I had a good block of time off for the Christmas holidays and decided to do things a little differently as a "vacation" project. Rather than keep a step-by-step build log, I opted for a relatively simple project that I would just build and not have the pressures of posting, taking pics, etc. It was a nice refreshing change from the usual pace of things.
The chosen victim was one of DML's older kit offerings, kit #6030 Sdkfz 138/2 "Hetzer" Early Version. While designations such as "early", "mid", or "late" are nice handy things for modelers to refer to, it wasn't something actually applied to the vehicles themselves. If I had to get technical, the features of this kit are more of an "initial" version as it sports features seen only on the April-May 1944 production run of roughly 100 vehicles. To that end, I needed to make a few modifications to keep it all accurate, namely replace the kit barrel and tracks. I opted for Lion Roar's turned aluminum Pak 39 barrel since it had the muzzle brake threads needed for an "initial" version and also for Model Kasten SK-28 workable tracks since the kit provided static indys were the later "crimped horn" style.
The kit itself built up very well considering its relative age...just the usual seam lines and occasional ejector marks here and there to be dealt with. Aside from the barrel and tracks, I replaced the kit supplied solid grouser box with a perforated one by modifying left over parts from a Tamiya Marder III kit since the Hetzer box was much narrower. I also drilled out the MG34 in the remote roof mount, opened up the solid vision ports for the driver, and drilled out the face of the gunner's sighting periscope. I used the kit supplied PE (which is made from steel, not brass) and added the missing wiring conduit for the Notek light using 0.5mm solder bent to shape and a short piece of styrene rod for the mount in the hull side.
Last but not least I added a Griffon PE clamp for the long crow bar on the right hull side and also added some DML half wing-nuts to the jack clamps from the spares bin.
The road wheels, sprockets, and idlers are dry-fit to allow for the tracks to be test fitted. 95 links per side were needed to get the necessary tension/sag although the schurzen hides almost all of that.
This one's going to be painted in a simple plain dunkelgelb scheme.