This is the 9th kit I built, again another Ebay win. This one came partially built ( badly) and had with it a set of Fruilmodelissimo metal tracks ( very nice) and some Model Kasten white metal drive sprockets. the kit itself was by Dragon and although I had to do extensive striping and refit with a fair bit of scratch building, the actual build quality of the kit was good and compared very favourably to Tamiya. I ordered an Eduard etched set and a Jordi Rubio 12.8cm Pak44 to round the kit out and got to work. Zimmerit was not a problem as I intended the kit to represent a late war machine after zimmerit had been withdrawn. However, having to strip the kit down from the mess it was in and fix the badly damaged running gear was quite a feat. I had to manufacture hatch and door handles from wire and fix the gun cradle in place ( this is fully moving on the original kit ). I fitted all external kit and fixtures before spraying leaving off only the wheels and tracks.
I sprayed everything with a base coat of Citadel miniatures black spray paint and got down to painting. Having seen an article about a technique called post shading on a web site called www.missing-lynx.com ( this is an armor modellers paradise, dont miss this site), I thought I would have a go. WOW this technique is very simple but oh so good, my spray painting took a quantum leap, I was so pleased with the results, at last I got the effects that I had seen in books and magazines but previously failed to achieve. I found the secret to the washed out look I wanted was a simple matter of thinning paint ( iIused a 50/50 paint/thinners ratio) its like almost using different colours! I then weathered the machine using Tamiya and Citadel acrylics, burnt umber oil wash, an hb pencil and pastel chalks. The tracks were sprayed with the dark brown wash used in the post shading technique, then rubbed with a simple scouring pad, lifting the paint from all the areas that would see wear in real life, and giveing a really authentic look.
Operationally, this titan saw active service in the last months of the Third Reich. A flawed concept, the machine was based on the Tiger II chassis and hard to transport ( it needed special rail carriages to get it close to the battlefield) and most bridges couldnt take its weight, hence it was tactically hard to employ. However its awesome gun and immensely thick armor made it a deadly weapon and the most powerful tank to go into service during the war. Basically a mobile pill box, the Jagdtiger saw service in the Ardennes offensive and the defensive battles in Germany proper in action at places like Remagen bridge. It was operated by only two units Panzerjagerabteilung 653 and schwere Panzerabteilung 512, and two variants were built, one using the Henschel suspension as this one has and the much rarer Porsche suspension version. You can see one of these behemoths for real at the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset. |
