This is the Dragon 6589 Jagdpanzer IV L/70(V) ‘August Production’ with the moulded-on zimmeritt. This is an Early Version Jagdpanzer IV L/70 with four return rollers while the later version was fitted with only three, amongst other differences. The livery is of the Panzerjäger Abteilung of the Panzer Division ‘Hermann Göring’ in Italy during 1944.
The build was pretty straightforward, though I had to tackle a few inaccuracies in the build instructions, which unfortunately seem to be a persistent problem with any kit by Dragoon. The more or less standard ‘on board’ Zimmeritt quality is good with the only disadvantage being that it is virtually impossible to make really neat chipped-off parts if you wish to do so without having to resort to re-doing damaged patches with a lot of very careful, very time consuming scraping, cutting and sanding.
The whole build was pretty much OOB, with the following exceptions: The extension tube of the monocular sight was replaced with a better looking (i.e. thinner) piece of brass tube. The styrene kit barrel was replaced with a better quality turned alu barrel from the Griffon Model range and I replaced all kit tie-down clamps with brass ones, from Aber’s 35 A20 p/e fret, leaving the rest of the tie-downs intact. Just replacing the U-shaped handles looks realistic enough for me and it works a lot faster than removing all the tie-down contraptions completely and replace them with 3-part p/e clamps.
The 3-tone camo paint was airbrushed on with my trusted Paasche HS, using my own pre-mixed toned-down Tamiya acrylics. Detail painting was all done with Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints, with the exception of the tracks. For painting the metal effect of tracks I use a mix of MM enamel Chrome Silver with small amounts of artist’s oil paint colours Black and Brown Ochre plus a few drops of MM Clear Glosscoat added in.
The clear gloss is added to avoid any ‘flaking’ of the Chrome Silver. This is then very thinly drybrushed on the upper parts of the tracks, which were painted earlier in a base coat of very dark grey.
Mud on the lower part of the chassis was done with Reality in Scale ‘Mud In A Pot’.
The exhaust muffler was first painted very dark chocolate brown (Vallejo) and then detailed with rust from very finely ground Schminke pastel crayon rust tones. This classic exhaust is another feature of the Early Jagdpz. IV L/70’s while the Late version had the two “Flammenvernichter” i.e. ‘flame-damping’ upright exhausts instead.
Finally, two ‘discussion points; the insides of the roof hatches are painted in the German interior colour ‘Hell Elfenbein’ ie Light Ivory based on IWM Archives photo number 743898 showing one of the Jagdpz. IV’s during the Poteau action in the Ardennes Offensive with these hatches definitely in a much lighter shade than the Dark Yellow sides of that same vehicle. Next, a photo from the Bundes Archiv with two Jagdpz. IV’s on the move shows the one nearest to the camera with a brand new and unpainted jack block on the rear panel, which I did on mine as well.
The side numbers ‘223’ and the Balkenkreuze are Archer’s from various dry decal sets.
The temporary base for this one is one of Reality in Scale’s newest road sections called ‘T-junction With Tramrails’ painted with Vallejo Model Color acrylics throughout.
This is a very nice addition to the already extensive range of RiS resin street sections, highly recommended. The tramrails and the various very realistically made manhole covers add much realism of this street section.
Comments, as always, are very welcome.
Happy Modelling
Jer