1/35 Jagdtiger (Porsche suspension) by Dragon

[Ragge]

Hi,
I've decided it's the time to build the Jagdtiger, which has been in my stash for a few months now. My plan is to build a vehicle belonging to the Schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 653 on the western front in late '44, I have a diorama in my mind, but I'm not sure if I'll be building one yet.

So let's get to the kit itself: it's 1/35 Jagdtiger with Porsche suspension and a zimmerit coat made by Dragon. This kit was created in 2011 (I don't know whether it is or isn't a rebox of an older kit) and even though it contains quite a lot of goodies it has a few letdowns.



According to Dragon this kit contains over 900 parts (I didn't and I don't intend to count them myself:)) and despite it's a Dragon kit almost all of them are used in the assembly. The level of detail is great and so is the quality of the parts - I haven't notice any ejection pin marks which would be on a visible spot, there is tiny amount of flash on some of the track parts (I intend to aftermarket those anyway, more to that later) and even the massive upper hull piece doesn't seem to be warped.



So you're getting quite a lot of high quality plastic for your money, which is always nice. Other than that the kit contains two sheets of PE (one with obligatory engine grilles, various handles etc. and the other contains various tool covers and hangers), metal tow cable hooks for the hull, metal tow cable and most importantly a metal barrel (for a gun of this size it's almost a must, if you aren't comfortable with metal barrels there is the 2-piece barrel option). Other than that you'll get two sprues of clear parts (for the vehicle's optics) and of course a decal sheet (8 balkenkreuzes and serial numbers for the hull).



The zimmerit coat molded on the hull looks really nice. Flat surfaces have nice subtle texture, so hopefully there won't be much Mr.Surfacer fumes during this build . One thing I have to point out is the really nice cast metal texture on the gun mantlet (which is enormous).



Sadly, the kit doesn't include Magic Tracks, instead you get six sprues of indie tracks. Those tracks are really nicely detailed, problem is every other track link (the one without the holes for drive sprocket teeth... excuse my English) consists of three parts (two of which are pretty damn tiny), combine that with the length of the tracks for this monster. I'm seriously considering getting aftermarket tracks for this model, but I will see how tedious these tracks will be.
Anyway, for now that's all, I'll add more info once there's some progress worth posting.

[Rob]

Nice looking parts there Ragge. Good luck with the build

[Paul]

Nice kit Ragge, cant beat a tiger and even more so a jagdtiger

[spruecutter]

This should be a great build, watching with interest.

[HWGuderian23]

Seems to be an interesting build mate !

Will follow the continuing progress with interest...

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

Looks like a very nice kit mate!
Love the details on the parts. Dragon quality as Always!
Good luck on this build!

[Andyman23]

Can't wait to see this build bud. The Jagdtiger is one mean looking kitty.

[schweinhund227]

I have the first release of that! Without Zim
I had to buy AM ATAK Zim for it!

Looking forward to this build!

Looks awesome!

[Coen]

I have the non-zimmerit version as well, I used it to build my Otto Carius Jagdtiger a year or so ago.
It's a really good kit.
I'll be looking forward to seeing what you do with it.