Hi Rob and Duke,
There’s certainly a LOT been produced! I guess there’s a learning curve for the injection guys when they enter a new scale or field, and the PE and resin guys find their niche picking up the slack in accuracy when the big guys drop the ball. Tracks the wrong length – you’d think that was elementary, yet on different models they’re either too long or two short. Hm, gimme the click-fit working ones! [:)] I think I’ll take tour advice, Rob, and go for the Trumpeter assault gun.
Yes, Duke, that’s what I saw in the display case! I stood there and gaped, and thought ‘was there no limit to the audacity and ingenuity of German engineers?’ Thinking back, I think the model was built with Tiger I chassis, there may have been no acceptable Tiger II on the market at that time. Whatever, I remember it being a knockout!
Do you have an information source on this subject? It strikes me it would make an amazing 1:35 scratchbuild/conversion subject. I don’t think I’d be willing to butcher a Leopold kit, there’s just too much cost Involved, but scratchbuilding that whole massive gun carriage would be right up my alley. I can see me ripping into a few packs of styrene sheet!
Nice photos of the JP – I see what you mean about the too-tight tracks, there should be a nice, even curve all along the return run. I guess as the scale goes down the relative rigidity of the vinyl goes up, and the odds of ever getting realism in that sense diminishes, so you jury-rig it as best you can – hence the ‘tied-down’ approach. Nice paintwork, too.
Cheers,
TB379