Well, my new big project is the Dragon Porsche Suspension with molded Zimmerit.
As I was doing research on this kit and the vehicle I came across a post(which I since can't find!!!) saying the Dragon instructions had a mistake concerning some of the suspension parts.
Has anyone built this kit or knows what the issue would be?

Okay,
Seeing as there are lots of hits but no comments on this topic, I will just have to carry on and post pics.
I have assembled but not installed the multitude of pieces making up the fantastically detailed Porsche suspension. It will actually be a shame to install the wheels to hide the moveable arm details.
I guess I will have to make some sort of Dio to show off the moevable suspension....
The rear hull plate is installed with most of it's bits as well. The lower front hull has a separate very thin piece that represents the zimmerit coating. It's a snug fit and looks great.

I built the DML Elefant w/zimm,I don't remember any issues with the suspension,went together nice.

Anthony, Thanks for the help.
I've just finished assembling one side (not installed but dry fitted) of the suspension but have noticed no isses either.

Anyways, while i wait for the resicast tracks to arrive for my Universal carrier I went to the complet opposite end of the spectrum and am continuing on the monster of a jagdtiger.

On my workbench:


Front separate and nicely detailed zim panel installed


Superstructure zim:


Fighting compartment doors with nice detailed handles:



Minor spacing issue with the drive sprocket. Not too worried as it will be covered by the sprocket.


Moevable suspension:


The suspension arms are greatly detailed and the seams would need some work.

But these will be completely covered by the wheels, so rather than spending an hour cleaning them up, they will simply be installed and painted. Work smarter not harder I always say.

On the bottom left of the rear armour is this little tab that sticks out. Does anyone know what it is for? I have seen photos of the real vehicle and this little piece is ther, but it unclear whether it is a solid piece of metal, or as in some pictures, it looks like a little webbing strap. In the model instructions there is a little photoetch ring that gets installed on this.


One thing that is in the instructions is the installation of various brackets on the side armour. It shows little brackets (parts B19, B20, B21 etc) being installed at various indicated points on the hull, but because of the added zimmerit detail these points are covered over. Anyone have a side on shot of the left and right hull showing the spacing of these brackets?


That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

looking good,looks like a nice kit

The tab is a mount for a reflector

Thanks Kevin.

I've started work on the other sides suspension, and all the wheels are now removed from the sprues, cleaned up and set aside for painting.

The spare track hooks are installed, along with a couple other small details.

I was going to do more, but we lost power during a wicked wind storm here in Newfoundland. Gust of over 100km's an hour. If anyone in Europe sees my snowblower cover and garbage can lid I want them back!!!!

I won't be doing a full interior on this. The gun will be assembled and painted and the doors partially open. I plan on having a figure standing in or near the opening, so he will block the scant details inside.

I did find a small error with the suspension after all. If you ook at the suspension arms in one of the pictures, there is a roundish mounting plate that holds the arm on. This plate is the pivot point of the suspension. It has several bolts along part of its circumfrance.
The collapsed suspension on the left is wrong, the extended one on the right is correct. This is because of the allignment of the mounting tabs on the back. The parts are basically mislabelled on the sprue and instructions.
easy enough to fix by cutting off the small mounting tab on the back.

nice zimmerit on that jagdtiger, dragon has done a great job on that 1
what camouflage did you have in mind?

Since there was a limited number (11?) of these types built, I am torn between modeling a specific vehicle, which would have the rivet counters out there hanging me if it is not EXACTLY correct, or just painting a non-descript Jagdtiger. I'm leaning towards the latter since I like modeling for fun.

I was going to do a base of dunkelgelb of course. After that I'm leaning towards a hard edge camo of green and brown :
http://www.ccbuckeye.com/images/jagdtiger2_14.jpg

as opposed to the "whispy" thinned style depicted on the box cover.
http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/dml/kit_dml_6351a.shtml

Thoughts?

I don't want to make a completely damaged vehicle, but just one that broke down and was abondoned. Mild field weathering with dust, a bit of dirt in the tracks, a smudge of rust here and there around fittings. That's it.
I haven't built a dio before and was thinking of using this for my first one. I have some ideas in mind for a simple diorama that would show off the huge size of this vehicle and be slightly humorous as well.

I just added the track fittings, tool fittings and clamps to both sides.
Will post pics, but I'm off to my units Christmas party with the wife.

Well, while recovering on Sunday after the Christmas dinner I got a fair bit done. Of course, I had to wait until the wine, beer, bourbon, scotch and Guinness were out of my system to steady the hands..... "Oh what a night..." as the song goes.

Anyways,

The monster of a gun was assembled. It is a simple affair made of only 4 or 5 pieces. The interior won't be built and the gun breach and mount were made to basically hold the barrel in place.


Mounted in the Jagdtiger


Beside my almost finished Universal carrier for a size comparison. Monster of a gun!


Jagdcarrier anyone? Probably only get one shot off before the carrier fell apart.


All the hull track hooks and most of the clamps are in place. Dragon provides very nice PE 3-part tool clamps that are fiddly, but easy to assemble. If you're careful they can almost work like the real thing.
I only attached the piece mounted to the hull for now and not the swinging clamp portion. This was so I could leave off the tools off for painting.
Speakingof tools, Dragon also provides 2 sets of tools. One with moulded on clamps (that simple bump of raised plastic on the tool handle we are all familiar with) and plain tools without the "clamp".





Suspension bits ready for the wash and prep for painting.


Tin full of assorted assembled bits also ready for a wash.


Front. The superstructure front armour and driver top armour fit very well. I may need a very small amount of filler around 2 edges.


Engine deck. I want this build to be fairly simple (read less expensive...), without having to buy a resin set, but I'm deciding whether to build a small portion of the engine to have the center hatch open slightly as if the vehicle broke down and the crew opened it for access. I may box in the armor intake openings as well.


I've decided to use metail foil to represent the front corner sideskirts, as well as some of the side ones so I can easily replicate them being twisted and bent.
I sanded the zim off one off the corner pieces so I can use it as a mold that I can press the foil against. I do have a zim paste called ZIMM-IT-RITE that is a 2 part resin and hardener that I picked up many moons ago and Tamiya tools I picked up somewhere that I will use to replace the zim on scratchbuilt sideskirts.


Does anyone know the thickness of side skirts so I can use the proper material?

Dryfit of the top, bottom and gun. The gun mantlet is a VERY snug fit over the front of the gun assembly. The blue tack is just to hold the gun up. Looks like I'm going to have to glue the gun assembly in position as it is very barrel heavy.




Will hopefully finish assembly soon and on to painting by the end of the week.

After a long break over the Christmas holidays I am almost ready to paint the Jagdtiger.
Yesterday I installed a couple more minor doo-dads on the hull, and all the tiny PE tie-down points on the hull.
After looking at another excellent JT in this site I may also box in the engne compartment top openings so you cant see inside to an empty shell.
I washed all the parts last night and now have a question before the paint flows.

Does anyone know if the 2 rear hull superstructure hatches were interior ivory colour on the inside or were they the exterior colour?

I am slowly getting into the swing of things with the Jagdtiger.
I built small boxes to block off the openeings on the rear deck:


The back of the boxes had to be trimmed slightly after the photo was taken because the rear hull armour was not fitting past it.


The model has received a coat of primer to all the major components.




Rear deck with PE screens. Should look good when painted:



Road wheel lollypops:


I still have to paint the suspension arms, but these can wait for a bit while I decide on the camo scheme. I'm still leaning towards a hard edge camo of Dunkelgelb, Green Drab and maybe some small areas of schokoladebraun. Yes, not completely true to history, but I think it will look good.
I will probably paint 4 or 5 of the wheels in green and brown for some visual interest.
Does anyone know if the red primer I used is an ok match to be with the actual primer? Would it be acceptable to have some of it showing through?

Well, without thinking I posted some questions about this model into some other threads, and someone much wiser than me suggested keeping all together. Here is a link to some of the other stuff, with links inbedded in it as well.....
Silly, I know. I'll keep it cleaner fromnow on.

http://armorama.com/forums/188024&page=1#1573117

If you scroll down to the bottom on the first page of this 1/6 metal King Tiger build that I found, you'll see the camo scheme I'm looking to replicate on my Jagdtiger. This is an awesome build BTW.
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?
s=6c27bb79674b24649424f1f5784d7b6c&showtopic=59343&st=0

Hey this looks like a very good build so far. There weren't that many porsche jagdtigers, so if you wanted to be accurate, I believe most were left in plain yellow. I personally like the look of a yellow top with dirtied roadwheels for a nice contrast.

If you find the fenders aren't coming out ok, I have some spare jagdtiger fenders from an earlier cannibalized kit that I could send your way.

Good luck!

very nice build going on there

Hi Dave,

Great looking build man! love the zimm on the kit too. looking forward to see more of this big tank killer!

Gary

Thanks for the comments.

Mark;
When I bought the kit I didn't realize that there were so few of the Porsche Jagdtigers made (even though I am a bit of a WWII history nut). I already had a camo scheme in mind and am stubbornly refusing to give that up, so forgive me for taking liberaties
Although I applaud the people who can model a vehicle exactly, I like to build what I think I like, if that makes sense. I like the revolutionary late war camo used by the German's, and this hard edged cam job with the bright colours will set itself apart nicely from the other models on my shelf in subdued modern NATO cam, OD, and plain German desert yellow.
I'm attempting the fenders right now using some aluminum sheet and will let you know. Thanks for the generous offer of the fenders.

I've started work on the front right fender.

The material: aluminum foil that seals coffee can lids. Pretty good thickness and better than cooking aluminum foil rolls. Someone did tell me that the fenders may be as much as 7 or 8mm thick. Technically, my fender pieces should be thicker, but I have to make a small comprimise to be able to bend the material on the small complex curves. I will probably make the side fenders to scale thickness as there are no curves to them.


I smoothed and burnished the foil to get rid of a dimple pattern.


A piece was cut out and folded double to improve the thickness. I spread some CA glue on one side and burnished it down again to make a small stiff sheet.


The sheet was then pressed and burnished over the original kit part on which I had previously sanded off the zimm pattern. Because of of the curve and burnishing, I damaged the damaged/tore the piece slightly on one of the bent over tabs. Oh well, it is battle damage.
I also added 2 small holes with a punch that I noticed in several war time photos. The small outside corner fender (which I won't add as it was lost in a romp through a tight French village street...) has fastener tabs that are used to attach to these fenders. I also noticed the real fenders have 2 rows of rivets. I presume these are from stiffeners on the inside. These were added by gently pushing through from the opposite side. I did push completely through on a couple of them by accident, but these will get covered partially by the zimm paste. Does anyone have a photo of the inside of the fender? I may have this fender flipped up on the hinge when I build the model and the stiffener tab would be visible.




I then decided to build a better hinge. I folded a small piece of the aluminum over a very small drill bit and scribed in the hinge detail.






Next I will be priming and adding zimm to the part. The piece will be bent slightly and some of the zimm will be flaked off. I'm assuming that zimm would flake off a part if it was bent.

Anyways, let me know what you think.

Hmmm,
I just found more hi-re photos of the Jagd and King Tiger in museums and there are no rivets present on the fender. Well, I don't want to make another fender to replace this one as it takes about an hour, so I will just try to burnish the rivets down and cover them with zimm. oh well....

Hey please take my advice how you want. I don't need to be happy with your model, you need to be happy with your model. That said, here are some of my thoughts:

I have not seen a lot of damaged fenders on Jagdtigers. Others can prove me wrong, just a trend I have seen in my references:









Either the fenders are missing or have little damage, not like what can be seen on Tigers:




Also, I know you are fixed on the camo idea, what about this camo pattern? I believe it is one of the few porsche's with a camo:



I know you are probably wanting a camo more along the lines of:



The problem with these porsche jagdtigers is there were so few and they were so well documented that it is hard(er) to have artistic freedom with them.

Again, you have to do what you want. If it makes you feel better, you can yell curse words at the computer because all of these internet trolls are bringing your work down!

Anyways, good job so far keep it up.

Mark

Thanks for the words of wisdom. I take all relative points as constructive criticsm and honestly do appreciate your help. Please keep it up.
As I said, I didn't want to do anything outlandish, just interesting. I thought that I would avoid most of the criticsm by stating I am doing my own thing, rather than placing a precisely detailed Jagd in the diorama I want to do, and have people say that "That Jagd did not travel through that town, at such and such a time, and it never had Jerry cans on the back deck, yadda yadda yadda...."
I am slightly torn now between painting something exact, or my own design. Thanks allot!
It's funny. When I build a model of an aircraft that I have worked on, or have seen, I tend to be a little more precise. I find that with armor modelling I want to have a little more fun.
Those are great pics you provided. I have searched lots on the web and haven't seen those ones before.
I didn't realize the fenders were so resiliant. I thought all the fenders were like the tiger shot you posted.
The front fender will be slightly bent and maybe flipped up.
I copied some pictures from "The Tiger Family", by Horst Schiebert, Schiffer Publishing, showing what I would like to do.




I haven't rec'd an answer from anyone about the primer colour I used. It is automotive red primer out of a can, and reddish brown, leaning more towards red.

I was about to ask again if this was an okay colour to leave showing, but after much more research, I have decided it may be a little too on the red side.
Following some of the posts thinking, I will use Tamiya Hull Red XF-9 mixed with a little tan to lighten it, to represent some primer showing through where the fenders have fallen off.

I have rebuilt 2 side fenders so far using my above technique and will be adding zimm to them as well. The fenders only took a few minutes to make. More pics soon.

The more and more I look at these things, they are like battleships with wheels!

I agree.
I just noticed in the top photo that you sent what looks like cam netting over the barrel and hull. Hmmmm, interesting...

I'm continuing the fender builds and am working on the thin band of metal that covers the gap between each separate fender. I looked at some good photos online of the King Tiger, which has identical fenders to the Jagd. The thin band kind of looks like it is attached to the fender.
Does anyone know for sure?
I'm wondering if I can model this as fallen off or bent back.

I quickly painted the gun with german inerior buff. This will not even be seen, but I just wanted it to be lightened up slightly:


I finished the fenders I will be using. Only 5 in total. A couple turned out with a bit of a wrinkle in the aluminum which I'm hoping will get covered by the zimm. If not, they are easy to remake, and I get to practice my zimm skills on them.
Front right curved fender:


And the bottom. I finally found a ref pic that shows the strengthening ribs underneath:


I also repainted certain areas with my version of German primer going by what I found on the web. I used Tamiya hull red XF-9 and lightened it with Tamiya Buff, XF-57. This was airbrushed on the hull under the fender area, on all the fenders, and around area that would recieve wear in case I feel like chipping the paint down to the primer or letting it show through in spots. I also attached the barrel travel support and made a wire conduit for the front headlight out of aviation lockwire:


I left the barrel off because it is a very tight fit and I don't want to take the chance pushing the gun off its mount inside when I try to slide the barrel on. It will also be easier to paint this way.

Primed. You can see the difference between my rattle can primer and the "German" primer:




Now with the fenders temporarily installed with blue tac. I haven't installed the thin fender strips that cover the gap between each piece:





In this shot you can see how I will pose the flipped up front right fender:


All the hatches are just installed for the photos. I will let the primer set up for a day or two and start working on the zimm for the fenders.