about the panzer iv:
in case anyone is wondering, the side skirts and spaced turret armor are removeable. I didn't want to permanently hide the suspension detail and weathering, so the shurzen are just balanced (very delicately !) on the hull. turret spaced armor is a clip fit. side skirts are sheet styrene w/ brass strip and styrene I-beam for mounting brackets and bits of thin styrene rod for bolt detail. spaced turret armor and mounting brackets are brass strips soldered together, main piece cut to rough shape w/ tin snips, bent around a bottle of paint to form the curve and with needlenose pliers for the angles, then mill filed to final shape and dimensions. hinges were added from small pieces of brass strip and center door overleaf made from strip styrene.
i wasn't happy with the mounting surface for the turret bustle, so i drilled the turret and bustle and attached them together using a bit of a paper clip as a dowel. i also added an extra bit of armor plate from sheet styrene to the front of the hull bow plate , w/ styrene rod bolt detail ...
other little details like grab irons on top of the turret, and a retaining bar for the spare roadwheels are also on there. i still want to add the radio antenna and a bracket for spare track up front...
i wanted my panzer iv to look more like the ones i've seen in the magazines
(and here, of course) , and i had a lot of fun with the uparmor conversion.
it actually does look pretty good at arm's length, but i know i have a long way to go to match much of what i see around here.
but i'll keep on trying !
hope u all enjoy the pix !
frosty