Wednesday 31 May 2017

Review: Battlefront Jagdtiger (GBX70)

Today I review a big cat

History:
The Jagdtiger or Panzerjager Tiger Ausf. B was built from a modified Tiger 2 chassis. This monster was the heaviest production WW2 vehicle. Less than 100 of these were ever produced from 1944 till the end of the war.


The shell of the 128mm gun were so large they were in 2 parts and required 2 loaders in the AFV. However the extreme weight of the vehicle meant it was plagued with mechanical problems and breakdowns. The guns size meant it needed to be locked to mounting brackets for movement. These needed to be unlocked before the gun could be fired.


For first hand accounts of the Jagdtiger, I can recommend Otto Carius' Tigers in the mud.

Review:
Battlefront's Jagdtiger is supplied in a box and not a blister. I think this is largely down to the size of the model itself. Aside from the model, the box also contains a decal sheet.

Box art (photo from www.flamesofwar.com)

The Jagdtiger model is an old school resin and metal kit. This is not a complex model but there is approximately 25 pieces, so it is not simple either. Expect to be gluing lots of small fiddly pieces (exhausts, MGs and mudguards).  A nice aspect of this kit is that it comes with both normal and warn mudguards. You can choose an combination of these. Similarly, the kit comes with lots of spare track that can be applied to the side of the vehicle. You can find instructions on the FOW website.


Overall, my model went together well and I had no real issues. As a warning, be careful with the side fenders. There is not alot for the glue to bond with. You may want to slightly score the surfaces to help with the glue do its thing.


Unlike something like a panzer III or panzer IV, I are unlikely to need many of these. It was therefore nice to just be able to assemble a single model. And what a model! The Jagdtiger is one of the iconic big cats and I really enjoyed putting this together as a change of pace.


Next up to work on painting it up.


I hope you enjoyed this review.



No comments:

Post a Comment