Wednesday, April 24

Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer Prague May 1945 in 1/35th scale from Snowman Model preview...

The Hetzers Jagdpanzer 38t's that were liberated by the Czech resistance in the Prague uprising in 1945 are the subject of Snowman Model's next 1/35th scale release. We look at the real things & the kit features in our preview...

 Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer Prague May 1945 in 1/35th scale from Snowman Model preview...

 Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer Prague May 1945
Special Limited Edition Series
From Snowman Model
Kit No: SE-001 
1/35th scale
Five marking choices included in the box
The Subject: Captured Jagdpanzer 38T's during the Prague Uprising May 1945.
When the uprising against the Nazi occupiers broke out in Prague on May 5, 1945, the insurgents also managed to capture a certain number of pieces of heavy equipment, including some older French tanks, but also incomplete Jagdpanzer 38(t) "Hetzer" tank destroyers. 

Some photos of the Jagdpanzer 38t's that the resistance fighters used after making sure they could not be confused with Nazi-owned Hetzers...
Altered by the resistance fighters, these tank destroyers were liberated from the BMM plants in Prague, 
These tank destroyers did not have the main gun installed, so the holes for their installation were improvised closed with steel plates or wood with an embrasure for a machine gun. The rebel "tank" forces in Prague were divided into three groups. 
The insurgent Hetzer in the photograph below belonged to the Neubauer combat group. The list of the dead and wounded was added to this machine on the occasion of the parade of fighters from the Prague Uprising, which took place at the end of May 1945. The only surviving insurgent Hetzer is in the exhibition of the Military Technical Museum in Lešany.

These unfinished vehicles were captured in the factory and hastily armed with machine guns. This one can be seen at the Lešany military museum, Czech republic.
The picture shows the transport of the unfinished Hetzer tank destroyer, commissioned by the insurgents during the Prague Uprising in May 1945, to the museum in Kbely in the mid-1970s.

The kit: Snowman Model's Jagdpanzer 38t "Hetzer" used by Czech resistance during 1945 Prague uprising is an interesting subject - and it is likely to sell loads, especially in Central European model shops!

This kit gives us five options of the liberated Hetzers with their slightly different modifications, mostly around the hole that the main gun would be inserted in. We can see four colour schemes, maybe one of these had two gun hole incarnations. Others will know much more, this is a model page, not a history essay 😀...
The decal sheet for these tanks - very handy, as before now only the (excellent) Star Decal sheet was the one we would have used...
These CADs show the slight changes to each of these machines...
In this kit there are 3-D printed parts that enable the simple transformation into one of these tanks from the uprising...
Photo-etch is provided for the guards, the engine grilles & main gun hole covers.
You can see that one of these vehicles were marked with the red communist flag.

This kit should be available in a month or two from Snowman Model's distributors