1/35 Dragon JagdPanther (Late)...With Lots of Goodies Inside!

Len, thanks for the info, and when I get to this, I'll hit you up if I run into any problems! :)

Thanks Karl…much appreciated. The only other issue I can think about (other than what I mention above) is when the upper hull is attached to the lower hull it has a tendency to pop off the side ammo racks. I lost count how many times those popped off (I attached with CA). While not perfect I finally found a compromise and once the upper hull is on the overall look is acceptable. Get ready to do a lot of resin cutting as there is a ton of it as well as perfecting your PE soldering techniques. Again, PM me if you have any specific questions.

By the way…I enjoy your FB posts…keep it up  :)

-Len

Tremendous work here! I have the same interior set---any problems or real issues to have to watch for?

Thanks very much for that Len. I recently finished the Dragon early production Jagdpanther so I know the areas you mean in the lower hull. I know the separate roof section would be very handy in a build like this. I usually build diorama's but I don't have one planned for my Late production kit yet, but seeing this has given me an idea.

I do like the chipping you have on the inside. Not to little and more importantly not to much. And it really does show how little room there is in there, especially with that large breach.

Thanks again, its given me plenty to think about.

Thanks all for the compliments...much appreciated.

Bish: Yes, there are some fit issues with the CMK aftermarket stuff but overall I am very satisfied with the result. The biggest issue is that the CMK kits state they are made for the Dragon Jagdpanthers but that is not entirely true. Both the Driver's set and Interior set come with floor pieces with torsion bars molded in. However, these pieces, essentially the base for the rest of the build, do not fit in the bottom of the Dragon lower hulls. The torsion bar detail molded in the Dragon lower hull gets in the way. You can either cut away these details (a real pain in my opinion) or do what did, scratch build the floor supports around the torsion bars in the kit. If you use the Tamiya kit the CMK floor plates will fit perfectly in the lower hull but then in this kit the roof is not molded separately (and hence, removable) like on the Dragon kit. On a positive side, the deal-sealer for me was when I placed the roof on after putting the gun in-place. There was a perfect fit of the gunner's periscope through the hole in the roof. I was impressed with that engineering by CMK. PM me if you would like more details overall.  -Len

That is one nice looking Jagdpanther. I have the same kit in the stash and might be tempted to add those interiors. Was there any issues with fitting those.

That is one fine build sir!

Nice to see a full interior put into a JP! Looks good from here.

Roy...thank you so much for the kind words and even more for the suggestion. I just checked and you are absolutely correct. You'd think that with looking at several dozen photos several hundred times I would have picked up on that. I think my mind was thinking like the hatches on the older Panzers and early Tigers where the hatch was propped up. In addition, as I was attaching the hatches I actually thought what a pain it would have been to lift those from the horizontal and figured they must have been propped up. But no, they were not, at least by the historical pics that I found. Again, thanks for pointing that out.

Terry, thanks for the compliment. The wear and tear by the cable support was actually by accident. I was hairspray paint-chipping and being careful not to overdo it but that one spot seemed to chip alot more than others. I was ready to go back over it with the airbrush but I remembered seeing in old pics some of these machines having a cable support around that area. I then thought I could use it to my advantage and crafted a support out of some scrap PE brass and with a little more weathering...voila! I still need to do a cable for the other side but I raided this kit last year for its cable hooks/eyes and have yet to find 2 replacements. I found two (the ones depicted) from a Dragon Panzer IV kit that I had built. The cable itself is hand-woven from 3 individual lead fishing lure wires.

-Len

Len magnificent work inside and out, very detailed like the wear over the cable hook thats often overlooked and chipping/weathering in the right locations.  

Lets see, 4 months a build, we'll gladly take 3 of your builds a year. One to be proud of.

Terry

Great work, Len!  thnx for posting your pics.  May I offer a suggestion?  The roof hatches of the Jagdpanther had no mechanism to be held upright.  If opened, they had to be opened fully and splayed out to about 80 degrees.  Otherwise they'd fall back and smack the tanker.  If you look at historical photos, you'll see what I mean.  I believe the engine hatch went back further too.  Again, they were designed as to not endanger the crew.  HTH

Keep up the excellent work!

Thanks all for the positive comments and feedback...much appreciated. Yes, those back numbers do catch your attention, even after two layers of filtering. I've got a couple of months to work on it before I take her to her first show. Maybe a 3rd filter or a light dusting of some pigments...hmmm.  -Len

  Well, looking in thru the lid and checkin' out the finish, I'd say that's rightly awesome!

  That time was welllll spent.

Exceptional kit...very very nice.

Interior is perfect....all kits should be this detailed wth option to display the interior.

=)

Outstanding fighting compartment.

If you want to pick nits,just tone down the rear decal.

But not much else,great work.

Great job, like weathering its not over done.  

That is really, really good!