it shows the lower ofrward front hull roof compared to the height off the engine deck. Gaston woul no doubt approve. This also showed up years ago in the Panzer Tracts book.
This must be because of the lenghtening of the hull of course. The Tamiya contribution is probably limited to the skirts, wheels, tracks and maybe the rear plate.
Gasoline figures have always amazed me, except for height they are my favorites, but the vehicles impress me less. We can hope that this kit will be one of their better ones.
I cannot make head or tails of their site. Will it come painted and assembled? What is the Tamiya contribution? The die-cast base seem to suggest that it will be assembled. Not quite a real kit for some then, and quite a price tag; 103 euros...
Gaston.
P.S. The Dragon 1/35th scale kit will make an excellent reference comparison, although I have a vague impression that the superstructure is a bit tall vertically or short horizontally when viewed in profile, as slightly distorted photos seem to agree with it, while others less distorted don't (looking at and measuring the roundness of the wheels). On the Dragon the only really visible error is that the base hinges of the barrel travel lock are too high, and this lock is a bit heavy overall. I seem also to remember the whole kit suspension riding a bit high but I am not sure.
Note that on the Tamiya 1/48th King Tiger kit, the side upper hull armor appears NOT deep enough for a King Tiger, so that the front area of this side armor appears identical in vertical thickness to the actual Jagdtiger, as if the entire Tamiya hull top had been lowered about 0.5mm.
This would explain why the front end looks Jagtiger-like to me, except that dimensionally the front upper plate is barely 0.3 mm short, a far cry from the 1.3mm needed. I suspect the plate is a touch (0.5mm?) wide and that the hull Mg ball is a touch oversize, creating that impression of shortness, along with the more upright lower plate.
We are going to develop 2 different masters because we will use the frame of the King Tiger Hobby Master that is not precisely correct for a Jagdtiger.
For the conversion with the Tamiya basis, we will redo a complete frame to respect the measurements of the Jagdtiger.
The GAS50708M model is a model built and painted for collectors.
All the best
Olivier
- The 1/48th Tamiya King Tiger front upper plate does look shorter, like the 49 inches of a Jagdtiger, but the Tamiya kit dimensions do not bear this out, at an even 51 inches, barely any shorter than the actual KT's 51.6. It is probably wider than it should be by MORE than 0.5mm to create this much of a visual illusion, unless the hull Mg "ball" is much bigger than it should. Of note is that this "ball" is too protruding and should be sanded down.
In any case, changing the width of this front plate could create other visual problems if there is even a slight problem of excess of hull depth, and I feel it could be left alone, as the Tamiya front end is good enough as is... for a Jagdtiger. Shortening this upper plate fully to actual dimension seems risky to me, given other unknown dimension problems with the Tamiya 1/48th King Tiger kit, if that is what is used as reference. I would go for 0.5mm or 0.6mm at most, not the actual 1.0 mm.
- On using the Dragon kit as a reference, the amount of excess of the superstructure profile height appears to be around 2mm, or 1.5mm in 1/48th, but I could be mislead by distorted photos. Worth keeping an eye out for against many photos, in any case.
- The difference in height between the front and rear deck on the real machine is about one inch to 1.5 inches, or about 0.5mm to 0.7mm in 1/48th. It is really quite subtle, though unlike what has been said about small dimensions it can easily be seen...
- The suspension ride height on the Dragon kit appears to depend on the modeler, but is a critical aspect of getting this subject right. It is quite different from the King Tiger, and many built Dragon Jagdtigers give a bad impression of this sound kit because of the modeler's fault, I suspect.
- The quoted lenght of the Jagdtiger (10.645 m?)will seem very long, and much depends on the barrel which may sit at different depths in the mantlet depending on the museum. As for the hull depth, I would be interested in new measurements just to be sure.