1/16 Tamiya Pz IV J WIP

I blasted the lower hull with Vallejo Grey Primer, then their Model Air Dunkelgelb and two coats of Future. The only other color here was the dry brushing of oily steel on the plastic return rollers before the Future coat. This gives a tough, solid finish before everything else and gets me to the point where I could install the rubber tires and gears, motors and electronics. The drive sprocket, idler and tracks are only on temporarily to check for function, they'll come off for paint and weather. It rides beautiful and tracks straight, drifting about an inch over 30 feet without adjustments. The sound is great too.

Front and sides (right side showing suspension deflection):

Can't leave the muffler untouched of course. Drilled out the pipe too and it'll get the appropriate rust treatment.

Lastly, I was lucky to find a recycler on eBay who was selling copper mesh in an appropriate size for the Thoma Shields. Copper or brass was important so I could solder the frames and brackets. This is an exact match to my reference pics (15 across the width of a roadwheel). Even better it was only $5 for a square foot, shipped. Muffler to give perspective:

On to the Thoma Schurzen. I used copper mesh, wrapped with .005 brass stock, cut, tack soldered and folded over. Played around a bit with damage, the denting is intentional. I just need to clean up some solder.

I needed to get to this stage with the fender brackets and bar, so I know where to line up the holder on the plates themselves. I only built the two mid brackets so far, but they hold the bar steady as is.

I'm contemplating whether to make them removable or not. I set up the body with magnets and a rear pivot, so the schurzen won't be in the way if they are set permanently. They are flexible enough that I don't think any contact will disturb them. I soldered the ends, so the mesh won't unravel.

It's hard to get a good photo in the shiney copper state, hopefully you can see it when it's painted, the mesh is almost identical to my ref photos.

Schurzen brackets. One of my references had the forward two brackets following the hull side angle so I went with that, it seemed more interesting. Here's the 8 brackets with detail of the angled ones. All brass and soldered.

Here they are on the hull. I angled the front of the bars down to follow the hull line, just thinking it was German engineering at hand, but once I put the turret in place, I saw the reason, main gun depression:

Two other mods were the moving of the switch from under the spare track link hangar (adding other links and metal bars) to the turret bin.

And using magnets on the hull instead on screwing in at the hinges. I also added a pivot at the rear which will make access easier than trying to lay the upper on it's side for battery change. Due to design, the turret doesn't lift off, so the entire upper on these has to be removed.

If there are any questions, please don't hesitate. A lot the goes into these builds are trade offs over static kit since it needs to be mobile and provide access for batteries, etc.

very impressive