The Kit

Dragon's Jagdtiger is not a new kit, it was discounted few years ago, then appeared in Revell marked box, and, finally emerged in its original box with red dragon logo on its top. This was always a great kit and is real pleasure to build it. As usual, in box you find small fret of photo etched steel parts, separate track links and well executed plastic parts. Some interior is provided as well: floor and gun breech. But far too basic if you wish to open back access door... I spent big deal of my building time on this area. I scratch-built ammo racks on both inner sides, made new floor and detailed gun breech.

Building Process

Before all that could be done I had to glued some plastic cards on the inside of superstructure to create a scale thickness of its armor. And in case of front armour plate it is a "serious business". Moving to engine deck: I didn't use photo etched mesh protection for air intakes fans, which is provided in the kit, because it seems to me, that "mesh web" is little bit thick for the scale and too flat. Instead I bought Tamiya's photo etched set recently, which is designed for Panther, but I still don't have a time to superglue these parts on my kit. So they are missing...

Some exterior detailing...

Exterior needs very little attention, it's perfect straight from the box. Some modellers would add some weld seams, and probably tool clamps. I made new mudguards and exhausts protection. I cut them out of my favorite material - Smithwick's beer can. Advantage of this material is its natural appearance, after all it is a metal, but to work with this material needs some practice. Zimmerit is made with help of Humbrol filler (in green tube) dissolved in cellulose thinner. This paste is applied on model via old flat paint brush. The Zimmerit pattern is created with top of small screwdriver. Again this technique needs some practice and few trials on scrap plastic!

Painting

Whole model is resprayed with base coat of dark grey-green colour. Exact shade is not important, really... This coat covers every colour differences of materials used during building process and forms a "pre-shading layer" without any difficult painting procedure... After 2 days, or so, of drying, it's time to mix German sand colour, thin it down and slowly, with care, spray over dark base coat. Don't try to make this coat even and spray layer after layer with some delays, to let undercoats absorb fresh paint. Don't rush this stage and take your time...

When you look at the original vehicle, the top coat has not the same colour on all parts of the tank, but shades are different. This is what I tried to achieve. Once I was happy with the result I left it dry overnight and then applied some washes, added rust streaks with dry pastels and fitted all the details like tools, spare track links and so on. Then I made mud mixture from dried leaf tea, Humbrol enamels and few drops of Humbrol plastic cement. This was applied on the tracks, road wheels and mudguards with the same brush I used for Zimmerit. I sprayed everything with Humbrol Matt Coat and then, again, applied washes on mudded areas, to give them a glossy look.

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