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Scratch-built gun mantle and travel lock. Square plate from Matchbox toy car box plastic divider. Armor plate line nuts cut from drive sprocket teeth of 1.35th TAMIYA Tiger I tank. Mantle ring from wheel rim of 1.35th TAMIYA 7.5cm Pak40 Anti-Tank gun. Ball mount is rubber table leg cushion. Saukopf mantle from a 1.35th ITALERI Hetzer. Travel lock made from 1.35th TAMIYA German 8.8cm gun, plastic styrene struts, tube styrene, and clothing pins (used to enable travel lock rotation). Three white lines on barrel are Kill Rings, or three armor victories achieved by its crew. Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger Ausf. B Sd.Kfz. 186 - www.achtungpanzer.com/pz12.htm
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Frontal towing bracket and spare track holder from 1.35th TAMIYA Stug IV kit. Two U-shaped towing  loops from 1.35th TAMIYA Tiger 1 kit. Towing chains from ship model accessories, painted Military Brown. Vehicle number 231 referred to 2nd Company, 3rd platoon, 1st vehicle in platoon. Germans used variety of WW2 numerical color markings, including black, white, and yellow. By 1944, red and blue were introduced to lower distant recognition since they blended well with surrounding foliage.
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Close-up of driver infrared device scratch-built search light and sight receiver, note German Stickgranate (stick grenade, also nicknamed potato masher) attached to device. Due to its high military value, German crews ordered to destroy all Infrared devices before abandoning vehicle. Some devices had explosive charges rigged, while other simply tied a stick grenade and yanked its chord to destroy the equipment. Grenade handle painted enamel TESTOR Military Brown, its warhead and bottom chord cup painted TESTOR Navy Grey. German Mod.24 - Mod.43 Stielhandgranate "Stick Hand Grenade" - www.inert-ord.net/ger03a/gerhgr/stck/
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Inset 1 : Most powerful WW2 German tank destroyer was Jadgtiger, built on King Tiger (Tiger II) chassis, armed with 12cm gun (US Sherman tanks carried only 7.5cm gun). Sight of which created immediate anxiety, one American armor crew uttered "It is as big as a barn". Its thick armor resisted majority of Allied tank and anti-tank guns unless fired in close proximity. US Sherman tanks hit by its 12cm shell did not exploded in the usual sense, but simply disappeared into multitudes of small shrapnel, its crew vaporized or torn asunder into tiny pieces. Tanks Jadgtiger - www.peachmountain.com/5Star/US_Army_Ordnance_Museum_Jagdtiger_tank.aspx
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Nevertheless, Jadgtiger had many impediments, namely its overt tonnage made it slow and sluggish to maneuver, it could not transverse most European bridges due to its weight, it often sank deep into soft ground and had to wrenched by armor wrecker. Photo above shows US infantrymen examining abandoned Jadgtiger in western Germany, Spring 1945. Note protrusions on front glacis plate is for missing gun travel lock. Jagdtiger mit 128mm Pak 44 - http://www.jagdtiger.de/GermanVeh/Jagdtiger-01.htm
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Two spare roadwheels, nestled among spare tracks + helmet + shovel, placed underneath gun mantle served as defacto applique armor, a common practice by Germans and Allied armor crews to increase frontal protection from kinetic and shaped-charged warheads. Theory of the Shaped-Charge Warhead - www.reocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust1.htm
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Rollover : ( Rollover JPG link ) | Rear engine deck, late-war tube-fan mufflers from 1.35th TAMIYA 8.8cm gun recoil tubes. Spare track, track bar, shovel from 1.35th TAMITYA Stug IV kit. Spare roadwheel and hinge from 1.35th ITALERI Panzer IV kit. Four Rauchkorper (Smoke Candles) angled to fire over hull and protect it from small arms fire, take from 1.35th ESCI T-72 tank. Rauchkorper are different from Nebelwerfer (smoke dischargers), latter being larger caliber artillery weapons firing smoke, explosive, or chemical warheads. Smoke title used by prewar Germans to conceal its artillery development program via military rearmament in defiance of WW1-era Versailles Treaty limiting its military capabilities. Germany officially abrogated treaty in 1935, though there were talks between Great Britain and France to immediately invade Germany and restore their treaty obligations, truth of matter was that Western European public was in pacifist state, thus no one wanted to instigate another regional war. German Rearmament and Parade - youtube.com/watch?v=jyYMbQon1m0
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Inset 2 : Although Jadgtiger was formidable, it could still be destroyed in close combat where Allied  firepower was as lethal as the Germans. Photo shows remains of Jadgtiger in western Germany 1945 after internal denotations blew apart its superstructure, leaving only the massive 12cm gun mount and mantle. Panzers - www.efour4ever.com/panzers.htm
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