ARMOR - Pz IV Group Build

feldgrau23 - Thank you. Let's see what it looks like after getting a paint job though.

rebelreenactor - Thanks. The shurtzen are clear plastic and are a nice touch provided by Dragon in the kit (#9020). They appear to be very close to scale in thickness as well. Additionally, the extra clear plastic from their "sprue" will come in handy down the road to make lens covers.

Enjoy your modeling...

Looks great Robert

Robert, Looking awsome... Get some paint on it!

All, I broke down and ordered a DML J yesterday. I couldn't get motivated to work on that POS Italeri kit so I took the easy route this time.

Keep well Ya'll !

Robert, The Pz IV looks great! Did you glue the hull together already or is it two separate parts still? I look forward to seeing the finished product.

petbat - Thanks. I wouldn't go with "great", but I'll gratefully accept the compliment.

Kennethc - Thanks as well..."Ask and ye shall receive."

[EDIT] OOps!

edog - You snuck in there while I was posting. Thanks to you as well. Yes, the upper and lower hulls are now "bonded forever". There are two parts that attach to both the upper and lower hulls; a bracket from below the MG over to the fender and a "T" beam on the rear hull above the muffler. I figured it was better to go ahead and glue these in place before shooting the paint.

Here's a shot with the base coat on:



Enjoy your modeling...

Sweeeeettt! Your color cup runnith over!!

Nicely done Robert.

Very nice Robert.

Just one question though, How are you going to paint the raod wheels and tracks? I have never been able to figure it out with them attached like in your pics.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Foster7155 Hello Again, Construction has concluded on my humble build - a little later than anticipated - and she's ready for the paint shop. I figured I'd post one prepaint shot before I completely destroy an otherwise excellent model kit. Here she is:

Robert, what is your schurzen made of?

I had the same Question.

I will be putting on my panzer gray tommorrow. I hope.

Ok fellas i've cut this photo from the box and scanned it in an effort to get an ID on this Flakpanzer 1V,i chose this pic cause you can see two markings on the front of the hull,neither of these markings were supplied on the decal sheet and the instructions make no mention of unit or theater.



The pics not that good because the box is a little bent but if any of you learned gentlemen recognise the markings i'd appreciate it if you could give a clueless bugger a helping hand.
Cheers J.S
BTW Lookin good Foster,do you paint all the colors while the AFV is in such a completed state

JS, The emblem on the fender if I can see it right is basically the sign for mobile AA. Each type of unit had a symbol. I am at work so I don't have my books with me or i'd give you more info.. The helmet is i belive the specific unit marking but again without checking it out then i'd be lying.... I'll check tonight and get back to you if no one else chimes in....

Later

Hello again everyone and thanks for your comments.

rebelreenactor - I'll be painting the wheels and tracks very, very carefully. He, he! Seriously, I've gotten pretty good at getting in there with a 20/0 or 12/0 detail brush without too much difficulty.

tigerman - The schurzen are provided in the kit as clear plastic. Pretty nice, too.

J.S. - Normally I will paint a tank in subassemblies, but with this kit I've decided to basically complete the assembly before painting. It this case the individual track links and just the way the kit builds up dictated that this would probably be the easiest way to go. Now for your question:

Your Flakpanzer belongs to the Panzer Grenadier Division "Grossdeutschland" (as Kenneth said, indicated by the white helmet). However, I haven't been able to locate any information that would give me an indication of a date other than common knowledge.

Grossdeutschland fought nearly the entire war on the Eastern Front and many units on this front employed a three color camo scheme from 1943 through 1944. However, from late 1944 onward, many units abandoned this scheme as supplies dwindled. Since the 105 Wirblewinds were produced from May - Nov 1944, this would support the paint scheme.

Since Wirblewind deployment was gererally limited to the major Panzer Grenadier Divisions and the SS Panzer Divisions, you could build this kit as being assigned to any of these units from June 1944 onwards.

I hope some of this helps.

Enjoy your modeling...

Robert is right, the helmet belongs to the Grossdeutschland.

Js, if you want to know a bit about GD see these sites:
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pzdiv2.htm
http://www.grossdeutschland.com/history.htm http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/

For anyone interested in internal and external pics of Munster's restored Panzer IV Ausf G, go to:
http://www.rommelkiste.de/panzer4/index.html

More pics of the damper too!

The site also has pics of the restored Panzer IIIM, Krupp Protze, S-Tank 103B and Late model Brummbar.
http://www.rommelkiste.de/panzer3/index.html
http://www.rommelkiste.de/Fahrzeuge/fahrzeuge.html

Those are some nice tanks. Thanks for the link Peter.

I, Finally sparyed some paint tonight. THe model has been wainting for aboout a week for this! I should be finishing up pretty soon.

Thanks for answering my questions fellas,that fills in the blanks..
And thanks Petbat for the websites i need to do some reading on armoured warfare to get up to speed...
I was reading the other day about the Hitler Jugend all young and fanatical apparently.
Thanks again,cheers J.S

Peter thanks for those sites they were perfect for what I needed for my IV J Interior.

Progress on my D has been slow. My Son is down for the summer and I have been helping him with his model. He is building a monster truck,, And we are having fun putting it together.

Yesterday, I put a first coat of paint on both my Dragon and Italeri Pz IVs.

The Dragon kit was very detailed, but some of the detail was just plain wrong.

• From what I can gather, there should be signal ports on the driver and radio man's hatches.


• A late F2 would not have had vision ports on the side of the turret.


• There also should NOT be a cooling water exchanging port. (This is the little circular cover right above the trailer hitch)


• If you leave the water port, there should be bosch lights and the double baffle muzzle break on the gun. This would make the tank a Pz IV G.

I think all the above mentioned problems stem from Dragon using spurs from other kits to complete this model. So, instead of fighting the kit, I built it almost out of the box. The only things I omitted were the vision ports on the side of the turret. I did have a problem fitting the upper and lower hulls together because the top deck was warped. There is also a slight gap between the fenders in the front and the hull. Other than that, there were no complaints. The Dragon kit is VERY GOOD!!!

So far, I would suggest the Dragon kit over the Italeri kit because there is a LOT of extra detail included. The on vehicle tools for the Dragon kit are also exceptional. In particular, I really liked the 6 piece jack.

Here is the Dragon F2 kit before the first coat of paint:


I hope everyone is enjoying their builds. Good luck!!

I wish I could get a straight and clean build like that edog. I ALWAYS seem to screw something up. Must be lack of experience.

I got a lot done on my part today. Road wheels complete! Wow, there are a lot! Tools and tracks were painted and drybrushed. I will give the tracks a wash of rust and steel. I also have to finish the last figure. I hope to be done by tuesday.

Nice looking F2, edog. Can't wait to see her with some paint. I wouldn't be surprised if my Dragon G has similar inaccuracies, but since I decided to build mine OOTB as well, I really didn't research the model that heavily.

Just put the decals on my build and have been slowly getting detail painting done.

Enjoy your modeling...

Great work Eric. Love the DML dampers - much better than Tamiya's (just had to throw that in)

Edog you can add me to the list now that I've got my Italeri Pz IV.
I plan on doing the F1 and I've reviewed your "short" list of problems if some of these aren't for the F1 let me know.(other then the fender support & the cleaning rod) Tonight I'll sit down with my reference books and look through my spare parts & PE and see what extra stuff I've got left over from my Dragon Ausf J that I can use.
I'll have more questions later.

RAF,

the list is ONLY for the F1. So you should be ok. Oh, and you are added to the list.

current progress.

Very busy with work so my build time has been limited. I continue to endeavor to percivere....

renarts,

Looking very nice. Sometimes slower is better because you have the chance to take a break between modeling sessions. BTW, you've got to love that PE. It really brings out the details.

Enjoy your modeling...

Looking good Mike,,,,,, looking good. Hey how did you end up making the Dampers?? got a pic????? Would love to see it if you do.

Been spending most my time lately working on my IVJ. The D is on the back burner for now. Both will be on the back burner in two days due to me going away on my two weeks of National Guard time. I will be taking 2 Braille scale models with me. My 2 weeks will really be testing my endurance. I will be staying at the Kansas City Airport Hilton. Hopefully my roomate can tolerate the smell of super glue and paint.

I have a Tiger and Jagdpanzer IV. So I geuss you could say I will still be working within the build just not on the models I told you I was starting with. Will be taking my Laptop and dig camera with me so I will do my best to keep you posted while I'm there.

renarts,

good to see some progress. The build looks very clean so far. Keep up the good work!