KRK4m Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 (edited) After the two Renaults shown few days ago this one is quite another piece of cake. And this is not the matter of size, as the WW2 16-ton Hetzer tank destroyer is roughly the lenght of Mondeo or Audi A4. The problem was complexity of this tiny kit by Ukrainian Unimodels. The whole package some 67mm long (87mm including the barrel) consists of 147 plastic and 16 photoetched parts ! And the Renaults mentioned above consisted of less than 20 parts each... The Hetzer was invented by the Germans looking for the cheap and effective tank-buster. It was based on the widened chassis of Czech CKD LT vz.38 light tank, used by the Germans as Panzer 38(t). Powered by 160 BHP Praga 6-cylinder petrol engine and armed with a 75mm AT cannon it showed great efficiency against both Allied and Soviet AFV in the last 2 years of war. Some 2850 were built (in Czech factories) until the VE Day and almost 350 after the war - 160 of these last mentioned were exported to Switzerland. After the StuG III, Panzer IV, Panzer III and Panzer V it was the "number 5" among the most numerous German WW2 all-tracked AFVs. The quite recent (2004 tooling) UM kit is available in 10 different boxings. Mine is the original #352 "tank hunter, early version". It's built OOB except for the drilled (1 mm dia) gun barrel and exhaust pipe as well as the decals representing a Hetzer fighting in Falaise area in August 1944. It is not "shake and bake" kit however. Making L-section fender hangers from the 1.5mm wide PE stripes will be my nightmare for several weeks The paints are (as always) Humbrol enamels: 93 for the RAL7028 Dunkelgelb, 117 for the RAL6030 Olivgruen, and 186 for the RAL8017 Rotbraun - painted with brushes. Afterwards the Vallejo acrylic matt varnish was brush-applied overall. The digits are from the Dragon Panther tank and the Eduard SPAD. The pictures are made by LG smartphone. Comments welcome Cheers Michael Edited April 4, 2020 by KRK4m 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3DStewart Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 A nice model. It's amazing to think the Swiss were still using Hetzers into the '80s. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaastav Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 Very nice. Great work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfman Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 Another great build , you sure are a gluten for intricate modelling ! Wulfman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahawk Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 If those are the kit tracks, you've done an excellent job, especially around the drive sprockets and idlers, of making them look like a continuous length of track. I have a Flakpanzer 38(t) at that stage and am not looking forward to it. Also good job on painting the wheel tyres: they are not as well defined as they look on the sprue! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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