Model Laboratory - Panzerjäger 'Jagdtiger' Sd.Kfz.186 Frühe Produktion Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Accion Press Modelismo is back with another impressive issue. This issue covers the Panzerjäger 'Jagdtiger' Sd.Kfz.186 Frühe Produktion (Hunting Tiger) from beginning to end. You know this is going to be a great painting and weathering tutorial when the 'Materials Employed' list has the Tamiya kit as the starting point along with a set of aftermarket tracks, photo-etched parts, and a turned aluminum barrel. Four items for the build, THEN there's half a page of paints, pigments, and special weathering washes listed. When you look at the completed model though, the results are very impressive.

This issue spends time on how to build the kit with some nice tips for enhancing the project such as recreating weld marks. Once assembled, the author walks you through the painting process from priming and using the Vallejo base color modulation techniques to laying out the other two camouflage colors using Silly Putty as renewable paint masks. Interestingly enough, all of these steps still only use less than half the page count in this issue - the remainder is a great tutorial on weathering and I really appreciate seeing these techniques laid out in this series as each author brings different ideas which might work better for some modelers.

This series is worth collecting for any modeler as the basic modeler can pick up a wealth of tips and techniques you won't find in many places while the advanced modeler will also see some alternative approaches to different problems which will also improve our results.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Accion Press for this review sample!