Academy has brought the fearsome World War II German antitank SdKfz 173 Jagdpanther Ausf G1 to 1/35 scale, and it’s a kit with plenty to offer. Inside, you’ll find link-and-length tracks, posable hatches, one- and two-piece barrels, optional parts, and markings for four vehicles in Normandy.
The instructions call out a Zimmerit tool, but one isn’t included in the kit. The illustrations show where to apply Zimmerit, should you choose to do so. Historically, a thin coat was added at the factory before it left for the front line. I completed the kit without adding Zimmerit texture.
You assemble many pieces to complete the lower hull, with two central parts that hold the sides and bottom together.
Single-piece suspension arms make installation a snap, and I aligned them with a ruler. The idler arms fit loosely in their sockets, so I used a ruler to make sure they matched. Road wheels and sprockets were painted at the same time as the lower hull.
I pre-painted the link-and-length tracks Tamiya Earth (No. XF-52) and Silver (No. X-11) and built them in sections. First, I assembled the portions curving around the sprockets and idlers and then joined them with the lengths along the road wheels.
The kit provides you a choice of early or late exhaust pipes, and you get a jack and storage boxes for the rear hull.
The upper hull comes as a single piece with a separate roof. I installed all the hatches on the roof before gluing it to the superstructure. More stowage, engine hatch, deck intake, and exhaust fans — including photo-etched metal screens — round out the upper hull.
Regardless of coaxing, I couldn’t eliminate a gap at the front where the upper and lower hull assemblies met. I filled the space with putty and sanded it until smooth.
After attaching the gun barrel, I painted the upper hull Tamiya Flat Dark Yellow (No. XF-88) and completed the camouflage with Dark Green (No. XF-89) and Red Brown (No XF-64).
You can mount the extra road wheels in the kit to the hull side as spares, and there are plenty of extra Panther parts to help build up your spare parts inventory.
Overall, it took me 15 hours to build the Academy 1/35 scale SdKfz 173 Jagdpanther Ausf G1, and I recommend it for intermediate modelers. You can get your feet wet painting WWII German camo and have a nicely detailed replica at the end of the build.