Dragon Models revisits one of their late war SPG’s Germany produced, this time changing a little armament. Todd Michalak takes a look inside the box of the new Jagdpanzer IV L/48 July 1944 Production w/Zimmerit kit and shares his review.

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Thanks!

Not sure why the side armour had to be simplified so much. Even if they're going for really easy to build [read: full of illogical simplifications] it's just a few extra decently sized-parts to assemble.

Has the diameter of the gun barrel been corrected? Dragon's first Smart Kit release of the L/48 variant featured a cheap short-cut--they just shortened the L/70 barrel and used the same mantlet part. Trouble is, the L/48 barrel is more slender than the L/70 tube near the mantlet, and the apparent calibre of the stubby, fat gun is closer to 105 mm. The mantlet opening is also too large for the L/48 gun, so an aftermarket kit with gun and resin replacement mantlet is needed to make it look right. Ironically, Dragon has already produced all the correct parts for their old "Imperial Series" Jagdpanzer IV kit (which featured a Dragon superstructure on a Gunze Sangyo Panzer IV chassis).

Good question Gerald. I remember reading something very similar to that somewhere before. While I did not measure the i.d or o.d (which I probably could, the next time my caliper and I are near the kit) and try to get barrel specifications to compare it too, it does look like a dedicate sprue created for the kit. I do feel the barrel is a plausible representation and the mantlet appears to have been designed for the included barrel with the correct opening. For those who would take things up a notch with little though a replacement barrel might run about $6 to $8 bucks...not too bad of an investment.

i really like this kit ! The gun seems bigger, diameter wise then usual.

This kit looks nice next to Dragons L70 Jagdpanzer IV w /zim