About a week ago, pops and I stopped by a local Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and I found two Altaya 1/72 scale Pz.Jg’s for less than 5$ a piece! As a former World of Tanks player, I had a soft spot for some of Germany’s iconic WWII machines. When I saw both a Jagdpanther and a Panzerjäger Tiger (P), I was instantly sold.
They stayed in their plastic cases for about a week before I finally freed them and took them into the sandy backyard for a photo shoot during the golden hour.
These tanks are truly diecast as their hulls are metal and have some heft to them! That said, Altaya’s quality control is almost non-existent. I spent about 10 minutes selecting these two from about three other copies. Some paint job looked thinner than others and many suffered from the too-tight rubber tracks snapping in half. These two were the ones ones of their kind with track intact.
That being said, when it’s not broken, they look amazing...just like the actual tanks! The Jagdpanther’s camo and legendary 8.8cm cannon look great on this model and the overly complex road wheel setup is fully visible!
The Elefant looks equally-impressive with it’s similar gun and also complex Porsche-designed road wheel setup. This is the improved version of the tank that sports heavier armor and a front-mounted machine gun. Early versions didn’t have one, surprisingly!
The actual Elefant, one of two survivors, is currently on display in United States Army Ordnance Museum’s collection at Fort Lee, VA.
German tank destroyers doing what German tank destroyers do best: going hull-down and waiting to ambush unsuspecting targets!
The Elefant’s thick armor is sadly offset by the fact it’s almost flat all over, allowing the iconic 122mm Soviet heavy-tank gun to punch through it with ease. The Jagdpanther’s armor is far thinner but the sloping makes is effective at bouncing low-caliber shells.