Slowly but surely this beast is getting built. This is the old Tamiya 1/35 scale kit with many improvements and scratchbuilt details. It's about 80% complete now.





Ranging poles made from plastic rod and brass rod. Tow cables from picture hanging wire.


Friulmodel individual link tracks weathered with Blacken It. I still need to add pigments.

I'm no expert on WW2 armour, but I know what I like, and I like this one. Nice work so far, Rian. Looking forward to see it finished.

Cheers
Erik

I like it a lot!
Great weathering and interesig paint scheme.
I just wonder about the ranging poles. I think they were used for indirect fire on vehicles like the Hummel so I´m not quite sure if you would find them on a Jagdtiger. I may err though, maybe someone could help with this question.

Best wishes,
ekke

The left side of the Jagdtiger:

Great looking Jagdtiger Rian. Weathering looks really good. I like the hard edge camo. You don't see that very often.
The scratch build ranging poles and the tow cables look really good as well.

Hi Rian,

Love the camo work and the weathering. I like the details such as the spare tracklink pin and the stop of camo work on the un-installed sideskirt.

Quick question: The red and white rod suppose to be distance marker or is that a cleaning rod?

WC

There is a side view of a JT in Schwerepanzer.It shows the poles on the side of a JT,with alternating shades.Since it is a B&W picture,I am assuming they were red and white.Granted,it was of a JT at a training area.. (++) (++)

Wow, great work Rian. Considering this is the "old school" Tamiya Jagdtiger, you have done an outstanding job.

Paint scheme is very interesting, and looks unique for a late-war German vehicle. Weathering looks super too. I really like the tracks and especially the spare track links.

I do think you should tone down the tow cables a bit, maybe with some dust or mud. Maybe its just the pics ?

I will also agree with Tankcarl on those red/white/red aiming stakes. I think those are gun (tube) cleaning rods. Aiming stakes were more common to indirect fire vehicles (or weapons) like the Hummel or Wespe. I could be wrong on this, but aiming stakes are used for keeping control of field of fire with indirect weapons as opposed to direct fire, or firing on a moving target.

Anyhow, great work on your Jagdtiger. Be sure to post more pics when your finished.

Prost !!

Alpen

Great job Rian!

You've done an excellent job on the details. Keep us posted!

Steve

Nice build, I love the hard-edge paint job.
About the poles, those are definitely gun cleaning rods. I'm pretty sure ranging poles were only used with indirect fire vehicles and that was not a role suited for the Jagdtiger (no sights for such firing nor the elevation). Also, German fire extinguishers were not red. Their natural color was a slightly glossy grayish-green but when mounted externally they were usually painted to match the external colors. Also, a little bit of rusting/dirtying of the tow cables would probably help.
Hope you don't mind the suggestions, as this is a great looking model.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I certainly will tone down the tow cables with some pigments. As for the ranging poles, here are some photos of a Jagd that IMHO clearly show it carrying ranging poles:

Rian:

I concur with you. Those appear to be ranging poles. Unless the german were developing some sort of candy cane weapons that inspired fear in people who came accross these beasts. :-)

On the serious side, great build. Camo is great. The tow cables look awesome. The Jagdtiger is one of my favorite tanks and I am building one right now (if i get any time ). Keep up the good work.

That is a great paint job, I love it. That picture does show range poles, but I have never seen them on a JT. I really think they are cleaning rods. If they aren't, where are the cleaning rods?

On the left side. . .

Well, those cunning Germans. I think they use the stick as BOTH cleaning rod and range marker. They also use it to hang wet clothes on the laundry day. It's like that recently popular 3-in-1 idea kinda thing.

WC

One of my personal favorite WW2 tanks. I love the camo, the weathering and the beast itself. Brilliant job on it.
Keep up the great work
-NERVRECK-

great job on the Jagtiger. I really like the weathering you did. hard edge camo looks good too. what did you use to mask?

I used Tamiya tape cut into 2 mm width to get the outline and then filed in the rest with wider strps of Tamiya tape.

Very, very nice! The tracks appear very bright but that's almost certainly the flash. Great job Rian!

Vinnie

That picture sure makes them look like ranging poles, you are right about that. That is a real head-scratcher because I still cannot see how the vehicle would have been capable of indirect fire. It had quite modest elevation (15 degrees sticks in my head, but not completely sure) and as far as I know its sights were not capable of aimed indirect fire either. With those limitations, I just can't see why they would equip the vehicle with ranging poles. But your photo makes it clear that they did, at least on this vehicle.
Another thing that confuses me is that the gun cleaning rod was very long. As you can no doubt surmize, the three sections on the lefthand side would not be nearly long enough to swab out the tube. I am reasonably sure that it had a six-piece assembly.
If I had to guess, I would have to echo Wildcard (although he probably wasn't serious) and say that what we see here is a strange hybrid of gun-cleaning rods and ranging poles. The fact that this vehicle has the Porsche suspension, as well as the fact that the setting appears to be Kumersdorf (sic.?), leads me to believe we are seeing a vehicle under testing and who knows, they may have done some funky things because of that. I wish I could see the rods on the other side of this vehicle, because if they too were striped I think the book would be closed.
Anyway, your photo proves that your representation is not without precedent (although a Henschel suspension vehicle in battle colors would be more conclusive), so I retract any insinuation that you were wrong. Just further proves the adage, when dealing with German armor "never say never." Again, nice build and thanks for providing the pictures.

Edited to add: I LOVE how you have drybrushed/weathered the area where there used to be spare track links on the superstructure sides--nice touch.

I hardly claim to be the expert on WWII German armor. There are enough problems with the Tamiya kit to take it out of the realm of "accuracy" anyway. I just thought that the red/white striped poles looked cool on the side of this beast, so I added them. You are right about the photo being a Porsche suspension model and the photos were probably taken at the proving ground, so it is more likely than not one of the prototypes. Here is another interesting photo that I found on the web showing a hard edge camo:

Looks really good! What kind of tracks are those?

-Jay-

Well, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I have to agree with Steve-jpzr-one set of poles-range, or cleaning, wouldn't be long enough to go all the way down the barrel. That being said, I guess it doesn't matter because you have already proven us wrong anyway. Who knows why they are on that jt, maybe they lost their cleaning rods, and swiped some range poles off a knocked out vehicle? The red/white does add a nice touch of color too. None the less, you have one fantastic looking JT that you should be very proud of. Is it going in a dio?

Something simple. I am going to put it on a cobblestone base with the commander in the hatch and maybe one or two figures on the ground.

And just for the hey of it, here's another side view of the JT w/ ranging poles that I found:

A few more progress photos. Getting closer... about 95% done now.

Hatch covers added at the comander's hatch, tow rings added. I've applied pastels to the tracks and tow cables and rusted the exhausts. There is a coat of Testor's MM Flat lacquer to seal the pastels.