Jagdpanzer IV L/70

By Till Huber

Manufacturer: ESCI (Kit#8319)

After picking up newestrumours on the Missing-Lynx forum, I was forced to hurry bringingout my construction review of ESCI's Jagdpanzer IV. I learnedthat Hasegawa is going to release a new JgdPz IV L/48 (shortbarrelled) and L/70 (long barrel) thanks to Nakagama Kenji. Idon't want to speculate too much but I'm pretty sure that ifthese kits really appear, they will be new molds with Hasegawa'swell known vinyl-tracks.

ESCI's JGDPZ L/70 KIT ISAWFUL

After analyzing Doug'sgreat Jgpz IV correction article, I felt very much inspired tobuild a Jgdpz IV myself because there were no correct injectionmolded kits on the market, plus the ESCI kit is very hard to comeby. With great disappointment, I realise that my kit won't bethat special at all if Hasegawa is going to release its new JgdpzIV kit. First of all, I took most of the "equipment"from a cannibalized Revell Panzer IV J. I know that folks in someother areas in this world would slap me for doing so, but as I'msitting near to the source it didn't bother me.

The first step I did wasto replace the awful wheels. The bogie wheels are okay, but theyare missing out on the fact that the bogie wheels on the firsttwo stations were often replaced by rollers that had less rubberand looked quite different. This measure was often referred as"laufruhiger Block" in late Pz IV J style Jagdpanzersto compensate for the overhang of the large Panthergun. The ESCIbogie wheels were replaced with Panzer IV J wheels, excluding thefirst two stations on each side. I often heard that Revell's StugIV bogie wheels would look like these special ones, and I had onelying around so I gave it a try. The hardest thing was to cutthem into two but it finally worked. I used superglue to fix thesprocket wheel, idler and return rollers as well. The returnrollers on the original kit looked really poor, sometimes I wasreally surprised how a company can produce kits of such variousquality within the kit line. Using all Revell's wheels would alsoprevent me from using the original tracks, so I took the PZ IV Jones, which are much more accurate. You need to be careful whenfixing new wheels on the ESCI gear, they need to be in the righttrack and, as you notice on the scans, the Revell sprocket is abit smaller and its teeth are more delicately molded then ESCI's,causing the tracks to hang down a bit on the front.

The major complaint aboutthe L/70 kit was the incorrect exhaust system; I left off thelarge tank as suggested in the article and added the two verticalexhausts of Revell's kit. I repositioned the machinegun portslightly upwards, but unfortunately I broke it with my scalpel soI had to build a new one. Be careful when working in that area,because it is the most eye-catching. In addition to that, thepioneer tools and spare bogies and tracks have been added to thebackside of the vehicle. I hope their mounting is nearly accuratefor a late version JgdPz IV.

The only thing I foundhalf way acceptable is the top hull which catches the proportionsvery well. Adding to Doug's criticisms: it totally misses thedetails of the "Zapfenbauweise" that even the matchboxkit features (armour plates interlinking on edges by tenons).

CAMO & MARKINGS

I painted the hull with1943 Dunkelgelb by Testors, which is a good and accurate color inmy opinion. I used Revell Lederbraun (84) and Bronzegruen (65) toapply a commonly used three-tone camo, which comes close to thelate ambush scheme. Generally I find it more practical to finishthe gear, but leaving the top hull severed and spray those twoseperately. Aging was done with gunmetal grey by molak, after allI think drybrushing with darkmetal makes more sense because baremetal reacts very quickly with air normally within 24 hours. Isay this because I used to drybrush with silver which I assume tobe wrong. I discussed this matter also with other braille scalemodellers at the missing-lynx forum. There was a large variety ofcomments but at least I suppose we concluded that spots that areexcluded by daily use and scratches (unlike ladders, hatches,handles etc) need to be dark metalgrey. The three digit code isfrom a Revell 1:72 modell, while the tactic mark for the 116thPanzerdivision comes from the identical JgdPz IV kit by Matchbox.The 116th Pz Division had large numbers of these vehicle. To behonest I don't bother with the scale of decals; I see no reasonto reject just because they're not "printed inregister". Keep in mind that in these days all the markingwere applied most hastely without much care.

CONCLUSION

I know this might hurt butthe Matchbox 1:76 kit seems to be much more accurate than ESCI'overpriced and rare JgdPz IV. I ordered mine at Kitlink and waseven bothered with paying 30 dollars just for the customs.European customers: always deny a shipping with a bill, kindlyask the seller to ship without one, presenting the bill via emailor fax. This means if you don't have an ESCI JgdPz IV at hand,don't waste your time and money on ebay; it's not worth it.Better to wait for Hasegawa to release these kits. This kit issimply to erroneus and should be left to all the die hardcollectors waiting for one.

I have to admit that I'mnot fully satisfied with the outcome and I'm going to try anotherone, probably with skirts, the L/48 gun and Zimmerit. I hope thatat least you like the kit.

References: Diedeutschen Panzer 1926-1945 , F.M. Senger undEtterlin, Bernard&Graefe Verlag Bonn 2000; PanzerIV -The Panzerkampfwagen IV Medium Tank 1939-1945 ,Kevin Hjermstad, Squadron/Signal publications; "On theWay!" Panzerjägervs. Jagdpanzer by Doug Chaltry.