Hi folks,
I've had this baby sitting on the shelf for quite some time now. Only the undercarriage and the gun completed. This past weekend I was in the mood for some big armour again, so I picked it up and have made good progress.
It's the Imperial Series Dragon late Jagdtiger:
It features transport tracks, but that just doesn't look too cool on such a big beast, so I've got Friuls for it instead.
This Jagdtiger unfortunately has been a poorly planned project, but I guess I will be able to pull it off somehow. First thing I discovered, was that the weld seams on the armour plate in front of the gun, really needed fixing. But this was only after I had applied a good bit of Eduard photo etch. Now, I have burred out the seams with my "dremel", and I've just started to apply thinly rolled Miliput to the grooves. (And without breaking off any etch!)
Next thing I discovered, was that the kit actually had two different rear walls for the superstructure, and that I (yes, you guessed it) had used the wrong one. Not easy to replace when everything is glued in place. Luckily the only difference was a few holes for a handle and one pilzen, so I corrected that easily.
Here's the heck plate, sans jack and jack block. These things were discontinued late in the war, as field repairs wouldn't be attempted anyway. The exhaust guards have received lifting lugs from the Modelkasten kit for Tiger I tracks. The putty stains below the exhausts are more evidence of lack of planning, as they cover holes in the plate that could have been filled with kit parts had I paid more attention to the instructions. Well, we all love the smell of putty in the morning, so who cares?
The kugelblende has received a tad of Mr. Surfacer to add some texture, since the rest of the superstructure comes pretextured in the kit. Quite nicely done, and I figured that it would look odd with a very smooth blende. Also, the head lamp has got its conduit and the weld seams are prepared for Miliput treatment.
The last concern with the kit, which shall _not_ be corrected, is the position of the idler. I have no image to show this yet, but when I test fitted the first Friul track, I discovered that the idler sits much higher that what I see in pictures. This is probably not due to incorrect positioning of the idler itself, but rather that the vehicle sits too hich on its suspension. But at this stage, correcting this would require surgery that is right out of the question, so I'll just leave it as is. But I'll keep it in mind for future projects, to investigate the sit of the tank more closely.
And finally, just to put the ridiculous size of this tank in some perspective. Here it sist next to my unfinished Panzer I Ausf. B:
Arild
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