In 1943 the German army  was confronted to a huge  problem. It’s tanks and anti tank weapons were unable to destroy  the heavy  Russian KV tanks or the famous T34 at  a reasonably  safe distance. The solution found in 1942 was to use a 75mm gun with the highest  possible  velocity namely  the 75mm L/48 gun. Although successful for a time on the up gunned Pz IV “G” series it soon became  obvious  that  this wouldn’t  be  the ultimate  solution.

The longer 75 mm L/70 had to be used !

To retrofit this gun on the  Pz IV hull was a rather easy task that needed only minor modifications, but in order to equip  the Panzer Jäger units every one had to admit the Sturmgeschütz III hull was too light and unable to carry this longer and more  powerful gun.

In the meantime,  the people  at  Vomag were working on their own Panzerjäger  prototype.

Based on the Panzer IV hull with some modifications (the fuel tanks location for example) and equipped with the 75 mm L/48 it became the Jagdpanzer IV L/48.

On January   26^th ,1944 , Hitler gave the order to abandon  any  kind of research with the L/48 gun and concentrate  on the L/70 instead.

As up-gunning the Jagdpanzer IV was quite an easy task Vomag turned its whole production into this new Jagdpanzer IV L/70. 

This tank was a favorite among Panzerjäger   crews  because  it was fast, powerful, well armored and with an above average ballistic profile.

Only the German  industry of 1944 and 1945 proved unable to produce enough of them to really  put the allied tank corps into troubles.

 DML has already produced four kits of the Jagdpanzer IV.

The recent “O serien” is indeed one of the first pre production batch tanks and only a few of them were built. Some say two or three. They also produced what is known as the Jagdpanzer IV “A” which is another topic ( actually it should  be called Panzer IV L/70 instead of the nickname Jagdpanzer IV  A “ Zwischenlösing” )  and at last two kits reproducing the Jagdpanzer IV L/48 (DML 9021) and L/70 (DML 9043).

They both are basically the same kit apart  from a few differences. One of them being the longer gun.

This kit as it comes out of the box is fairly accurate.  It also allows you to build a Befehlspanzer. You can build it from the box and get a decent  model… but I had something  else  in mind !

After building the L/48 and using photo etched parts almost for the first time (at least the first time with decent  results !) it was THE time  for me to go into seriously using the aftermarket kits which are now available  and see if  it was  worth the  pain  and cost or not.

So here is what I used.

-         DML 9043  ($30)

-         Tristar Panzer IV roadwheels  ($15)

-         Lion Roar 35046  photo etched detail set for Jagdpanzer IV L/48 or L/70 ($20)

-         Friul ATL-28 track links ($30)

-         Tamiya Panzer  IV “J” roadwheels (?)

Needless to say that going into hardcore  photo etched modeling  is a time consuming activity but who  can resist to these superb  fenders  or tool  clamps ?

One advice : Lion Roar gives you the choice between two kinds of fenders depending on which version (L/48 or L/70) you’re working on. Please don’t pretend you’re smarter than they are and carefully follow the instructions  ! I didn’t so I ended up having to unglue the wrong fenders and put the right  ones instead  ! 

Once I started using these photo etched parts I simply couldn’t resist . I had to do what’s impossible with the usual plastic kits : destroy  them !

It may sound silly but I really like the way the tank looks like a battered veteran  …

 When I came to gluing on the road wheels I figured the DML wheels, although not  “wrong” didn’t look as good as the  Tristar panzer IV road wheels, nor did the bogies  … except that these Tristar wheels  are too narrow  for a mid to late  production Panzer IV. It was too late for me to go back to the DML wheels  as the Tristar bogies  were  already  glued  on. It so happened I had in my scrap box a full set of Tamiya  Panzer IV “J” road wheels  which seem to be of the correct  size. I still kept the  Tristar steel wheels  on the first bogy.

Last but not least, the tracks. I don’t know  about you but I adopted the Friul tracks the very first day I used them. OK, building them takes time and can even be painful  (watch your fingers ! ) but the result is worth the pain. You don’t have to worry  about the sagging, which is a burden with DML individual tracks, as it comes out  naturally !

DML gives you the choice between two tanks. Both of them are supposed to be Befehlspanzer  (commanding tank) but I had this long time idea of building one special Jagdpanzer IV I once saw in a book about the battle of the Bulge.

What you see on this pic is a destroyed Jagdpanzer IV  number “ 20 ” or “ ? 20 ”, you can’t tell because there’s a big hole in the upper hull right where the first number should have been. This tank belonged to the 3^rd panzergrenadiere Division and fought against the US tanks around Bastogne in the very last days of December 1944, trying to prevent  the US 11^th armored division from liberating Bastogne, or in this case  a small village  named  Chenogne.

So here we are on Dec 29 1944, at dawn, there is only little snow on the ground but the ground is frozen …

As I said earlier, one can build this kit straight from the box and get a very decent kit. A good paint job will be needed to enhance the details of the kit. Nevertheless I am now addicted to photo etched kits. As far as giving the illusion of the real thing you can’t beat them. Of course this increases the price of the finished model but on the other hand what  price has to do with pleasure ? Don’t be surprised to hear that DML is including more PE parts in the kits … there IS a reason !

Note that DML has got a new version of this kit, with extra details like an aluminum gun barrel under the reference DML 9061.