- Cookie Sewell

DML 6351 Jagdtiger Porsche Production Type
1/35 injection plastic kit with decals, metal barrel and photo etch

This new release by Dragon offers the Jagdtiger with the Porsche designed suspension and Premium Edition enhancements such as a metal barrel and extra PE. The Jagdtiger was based on a lengthened Tiger II chassis and featured a powerful 128mm anti tank gun in a fixed superstructure. Eleven of the early production vehicles had a Porsche designed suspension, which features eight road wheels per side mounted in pairs on external suspension units. The main production run had a Henschel suspension with nine wheel stations and internal torsion bars. The Jagdtiger with the Porsche designed suspension were assigned to schwere Panzer Jager Abteilung 653 (heavy tank destroyer unit 653) and used to defend Germany’s then western borders.

CONTENTS

As part of Dragon's Premium Edition range, this releases includes a number of upgraded or additional parts compared to the original release and as a result will make a more refined model of the Jagdtiger. This kit is based on Dragon's earlier versions of the Jagdtiger and includes the one piece lower hull, large single piece for the upper hull and superstructure with subtle texture on the side plates, as well as most of the smaller parts including the mantlet (with casting texture), rear fenders, engine deck mounted machine gun, barrel travel lock and hatches. This release retains the basic interior for the fighting compartment comprising of the floor, gun breach and pedestal; injection plastic side fenders; and photo etch for the mesh screens on the engine deck grilles.

Premium Edition features include:

* One piece turned metal barrel with a machined ring at the base of the thread protector as seen in photos of many Jagdtigers. The muzzle has been drilled out. This new barrel is the same size as the earlier two-piece plastic barrel that is still included in the kit and is a drop fit. Dimensionally it compares favourable to scale plans. The plastic mantlet has finely detailed lifting eyes on it.

* Two sets of on-vehicle tools are provided of which one is the set from the circa 1995/96 release with the clamps moulded on for easy of assembly and the other is common with related Premium Edition Tigers and has no clamps/brackets and is for use with the included PE clamps. PE is also included for the spade head bracket.

* 8 clear plastic parts for the periscopes.

* 420 mm long length of tow cable wire which is loosely twisted and slightly over scale. This is used to make two 200mm long tow cables each with a pair of plastic cable ends.

* 4 metal U-shaped tow hooks with 4 brass towing cable heads.

The kit has the unique tracks from the Porsche suspension. These are traditional separate links (attached to the sprue) from the earlier release and consist of alternative single piece links with the guidehorns and the connecting segment, which was made from three parallel sub-links. This design would have saved weight in real life, but is not suited to Magic Tracks. Clean up and assembly will take longer than usual. For the larger links remember that the side with the extra width beside the hole for the sprocket teeth goes on the outside.

As with earlier releases the level of accuracy is high and the overall dimensions are consistent with Hilary Doyle's scale plans. From past experience the major sub assemblies align neatly. Overall the kit contains ample detail to keep most modellers busy over several sessions and should be rewarding to build. One easy improvement is to add a cable to the light on the centre of the glacis. This cable went from the hull roof to the light’s base and can be scratch built using stripped electrical wire. The hatch to the engine bay can be positioned open, allowing for the possibility of adding an after-market engine.

As issued to combat troops the Jagdtiger with Porsche suspension, had zimmerit applied to the areas identified in the instructions. The kit does not include zimmerit but there are several after market resin sets available. Given the Jagdtiger’s relatively flat large panels and that the zimmerit applied was the simple horizontal pattern, it is one of the easier kits to apply zimmerit using putty and a zimmerit tool.

The instruction sheet is an eight page foldout format with the steps depicted using black, white and blue line drawings

DECALS

The decal sheet by Cartograf includes markings for several well photographed Jadgtigers from schwere Panzer Jager Abteilung 653. These vehicles last saw combat use in March 1945 fighting French and US forces near the German-French border. The suggested markings are dark yellow with camouflage stripes '314' lost near Morsburn, and 102, which broke down and was demolished near Ritterhoffen. The spare markings on the sheet are for Jagdtigers with the Henschel suspension. Earlier photos of the Jagdtigers with Porsche suspension from schwere Panzer Jager Abteilung 653 often show them as solid dark yellow with Balkan crosses and no tactical markings.

RECOMMENDATION

This new release has increased the appeal of Dragon’s with the Porsche Production suspension. The additional features such as clear periscopes, metal barrel and tow cable add that extra finesse to what was already a rewarding kit to build. Definitely recommended.

- Neville Lord

Sd.Kfz.186 Jagdtiger Porsche
Ref. #6351
Scale: 1/35
Manufacturer: Dragon
Material: Styrene, machined aluminium & PE

Introduction
The Jagdtiger was first proposed seriously as a measure to find a way of supporting infantry in early 1943. The original proposal was to utilize a King Tiger chassis, but eventually in February 1944, two prototypes were produced, one using the Henschel suspension system, the other using the Porsche hull, the subject of this kit. Both types were essentially the same above the lower hull and suspension.

The Kit
The kit is supposed to be a 'Premium' release, which means it's an older 'updated' kit of an earlier release. In this case it's a re-release of kit #6051, released years ago. It wasn't a bad kit first time around, and perhaps because of this, there hasn't been a tremendous amount of updating!

The original sprues do look sharp, so perhaps they've been cleaned up a little, but every sprue that was in the original release is here too. The only difference I can find is the addition of a tiny trapezoidal plate on one of the sprues. Even the decal sheet and photo-etched nickel grills for the engine deck are identical.

What we do get that is new is a number of small sprues that are used to enhance the basic kit. We're given a small sprue containing on-vehicle tools without moulded on tool clamps, these being provided by the addition of a small photo-etched brass fret. There are also four slide moulded towing eyelets for the metal tow rope that is now included. There are also two small transparent sprues that contain periscopes, a turned aluminium barrel and four metal towing shackles.

It's still a beautifully produced kit, with enough plastic inside the box to keep any modeller happy, although from the close up of the idlers in picture 22 that some of the parts will need a little cleaning up! However, the shear size of the vehicle is impressive, and it's been captured well by Dragon, the entire upper hull coming as one massive moulding, with all the engine deck detail moulded in place. The welds of the armour interlocking joins look well done, and the texture of the armour looks impressive too.

The construction that most modellers will have issues with are the tracks in the kit. They are all supplied as injection-moulded multi-part links on the sprue. So not only do you have to detach and clean up each part of each link, but then they have to be assembled and modelled realistically on the vehicle. Good luck... These tracks represent the Gg 24/800/300 tracks, and yet the Gg26/800/300 tracks released in the Jagdtiger Henschel kit #6285 were supplied as 'Magic Track', and I have to believe that it would have been possible to produce a set for this kit. The kit also includes a travel lock for the glacis, which wasn't fitted to the Porsche Jagdtigers as far as I know, and of course the vehicle should also have Zimmerit, although I think a couple of the Porsche Jagdtigers didn't have it.

Marking Options
As in the original release, two schemes are illustrated and catered for on the decal sheet. Both of Panzer Abteilung 653 during 1945, one in overall dark yellow, the other wearing a three-colour camouflage scheme.

Conclusion
It's still a nice kit, and even better with the metal barrel, photo-etched tool clamps etc., and if you've been after one then you'll love it. If you still have the old one you'll probably think twice about getting this one however. Now if the tracks had been taken care of, and another way to supply them had been found then it would have been a must have for many modellers.

My Thanks to Dragon for the review sample.

For full information on all Dragon products, please see their website, Dragon Models Ltd.

- Vinnie Branigan

For more details with pictures, please visit: http://www.militarymodelling.com

Product Specifications.

6351, Sd.Kfz.186 Jagdtiger Porsche Production Type Premium Edition. 1/35th-scale styrene/multimedia kit containing 867 injection-molded styrene parts (including eight clear and 600 for the tracks), two etched brass frets, one length of braided metal wire, one turned aluminum part, eight metal parts, two water-slide decal/painting options and eight pages of instructions in 20 steps.

Introduction.

Seemingly always ready to tinker with designs, German industry, specifically the Porsche firm (NOT Dr. Porsche himself!) came up with a variation on the torsion bar suspension system that had the entire unit fixed outside the hull. It was initially used on the firms entry in the competition for the Tiger I schwere Panzer and finally saw service on the Ferdinand/Elefant schwere Panzerjager and its derivative command tanks and recovery vehicles. Several Jagdtigers had the system installed on a trial basis and some were eventually fielded by s.Pz.Jgr.Abt.653 in the last months of the war.

Some years ago, DML released this Porsche version when they released their Henschel Jagdtiger with the more conventional internal torsion bar suspension. While the latter kit was recently re-issued as a Premium Edition kit, it has taken until now for the same treatment to be afforded to the former kit.

Tracks.

The tracks consist of conventionally-molded individual links of the Gg 24/800/300 type. These are the tracks that featured a main link and a bridge link, with the bridge link coming in four parts, including three very small links and a larger one. These links promise quite a bit of work in clean-up and assembly; they will certainly test the modelers patience and dexterity. They must be glued together and allowed to set up before the attempt is made to fit them to the suspension system. DML indicates this in the instructions by putting a small hour glass icon in the assembly box.

Suspension System.

As stated in the introduction, the suspension units are completely external and consist of six-part bogies to which two single road wheels are then attached. The bogies will articulate as designed as long as the modeler is not sloppy with the glue. However considering the type of track included in the box, this reviewer recommends that they be fixed in place. If using after-market workable track links, such as those from Friulmodel, then the suspension can be left flexible. In either case, the separate axle for the idler wheel should be left loose so the fit and tension of the tracks can be finessed for the proper look. Each idler wheel consists of three parts while the drive sprocket is in two parts, and is the type with eighteen guide teeth. It too ought not to be fixed in place until the fit of the tracks are finalized. Other suspension components consist of separate final drive housings and a bump-stop for each side of the hull.

Hull.

The lower hull is based on a single, large, slide-molded unit, which includes panel lines and various access plates on the belly. There are also some details on the side walls to include idler wheel mounts and bogie unit mounts. The integral lower bow plate has interlocking plate and weld details, while the rear plate is a separate part. The rear plate features various access ports molded in place and is further embellished by separate multi-part exhaust pipes and their armored covers, multi-part vehicle jack and mounts, jack block, C-shaped tow hooks and metal tow clevises with metal pins. Some other small items are added as styrene or etched brass parts, with the final items being one-piece mud-flaps.

Superstructure.

The superstructure is also based on a large one-piece slide-molded core part. This includes the side walls, glacis plate, front and rear roof plates and the casemate roof plate. The casemate front and rear plates are then fitted separately making for a nicely-detailed and robust assembly. In this reviewers experience with DMLs Jagdtigers, he has fund that sometimes the front of the casemate may need some attention regarding its fit, while the rear plate usually fits quite positively. Your results may vary.

Some of the major fittings are molded in place, especially on the engine deck. These include all engine compartment grills; up front the transmission access plate is also molded in place. Most of the detail items are separate to include engine deck main access hatch lid along with its vents and lift handle, fluid filler caps, vents, covers and lift hooks. Etched brass parts are given for the screens over the grills. Working forward, the two large gun tube access doors on the casemates rear face are multi-part items that can be movable with care in fitting. These include separate hinges, mounts, grab handles, inner and outer door sections and latching mechanisms.

The casemate/superstructure sides have many separate parts attached, including tow cable mounts, spare track hangers, various tools and bore swab staffs. The tools come in two styles; one has the clamps molded in place while the second has separate etched brass parts for the clamps. Rather strangely, complete tow cables, comprised of styrene end-loops and braided metal wire are provided, but are not shown being assembled or installed anywhere in the instructions. That would not stop this reviewer from using them, or being overly critical of the kits instructions; use them (or not) and move on. The small mounting pads to which the Kettenabdeckung (track-guards) are fitted are molded in place, while the track-guards themselves are composed of three parts per side.

The entire casemate/superstructure part has rolled armor plate texture that is a bit over-done, to the point where it could be mistaken for cast armor. This reviewer recommends that it be taken down a bit by sanding. Finally, there are some tiny etched brass parts provided to replicate the small tie-down loops used to fix a tarp over the roof plate; measurements for their locations are provided in the instructions.

The glacis plate features separate Bosch head-lamp and mount, as well as separate cast machine-gun blister. The latter has a separate inner ball mount and baffles as well as an MG34 gun barrel; this will need its bore end drilled out for maximum realism. Mounting lugs for the multi-part gun tube travel lock are provided, while the travel lock itself comes in two variations. The final items are the metal tow clevises and their retaining pins. The roof plate over the drivers compartment features separate hatch lids with separate grab handles, as well as vent covers, periscope armored guards and clear styrene scope heads.

The front of the casemate is a separate part that well-represents the cast nature of the original. To it is attached a separate multi-part gun mantle as well as either a styrene or turned aluminum 12.8cm gun tube. Inside there is a separate floor late to which the gun trunnions and the multi-part gun breech assembly are mounted.

The casemate roof plate is molded in place and features a number of molded in place details, such as hatch lid coamings, vent plates, gun sight cover plate and various periscope mounts and plates; the scope heads are clear styrene parts. The Nahverteidigungswaffe port is molded in place as is the pad that mounts the separate antenna base; no rod antenna is supplied. Separate commanders hatch lids, vent cover, periscope head guards and lift hooks complete the area.

Molding, Fit and Engineering.

Molding is very well-done with minimal seam lines on the parts. Ejector pin marks are not seen on any visible surface and there were no shrink marks anywhere. Fit in general is fine, with only the potential problem mentioned regarding the front of the casemate being any concern; see above.

Accuracy and Details.

The kit matches photos and drawings in references cited below, quite well and within tolerances for error. A couple of small items are missing such as a rod antenna and the small lugs seen on the armored guards for the exhaust system. And of course, Zimmerit is necessary; therefore this reviewer has to wonder why DML did not have this molded in place as they have done with several recent kit releases.

Instructions.

These are typical line drawings and are relatively easily followed. It should be mentioned that there are also notes for applying Zimmerit included, which is fine since these particular variations of the Jagdtiger all carried this anti-magnetic mine paste.

Decals and Markings Information.

These are from Cartograf and are well-printed with crisp details and fine color saturation. Markings for two Jagdtiger from H.s.Pz.Jg.Abt.653 are provided. One of them 314, is confirmed in contemporary photos.

Conclusion.

This is a fine upgrade of what was initially a decent kit to begin with. For those who have been waiting for this specific type, your time has come.

Recommended.

- Frank V. De Sisto