COBI Jagdpanzer IV/70 (V) (Sd.Kfz.162/1) Set 2668

COBI's Jagdpanzer IV/70 (V) is a 1:28 model built from 1,024 blocks, 25 cm long, in winter camouflage, with working tracks, a removable armour section giving access to the interior, and a removable Maybach HL120 TRM engine under the service hatch. Two figures are included — a commander in white winter overalls and a medic with stretcher, stethoscope and a fabric red cross over his helmet — plus a collector's plaque.

The gun was too heavy for the front of the tank

The 7.5 cm PaK 42 L/70 is a long gun — the barrel alone runs more than five metres — and putting it in a fixed mount at the front of a Panzer IV hull put a great deal of weight a long way forward of the front axle.

The consequence appeared quickly in service. The front road wheels carried far more load than they were designed for and their rubber tyres shredded. The fix was to replace the first pair, and later two pairs, with steel-rimmed wheels — which is why photographs of these vehicles often show different wheels at the front than at the back, and why the ride was harsh and the crews complained.

Everything else about it worked. The sloped front plate deflected rounds that would have gone through a vertical plate of the same thickness, the low silhouette made it hard to see in a hedgerow or a treeline, and the gun killed Shermans and T-34s at ranges where they could not reply. It fought in Italy, in Normandy, in the Ardennes and on the Eastern Front, and it was the kind of weapon an army builds when it has stopped attacking.

In the COBI range

Set 2592 is the Panzer IV, the tank this chassis came from.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,024 · Figures: 2 · Scale: 1:28 · Age: 10+ · Removable engine
Model dimensions: 25 × 11.5 × 14 cm (9.8 × 4.5 × 5.5 in)