Mathew,Chris and Lars thanks for the compliments. No new pics yet,i'm working on the ammo bins,or what's left of them.

A.W. thanks and yes I do try to adhere the parts to the base when I can. The model is very fragile due to the small amounts of glue used to secure the parts together. The more parts you add, the harder it is to handle the model.

Rob

Rob PM Herbert I am sure he can help you with your turret motor and may just of missed this thread. Failing that I will be at Bovington end of the month/early Feb.

Coming along nicely Rob...as for the turret placement suggestions that's a good question...the damage was sufficient to separate the upper and lower hulls so I imagine the turret itself would probably have been dislodged from the race as well...but how far away?

Thanks Darren, as far as Bovington goes, unfortunately I can't make it there this year so I won't be able to meet you in person,sorry.

Thanks Bill, ya it's a tough one with the turret. I guess I'll figure it out once the roadwheels are on which will raise the tank . The turret could have landed a hundred feet away or leaning on the lower hull, there are lots of options but it has to look right of course.

I should be receiving my PzIV ausf F by the weekend and then I will post a pic of what I have planned.

Rob

Rob your work is awsome if i model for the next decade i doubt i could produce anything like the quality your pumping out, hell i think you'd give the steve zaloga's and cookie sewell's of the world a run for their money absolutely stunned! thanxs for sharing.

Rob what I meant was if no one helps you before I go to Bovington I will try and get you an picture there.

Hi Darren, Sorry, I misunderstood what you meant. Thank you,pics of the real thing would be awsome. Still would love to see Bovington and maybe meet some of the fellow modelers from this web sight.
Thanks again Darren.

Rob

Simply amazing! Lot's of work going on there, thanks for keeping us updated.

Cheers -
Tim

Hiya there Rob,
yer work is,simply put, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!As for the turret...do you intend to depict an "un-molested" wreck or a KOed tank whose pieces may have been "gathered" by Engineers or Pionieren in order to free a road or such?In this case you could put the turret near to the tank!If you've seen the very well known picture of that JS tank with its turret capsized and leaning on the hull you'll understand what I mean...it's believed by some that the turret capsized and neatly landed upside down on the hull due to the internal explosion while it's more likely thatit was put there by the Germans to clear the passage of vehicles on the road it landed on!It's also true that I've seen a footage (IIRC from BBC's The World At War) of a German AT gun shooting at a T34 at short range...the internal explosion rocketed the turret (or the biggest part of it) skywards as if it was a Space Shuttle...nearly perffectly perpendicular to the Soviet Tank!
Now onto something more technical and useful...a few years ago Mr. David Fletcher sent me the technical reports on the Panzer IIIs and IVs captured in Africa...the Third's is very complete while I only have the one on the Turret/Armament as far as the "Fourth" is concerned....contact me by email ([email protected])letting me know what you need and I'll do my best to help you out!
Cheers
Manu

Thanks Tim glad to here you like it so far, I haven't done much more the past few days. I've been having problems with my home heating system,so i've been working on that instead. It gets kinda cold here in new england so that has priority. I will post new pics soon.

Thanks Manuel. I was thinking of having the turret on or near the hull roof side down to show the inside of the hull. I was thinking about having the rommel kiste off and lying near the tank somewhere. I havn't gotten that far yet, just thinking ahead.

Rob

Rob,

You may not need to put the turret too far away from the tank. I have seen pictures of destroyed Pz IVs before with it still attached.

Here is a diorama of a destroyed IV as an example: Link.

And some real life pictures:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/images/bulge_ea_48892.jpg (I couldn't find a larger pic, but I know it is featured in Osprey's Battle of the Bulge vol. 2 book).

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/7784/panzeriiidestruid0rb.jpg

Keep up the great work!

HTH
Samuel

Hi all,

Thanks Samuel, I'm familiar with those pics. The problem is that I can't make up my mind how I want to place the turret,definately next to the hull.
Well i've gotten a few things done today and here is how it's coming along.







A few shots of the overall layout of the placement of some the parts.


I actually got around to building the kit. The boggies are a gem, they built up to actually function like the real thing so I was careful to apply glue in small amounts. I wish all the PzIV kits from Dragon had these.


I used the same aluminum sheet to build destroyed ammo racks. I painted the aluminum a dark red primer color to help in the painting of the interior.


I assembled some more of the rear plate and repaced the molded on straps on the exhaust pot. I used brass strips from a scrap PE fret as the straps. The chains on the smoke canister box is included in the Dragon kit and adds some detail to the rear deck.
I'm not following the kit instructions by the numbers as you can see. Some of the more fragile parts and PE will be placed toward the end of the build.
I wil work a bit on the turret this eveving and will post pics of that as it comes along.

Rob

Rob

You're build is coming very well! The placement on the base is very interesting. I would place the turret in a very exotic position the show a special angle.
I watched the Nightvision Pigment DVD and during the rust chapter I thought of your build. I'am very anxious how your going to do the weathering!

Hi guys

Besides working on some of the exterior parts and debri, I've done some work on the turret. There are quite a few recessed ejector pin marks that had to be filled with squadron white putty. After the filler was dry and then sanded I added weld seems to the upper turret the old school way, strechted sprue and liquid cement. I also added some bolt heads to the inside of the turret. The gun and mantlet was built up and glued to the lower section of the turret. The upper and lower sections will be glued together when the painting starts.



I made the two vertical floor supports using solder which is more flexible than copper wire.


Weld seems with strechted sprue on the inside of the turret roof.


A new turret floor using PE from Aber. This will be bent and twisted as part of the damage to the vehicle.

Thanks Aenea, I do have something planned for the turret, hopefully it works out the way I've planned it.
I will post new pics as the turret progresses.

Rob

Hi guys, here is a progress report on the turret. Most of the detailing is done, I still have some work to do but I should have it done this evening. I chose to leave the turret floor hanging by one support leg to make things interesting. It will be dificult painting with the floor basically hanging by a thread. Here is how she looks so far.



And here is the layout I have planned.




Let me know what you think and if I should change something.

Rob

Rob, you never cease to amaze me. It looks fabulous and If I were you I wouldn't change a thing! I'm dying to see this wreck (no offense ) getting a couple of coats of paint! It'll be interesting to see how you weather it!

Can't wait!

-Mike-

Amazing work , looks like it's going to take alot of painting . Going on your previous works , I hope it turns out as good for you .
Pleasure to look at.
John.

Great work - a pleasure to look around. Paint!

Mike,John and Greg thanks for the kind words and motivation. I was hoping on painting right now but it's taking a bit longer to build this wreck than I planned. I can't wait to start painting this baby. I've already started planning a couple of other wrecks using PzIV's. The pzjgrL48 I built last month got me back into the wrecks again so I will be busy for a couple of months atleast.
Thanks again guys.

Rob

Hei Rob,

the layout is great with some special arrangements

I hope to see soon a first coat of paint

A. W.

WOAW

amazed!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Koen and Aenea.
I couldn't spend as much time on the turret as I had planned but did manage to add a few things. Some of the kit parts were glued on as well as some scratchbuilt details.





I received the Dragon PzIV ausf F yesterday so this builld might slow down a little because I will start a second wreck with the ausf F.

Rob

I am completely compressed!!!!!! I can't wait till you put some paint on it (even though itll hide some great scratch work.

Chris

Well, Rob,
this is really something! I cannot wait for updates.
Libor

Thanks Libor and Chris
I finally finished off the turret and all that's left to do is finishing the motor comp. and the fenders. Oh I almost forgot about the tracks, they still have to be glued together. I'm hopeing to start priming this weekend is al goes well.

The turret floor support leg came off the lower turret section when I was working on it, so i'll leave it off until the painting is completed.


I added the remains of the commanders seat and the gunners seat using plastic sheet, aluminum and copper wire. The fuse box on the foward support leg was also built using plastic and copper wire. The remaining kit parts for the turret have also been glued on. I'll paint the turret in three sub assemblies then glue the turret together when it's al painted and weathered.
This wreck is slowly coming together and is starting to look like a wreck, The Dragon kit makes it much easier to build a wrecked tank and i'm sure the F2 version will be just as easy.Well, that's all for now,i'll keep updating when I can.

Rob