Matorro Jagdtiger

[lmcq11]

Hi,

Here is a Matorro Jagdtiger that was transformed to make it more accurate without breaking the bank or taking too long.

- The Jagdtiter model was completely disassembled. It's easy because all the pieces were badly glued and falling apart when model was taken out of the box.
- The whole upper hull was cut in pieces along the joint lines for rework, creating individual armor sections.
- The lower hull section (which is a King Tiger hull) was extended before the idler wheel to create the extension specific to the Jagdtiger.
- A corresponding extension was made to the central section of the upper hull.
- The side armor plates that were wrongly angled in the middle were corrected by making them strait and reinforced from the inside. Having strait side armor was important to me...
- The front hatch section was lowered by a few millimeters, according to references.
- The wrongly applied zimmerit on the back section and lower front sections was sanded smooth.
- The matorro mantlet was reworked with added plasticard parts and given a dremel treatment to simulate rough metal casting.
- Putting the upper hull armored plates back together at the proper angle was challenging and needed quite a bit of engineering. I had to manage quite a few issues, gaps and trimming during this process. But it worked out. Weld areas were redone.
- Tamiya side skirts were purchased on ebay, extended and added.
- Added metal engine grills.
- The matorro gear was put back (and never used much anyway). The Matorro plastic is structurally quite weak and I would not use the model much. But the Matorro Jagdtiger looks better now and the rework saved my investment in this tank.

Now that the Trumpeter Jagdtiger is out, purchasing it is likely a better alternative than the above steps, but probably not as fun.

Regards,
Louis

[HERMAN BIX]

Good Lord that's beautiful
MATORRO no more.
What electrics are you using ?

[maxmekker]

wicked paintjob , good work man

[c.rainford73]

Super job that thing looks mean! Great job on the hull and gun mantlet. Nicely engineered. One of my favorite tanks

Carl

[c.rainford73]

Are those Tamiya King Tiger exhausts and is the gun travel lock moveable too? If not it looks the part

Overall the work, how long did it take to complete....

[ruben2005]

[doc larsson]

gobsmacked !

[lmcq11]

Hi,
I selected for rework the items that we're important to me. I needed to put a limit to the budget too. It took about 2 month of free time to do, quite enjoyable. I put back the Matorro electronics (with some adjustments) so that i can play with the tank just a bit because I do not think this model is solid enough to sustain much use without something breaking. Matorro plastic is very thin all over and my rework did not help. The gun travel is the Matorro one without alterations. The exhaust pipes are Tamiya and came with the side skirt sprue purchased separately. That was pretty much the only additional investment in the model other than the engine grill. There used to be a Japanese guy selling Tamiya sprues on ebay but looks like he's gone now.
Regards,

[c.rainford73]

Yes I agree with you. The Mattoro plastic is very weak. I have a sturmtiger on the forum I built and I had replaced the entire lower hull with metal because it was so poor.

The upper hull is nicely detailed but that too I had to reconstruct. The hull actually cracked in three sections. One crack is about 6". Not really noticeable once I repaired them and reinforced it.

The mounting tabs snapped off too.

So I made a mounting system with magnets and tabs!

Carl

[c.rainford73]

That's why I admire your determination to keep as much of the original as possible. These things are the polar opposites of Taigen and of course Tamiya to utilize as the base for a project. Again Great job!