CyberHobby 1/35 Jagdpanzer IV L70(V)

 After the battle of Stalingrad, in September 1942 the Wehrmacht's arms bureau, theWaffenamt, called for a new standard for assault weapons: 100 mm of armor to the front, 40-50 mm on the sides, wider tracks, ground clearance of 50 cm, top speed of 26 km/h and the lowest possible firing positions. The new Panzerjager ("tank hunter") design would be armed with the same 7.5 cm gun as fitted to the Panther: the Pak 42 L/70. Initially a new chassis were planned, but that of the Panzer IV had to be used.

Previous efforts to mount bigger guns on smaller chassis resulted in the Marder series as well as StuG IIIs. The Marder series were tall and had open crew compartments. The new design had a low silhouette and completely enclosed fighting compartment.

The Jagdpanzer IV used Panzer IV chassis 7 (known as BW7), but the almost-vertical front hull plate was replaced by sloped armor plates. Internally, the layout was changed to accommodate the new superstructure, moving the fuel tanks and ammunition racks. Since the Jagdpanzer lacked a turret, the engine which originally powered the Panzer IV's turret could be eliminated.

The new superstructure had 80 mm thick sloped armour, which gives a much greater armor protection than a vertical armor of 100 mm. To make the manufacturing process as simple as possible, the superstructure was made out of large, interlocking plates which were welded together.

Armament consisted of a 7.5 cm main gun, originally intended to be the PaK 42 L/70, but shortages meant that for the preproduction and the first production run different older guns were used, the 7.5 cm PaK 39 L/48. These were shorter and less powerful than the PaK 42.

Installing the much heavier PaK 42 meant that the Jagdpanzer IV was nose heavy, especially with the heavy frontal armor. This made them less mobile and more difficult to operate in rough terrain, leading their crews to nickname them Guderian-Ente "Guderian's duck". To prevent the rubber rims of the roadwheels being dislocated by the weight of the vehicle, some later versions had steel roadwheels installed on the front.

The final prototype of the Jagdpanzer IV was presented in December 1943 and production started in January 1944, with the PaK 39 L/48 armed variant staying in production until November. Production of the PaK 42 L/70 armed variants started in August and continued until March/April 1945.

On August 19-22, 1943, after the battle of Kursk, Hitler received reports that StuG IIIs performed better than Panzer IV within the certain restrains of how they were deployed. It was thus intended to stop production of the Panzer IV itself at the end of 1944 to concentrate solely on production of the Jagdpanzer IV, but the Panzer IV was in production all the way until the end of the conflict along with Jagdpanzer IV.

THE KIT

This is another one of those interesting single release kits from CyberHobby. This time, they have done a command tank version of the Jagdpanzer IV. Now in addition to all the usual bits that are available on the Jagdpanzer IV, this Smart kit adds the various antennas that were normally found on command vehicles. Here is a full list of the features of this excellent kit.

- New Jagdpanzer IV L/70 w/star antenna accurately presented
- side-skirt armor produced in scale thickness Commander's hatch can be assembled open or closed
- Sight rail provided as optional separate parts
- One-piece superstructure made by slide mold
- Gun mantlet made from 4 directional slide mold
- Newly tooled rear hull made from slide mold w/great detail
- Two options for the hatch hinges
- Both one-piece or separate periscope hatch provided to allow open or closed assembly
- Inside of frontal armor plate w/great details
- Two types of exhaust provided as option
- Side fenders w/fine detail on both sides
- Gun barrel w/hollow muzzle
- Newly tooled periscope made from clear part
- Gun sight and hand wheels w/well-defined detail
- Gun breech fully detailed
- Engine deck w/hatches that can be assembled open or closed
- Brackets for side-skirt armor realistically detailed
- Spare-wheel brackets w/spare wheels
- Accurately detailed idler adjuster mountings
- Hull rear w/fine detail
- Newly tooled radio set
- Resilient steel road wheels and return rollers newly designed
- Travel lock newly reproduced
- Convoy light on hull rear
- MP port on superstructure
- Two types of rear plate newly designed w/great detail
- Rear armor plate
- Air intake realistically represented
- OVM arrangement
- One-piece lower hull made from slide molds is newly produced
- Road wheels and suspension w/multiple components exhibit crisp detail
- Sprocket and idler wheels w/delicate detail
- Magic Tracks are detailed on both sides


The kit provides markings for two vehicles, both based in Germany in the last months of the war. The box art version is from an unidentified unit and in the three color camouflage that was so prominent in those last months. The other, from Stu.Art. Brig 210 is in a slightly worn white-wash finish.

CONCLUSIONS

This is an excellent kit that has a ton of detail in it. It won't be a weekend build by any stretch, but the result will be a very accurate representation of this late war assault vehicle.

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