Wargames and Railroads: World War II Project - Jagdpanther by Rubicon

I have stalled out, again, on the STuG builds. I want to add the debris shield over the gun mantlet but my first few attempts were poor at best. That, of course, delays getting them painted...again. In the meantime I decided to take on the Rubicon Models' Jagdpanther.

The first one is just about completed. I was able to replace some of the posts and hooks on the side to better match what you might see on a vehicle from the 654th Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung. I have also found some better thread to represent the tow cables so I need to return replace the ones I made originally, fortunately that won't hold up the painting itself. I have left the tracks unassembled at this point. It consists three major pieces; the tracks with the outer road wheels, the middle road wheels and the inner road wheels. I really can't even think about assembling these until after everything has been painted. That, of course, means that you would have to wait to add the side skirts till after painting as well. Fortunately I have no intention of adding the skirts, the maintenance unit of the 654th typically removed the skirts, along with all the other changes, before they were released to a combat platoon.

With the first one, basically, complete and ready for paint I started building the second model. This one will also use G1 hull and the single piece cannon. I didn't get very far last night but I was able to complete the lower hull and start modifying the upper hull. Modifying the upper hull basically requires scrapping off some of the cast on details like the shovel and the axe that are located near the front on either side. Again not a lot of progress but its a start and the Rubicon kits are relatively quick builds after you have finished the first one. I think the one criticism I have on this kit that the G1 really should have a coating of zimmerit on it, the G2 hull is kind of a 50/50 proposition but the G1 definitely should.

Filling the gaps in the hull. These are where tools and other things would have been located on a factory fresh Jagdpanther G1 hull. The 654th removed all these things are relocated them to the rear deck, rear plate and rear of the superstructure. If I was really clever I would figure out a way to leave the marks where the brackets were located. Something to think about for a future build.

Here I have added the round post to the front edge and the three "L" brackets to the side.

Here is the second Jagdpanther under construction. Lower hull is complete and tools have been removed from the side. On the lower hull which is Step 1 in the instructions there are two D-Rings (for lack of a better term) Parts C12 and C13 that attach to the lower glacias. DO NOT assembly these in step 1 has indicated. They are in the way and will either pop off or you will have to remove them when you assembly the lower and upper hulls together (either in Step 3E for the G1 hull or 4F for the G2 hull). This happened to me during the first build and fortunately I remembered this on the second build. I didn't add these D-Rings until after I had assembled the upper and lower hulls.

The other side. In the background you can see the STuG that I'm using to test fit the debris shield to.

I have more Jagdpanther references than I realized including the Tank Craft book for the Jagdpanther which I had totally forgotten about it. The primary, and definitive, reference is "The Combat History of Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 654" which is also an excellent reference for the Ferdinands/Elephants that the unit initially deployed with on the Eastern Front at the battle of Kursk. Another good reference is the Photosniper book on the Jagdpanther from Kagero and the last one is the Military Miniatures book on Jagdpanzers which is okay, but its not focused specifically on Jagdpanthers (especially considering there the Jagdtiger is featured on the cover!).