So the "Dangerous Cat" SiG. I chose this SiG over others that started around the same time or just after as my first because the Panther has always been special to me. I became interested in German armor relatively recently. For whatever reason, despite my interest in all things WWII since I was 14 I hadn't explored the topic until my late 20's. I received a book as a gift around then that gave general overviews of all vehicles in WWII and finally started to clear away the fog that covered the complexity of all these amazing AFV's.
After that I started to look for more information, hunting down books and documentaries, you name it. I started to consume any information I could. As I was learning about the different panzer marks, for whatever reason I was just struck by the Panther. I know it's sort of a contaminated design as it was mimicking the T-34, but I thought it was more striking and practical than the Tiger 1. I don't know that I still feel that way, I suffer now from what I would call "Coen's disease", where I seem to obsess about all things Tiger 1. But initially for me it was all about the Panther. Mind you that was now 5 or 6 years ago, but your first love is always your first love.
So before I knew what was what, I at least already loved Band of Brothers. And as sad as it is, a lot of my first exposures to something resembling a German tank were the Speilberg replicas. I know...they're pretty awful.
It looked enough like a Jagdpanther that when I saw a real one in a book at least I recognized the thing. So my first memories of distinctive German armor characteristics was this goofy proportioned Jagdpanther replica. I had no idea why it didn't have a turret, or why it looked the way it did. But it made an impression. It was a start. So building my first Jagdpanther model for this SiG will be sort of fitting. It's my favorite variant of the first panzer I was really in to. And one of my first memories of German armor.
Some History
The Germans were trying to mount an 8.8cm gun on a chassis as a self proppeled anti-tank gun since at least 1943. These ad hoc attempts at tank destroyers were interesting but flawed. I would love to build them all, but as legitimate vehicles they were compromised.
The Ferdinand I think is the more famous of the first two attempts. To me it seems like a flaming disaster of a design. Obviously plopping a 8.8 cm Pak 43/2 L/71 on those unused Porsche Chassis and sending them off to Kursk was not the best plan. I don't even think if it had been the Elefant with a bow machine gun at Kursk it would have made too much difference. It was too heavy, and too slow and not a good design. But at least it had a closed fighting compartment, although I imagine it felt like being in your own coffin at Kursk.
The Nashorn was probably a bit more practical. Fitting the Pak 43/1 to the very good Panzer IV Chassis seems more natural. however it was too tall, and it had an open fighting compartment. Which unlike the Ferdinand would have felt like you had nowhere to hide I would think.
Finally the Jagdpanther comes on the scene. I would consider it one of the rarer vehicles. the 415 that were produced is not very many. The Ferdinand/Elefant for example, only consisted of 90 vehicles which seems very rare. Only a little more than 4 times as many Jagdpanthers were made. Seems strange to me as it is such a popular vehicle.
Specifications and variant differences
The Jagdpanther had either a 8.8 cm Pak 43/3 or 43/4 L/71 on the very good Panther Chassis. Initially called "8.8 cm Pak 43/3 auf Panzerjager Panther", it was renamed JagdPanther and began production in January of 1944. There were technically 2 variants, the G1 and G2. but my impression is there are 3. The G1 early and G1 late, and G2. The early G1's made in 1944 were factory applied with Zimmerit, have a smaller internally bolted mantlet, two vision slots for the driver and a Panther A engine deck. The late G1's have the larger G2 mantlet, and I believe can have either gun, the monobloc or two part barrel. The G2's made in 1945 had no Zimmerit, the larger outer bolted mantlet, one driver vision slot, a Panther G engine deck and the two part gun. They are also distinguishable by the crew heater fan housing on the engine deck, and that all the pioneer tools are on the rear engine deck instead of the side of the tank. The G2's also commonly had flammenvernichter exhaust, but i don't know if that was dependent on which of the 3 factories they were made in or if all G2's had them.
That's the basics anyway, and of course there are exceptions to the rule. Not "all" versions had all modifications. I will be using the generically titled Tamiya "Jagpanther Late" to make a G2. I'm not sure if Tamiya meant late G1, or late Jagdpanther meaning G2. It appears to have a Panther G engine deck, and a single vision slot for the driver, so I'm going to try and make it as G2 as I can.
The Jagdpanther saw action primarily on the Eastern front initially, with limited numbers used in the defense of Normandy. Larger numbers were eventually brought to the Western front in the autumn of 44 for use in the Ardennes offensive. I will more than likely go for a traditional 3 color camo scheme that would match either Normandy or the Ardennes.
Sometimes I base models on specific vehicles in pictures or that still exist, but for this one I haven't really picked one inspirational piece. This is the only pic I keep going back to. I like that sort of design for the camo.
The Kit
My last unbuilt Tamiya kit. Not sure how I feel about Tamiya anymore. I started with them. I've built or am building 10+ of their German armor kits. After building Dragon I feel Tamiya can be a soft on detail in general. They do fall together and I appreciate that. Unless of course we're talking about the old RC kits, those are undesirable to say the least.
Let's start with the upper hull. The over-all detail is pretty crisp for a kit from 1993/96. No steel texture on the surface, but the welds look pretty ok. I don't have Mr. Surfacer, but maybe I should order some. Or I could try that stipple Tamiya extra thin technique. There are lots of tool attachment points on the hull I will fill as the G2 should have tools on the rear deck. Apart from one issue it seems fine enough for Tamiya.
This is the issue. I adjusted the levels of this picture in Photoshop to show the problem. There is a line from where the mantlet goes to the bottom of the glacis plate. I've seen this problem talked about in videos before, I think it comes from temperature change when the plastic is being molded or something. I don't know if it's a huge problem, I'd love for you guys to tell me if it is. I was upset when I ordered the kit and it came that way, but I'm hoping paint will hide it. You can't feel it if you run your finger across it, you can only see it. So let me know if that's something I need to worry about.
The lower hull tub is basic Tamiya. It's identical to the other Panther G tubs. The bump stops are pretty nice, not as crsip as my Dragon Panther, but pretty good.
A Sprue, 2 of them actually. Here we have sprockets, idlers and wheels mostly. Again identical to all Tamiya Panther G kits. Wheel detail is pretty good, again not quite Dragon but miles above the old RC Tamyia and any Italeri kit I've seen. These sprues also contain the mid-production exhausts and swing arms. This kit came with all 3 types of Panther exhaust, which is pretty cool.
B Sprue. Spare indie link Panther tracks. The guide teeth have no lightening holes, so I more than likely will never use these. Apart from that the detail seems good, it's just an inaccuracy I can't deal with.
C Sprue. You can see here that I have removed parts unused for this kit from the sprue. It's acutally why I bought the kit in the first place. As I have mentioned in a thread before I bought the Tamiya early Panther G with PE Zim from ebay. I then saw the Dragon molded on Zim kit for the same price. Instead of cancelling the Tamiya order I just bought both. I then started to do research on kits that would come with parts I needed to turn the Tamiya early G into a late G so I wouldn't have 2 kits of the same subject. The Jagdpanther kit cam with a late G sprue (this one) with a chin mantlet and everything. So that's how I justified buying it. It was solving a problem and I'd get a Jagdpanther out of it.
This sprue has the schürzen, final drives, bow MG, storage bins and the rear plate of the tank itself. Detail seems really non-existent on the storage bins. Like seriously it's just flat. Even the hinges on the other piece are just rectangles. Very unimpressed with that. Tow cables, pioneer tools, all look ok for 93/96. Again spongey, and I may replace any of this with Dragon spares if I can. My problem there is that I own a ton of Dragon kits, but I've only built 1. So I don't know what's unused. However I have gone through the Panther kit from Dragon I have and figured out exactly what I can use. So this sprue is not great. Schürzen I would prefer in separate pieces, and I may or may not use it. Tow cables are worse than molded in shape, they are awful. If anyone wants to do a tutorial vid on how to heat them up without ruining them I'd love to see it.
Here we have D Sprue. The figure looks alright for Tamiya. I'm not really a figure guy, but I may add him. We also have the early exhaust here, and the gun bits. I won't be using most of that. The mantlet looks really nice, I must say. The hatches though are super light on interior detail, and I like to pose hatches open, so that's a problem. Overall, sprue is again average for 90's Tamiya. Tolerable. Above that we have some polycaps and a bit of wire.
Some close-ups of the mantlet, very nice.
Lastly for the original kit parts we have the decals and vinyl tracks. I'm no decal expert, but they seem ok. Not as thin as cartograf, but for the purposes of this, they'll do. Usually Tamiya decals get silvery on me. The tracks are an atrocity. Better than the old heat up a screw driver rubber bands, but still not ok. I may use them as I have limited funds. But if I do I'll be cursing them the whole time. Ejector pin marks mar the inner surface like gunshot wounds, and again the lack of lightening holes on the guide teeth is an inaccuracy that I cannot ignore. We shall see.
Aftermarket has not all arrived yet. This has, which is the Alliance PE grills. Worked well enough on my late Panther. I will however not be using the full PE heater stuff this time as I will be frankensteining some Dragon parts.
Still yet to arrive is an aluminum barrel from Poland to replace the two piece one in the kit. I have already spent enough money on this kit that I could have bought a Dragon G2, which annoys me. So I may not buy AM tracks, but man I hate the ones in the kit.
Parts from the Dragon Panther G with Zimmerit kit I will be using.
The crew fan tower
Open or closed, not sure yet.
And I'll be using the late exhaust from the Dragon kit as well. These are just more crisply detailed and I won't be using them for the Dragon kit so why not upgrade?
The Instructions (man this is a long post)
Standard armor kit, swing arms, suspension and wheels for a start. Seems familiar enough.
Exhaust choices, Storage bins, interior gun detail, barrel and fighting compartment. interior breach and fighting compartment detail seems almost insultingly simple. One of the main reasons I switched to newer Dragon kits. Even when they are skimpy on detail, what's there looks the part. The bow MG on any Dragon Panzer III or IV kit in recent years for instance.
Installing the gun, some rear deck details.
Engine deck, pioneer tools and hatches. Simples. Again though, hatch detail leaves me wishing I'd bought the Dragon G2.
Tow cables, spare track, schürzen installation. installing the figure if I choose to, and of course the ever mysterious heating up and shaping of the plastic cable.
I did this once. Snapped the thing right in 2. Same goes for making an antenna from stretched sprue. I saw HamilkarBarkas do that in a video once and tried it, but I have not the skills for that yet. Any help on those two things is greatly appreciated. Obviously I might just skip the cables if I can't make those work or I can't get some other ones.
That's my initial post guys. really looking forward to starting this SiG and being a part of this with all of you.
you certainly know your Panzers! I don't, and mine will be oob, so go easy on it! Lol!
Realy like it so far.
