cables are really nice as well.

I have not removed it from the box yet, but perhaps they got a little carried away with the tracks, but I agree with Rows..the tow cables turned out nice. A couple things I noticed on the Panther... the turret number "101" painted on the rear of the turret, I don't believe I've seen that on a previous Panther but I could be mistaken. The unit emblem on the front glacis and on the rear turret appears to be from an assault gun unit (Stug. Brigade 236 as best that I can tell), I'm no expert on the TO&E of German assault gun detachments but I don't think they included any Panthers, and Stug Brigade 236 never fought at Kursk, oh well, so much for historical accuracy..

Here is the EBAY listing for that playset. This set came with a Stug and Chaffee tank.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=010