This is a rather typical Roco 1/87th scale Jagdtiger. It has aftermarket tracks on the turret sides and the muzzle break has been sawed off, but other than that it is pretty generic. I am sure many of you have very similar vehicles in your collections.
This Jagdtiger is different. The Germans looked at upgrading their tanks and tank destroyers every year to met the potential threats from the Allies. On proposal was to upgrade the gun on the Jagdtiger to a 128mm L/66 gun. The new barrel was much longer and the recoil was so massive that they had to build on a protrusion at the rear of the superstructure to allow the gun to recoil back into it. In real life, they only had these on paper.
While difficult to see in the photo, there is a hatch at the end of this recoil housing to allow the barrel to be removed for maintenance or replacement out the back end.
The barrel was extended by cutting the original barrel and adding a length of barrel from a Roco Henschel Tiger II. The rear extension was made from a length of square tubing and the hatch scratch built from bits of styrene. A quick and easy conversion and one that makes the Allies ever more terrified of a massive vehicle.
All the schools and testing centers were combed for operational tanks as the Soviet troops got closer and many tanks that had to be towed into position were used operationally. So while this vehicle only existed on paper, if they did have one prototype there is a good chance it would have seen combat. An easy conversion and an interesting vehicle to toss at the Allies.
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