Hetzer Prague 1945, Academy 1/35

[Mikellesk]

A great model of a quite rare vehicle.

[Davethepitch]

Where is the place named on the display stand.

Dave

[Mikellesk]

Prague, Czech republic.It was during Prague uprising in 1945.

[Davethepitch]

It says Prahe which threw me.

[Mikellesk]

It is written in Slovak language

[Davethepitch]

I have learned something today.

[OneSmallStep1966]

Nicely built and weathered, well done

[chalkyw]

Awesome build

[demarcation]

Great work!!

[skidsolo]

Nice weathering mikellesk.

I'm still pretty new to military stuff, so for give my ignorance when I ask 'what is it'?

[ForbesHutton]

Nice weathering mikellesk.

I'm still pretty new to military stuff, so for give my ignorance when I ask 'what is it'?

It's sort of a Hetzer.

The Hetzer (actually the proper name is Jagdpanzer 38T) was a late war tank destroyer used the the germans. It was a small vehicle built on the chassis of the Czech 38T tank. The 38T tank was mechanically reliable, but it was to thinly armoured and weakly armoured to be useful by the late war as all the front line tanks had been up-armoured and upgunned throughout the war. Rather than just stop production, the germans designed the tank destroyer body and gun system for the old chassis. By getting rid of the turret with the small gun and gong with a fixed mount in the body itself they were able to go from a 37mm gun to the 75mm and sloping the armour improved it's effective thickness.
The Hetzer was reliable, quite mobile, concealable and very dangerous with the 75mm gun. Most importantly for the germans, it was cheap to produce.
The model is of several Hetzers that the Czech fighters were able to seize from the factory. None had the main gun installed yet, one was equipped with only radios and used as a command vehicle, the others had machine guns mounted in different makeshift ways. The germans were able to eventually destroy or capture all of them, but due to the czech flags and slogans painted on them they were a symbol of the resistance.

T38 tank


Hetzer


The T38 chassis was also used to make other AFVs (Armoured Fighting Vehicles) including self propelled artillery, other tank destroyers, anti-aircraft vehicles, etc.

[skidsolo]

Thanks for the explanation Forbes, it was the lack of a gun that threw me!!!

[Mikellesk]

Could not write it better Forbes. For me, Hetzer is one of the nicest tanks of WWII.

[AdamLuscombe]

Awesome work, well done

[Liamcraven666]

Amazing job!!