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Italeri- Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdtiger

Catalog Number: 15770 Manufacturer: Italeri
Published: Thursday, February 10, 2022 Retail Price: 35.99
Scale: N/A Reviewed By: Chuck Willis

Italeri presents:

Sd.Kfz. 186 Jagdtiger

Brief History:

 The Jagdtiger, or ‘Hunting Tiger’ was the heaviest tracked, armored vehicle to see service in World War II weighing in over 71 tons. With its 128 mm gun, the Jagdtiger had a crew of six men housed in a vehicle 34 feet, 11 inches in length and 9 feet, 2 inches in height with its casemate mounted on an extend Tiger II lower hull. The Jagdtiger was borne out of a design process when Germany’s perceived a need for a heavy assault gun to take on heavily fortified positions circa early 1942. However, moving from an offensive to a defensive posture and other priority projects slowed the Jagdtiger’s development down, and then by 1944, the Tiger II was developed which had already diverted manpower and resources away from other tank projects.

Early in 1944, the Jagdtigers finally started coming off the assembly lines, but by then Germany was on the defensive and then it was the case of too little, too late. The Jagdtiger saw little action against US forces in March 1945, but was effective in taking a number of Shermans and M-10 tank destroyers. Some sources put completed Jagdtigers in the high eighties, though most reports indicate that approximately 75 Jagdtigers, including prototypes were completed by the beginning of March 1945 (The Tank Museum, UK states 85).  Currently, as it stands, there appears to be only three surviving Jagdtigers: one at the Tank Museum, Bovington, UK, one at the Kubinka Tank Museum, Russia, and one at Fort Benning, Georgia, United States. 

The Kit:

Italeri, once known for its 1/72 and 1/35 scale line of models, in recent years have now broken into the 1:56 scale armor model world serving war gamers and armor modelers alike.  The box measures 11 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 1 3/4, and contains 65 parts on 3 sprues of light grey plastic parts, a sheet of decals and an instruction sheet. The boxart is quite good and serves as one of 4 paint scheme options. On inspection, the parts look crisp with very minimal seam lines which will help make cleanup and construction go fast. While this series of kits appears to be marketed to gamers (Warlord Games), the casual collector and skilled armor modeler will enjoy building and, in some cases, enhancing this kit with adding their own details. The Jagdtiger kit is only one of over 20 1/56 scale WW II vehicle kits and figure sets produced by Italeri.

 

The instructions are the typical line drawing type and guides the modeler through 10 construction steps with no complicated subassembly sections and no major surgery to perform. However, Step #4 instructs the modeler to drill 10 holes (5 per side on the lower hull) to help position and correctly attach the side skirt assemblies for each side.

Italeri provides 4 color profiles for camo schemes along with their associated markings (decals). The profiles list paints from the Italeri Acrylic paint range, however modelers can easily substitute their preferred brand.

This kit comes with a very nice decal selection and the decals themselves look commendably thin. Both of the 2-color balkenkreuz sets look to be in very good register and should look great once applied.

There are no lettered sprues, just numbers, but with a parts count of 65, there should be no problem with assembly when using the instructions.  The first sprue contains all the road wheels attached to the lower hull sides, minus the idler wheels and drive sprocket. Towing hooks, link and length tracks and one-piece side skirts take up this sprue and the detail looks pretty good for a 1:56 scale. 

Close up of some inside track detail and bolts on the one-piece side skirts.

The second sprue contains the lower rear hull plate, one piece barrel, rear upper hull plate, mantlet, gun breech,  idler and drive sprockets, front and rear fender pieces, front hatches, muffler mounts and several small parts for mounting on the upper hull. There was no obvious flash on any of the parts and the details, though a bit smaller, held up relatively well. The barrel comes with a hollowed out muzzle, has only two attachment points and an extremely thin seam running the entire length of the barrel, should make modelers and gamers happy there will be minimal cleanup and no warpage. 

The third spruce contains the upper and lower hull, each in one-piece and the left and right upper hull sides along with the mufflers. Again, nice molding all around. The upper hull has thin, but defined impressions for the various recessed bolts, engine hatch hinges and panel line outline of the engine door which will 'pop' with a bit of black pin wash. 

Close up of the right hull side with several molded on tools and the tow cable. The molded on details actually look pretty good and if the modeler or gamer just wanted a quick weekend build, paint and weathering project, this will do quite well. With all this nice detail at this scale, I was a bit surprised there was no detail on the cables themselves. However, that shouldn't take away from this otherwise fine kit. Scratchbuilders will be tempted to remove these and add on their own, but the majority of modelers and gamers, especially those who want a very quick build will enjoy them just the same. Nicely done weld marking on the hull sides for this scale.

Conclusion:

A really nice tank, pretty cool detail for a smaller scale and small parts count will be most welcome by gamers. This is a very good value for the money and looks to be a lot of fun for a quick build. For those looking for something different and needing a quick model 'fix,' this may be just what you are looking for since it can be completed within a few hours, including parts cleanup, painting and weathering. War gamers will like this as it will look quite impressive and intimidating when on the board facing down their opponent's forces.  

A Full Build review is coming and I'll let you know how fast it goes and of any potential setbacks.

Highly Recommended for Beginner to Advanced builders, pending the full build.

Thanks goes out to MRC for this review kit.

Reviewed by Chuck Willis

 

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