David, nice clean build you have going there.

Bob

Hi Folks,

Firstly, thanks for the extension, much appreciated.

Secondly, a cautionary tale - always secure stuff eg. liquid poly, varnish, WASHES etc to a receptacle that won't tip up. I 'bathed' the rear of my IVD in Mig Dark Wash because it was not secure, I managed to get most of it off and as a bonus it has made the exhaust look interesting, but I had to work like fury to prevent it totally spoiling the model. After the wash I dry brushed the model to bring out the detail and was quite pleased with the result.

Anyway here are the photos of it decalled and varnished, ready for the final weathering. I hopefully wil get it finished this week and will be able to forge ahead with my Stug IV.















All the best,

Paul

Paul, you need to make a sweep for gremlins before you sit down to do any work. Nice paint job.

Bob

Hi Byron,

This is a bit embarrassing: I can't remember whether I officially signed up for this campaign... Now that the campaign is gone from the campaign list, I can't check it myself. Is there another way to find out?

Anyway, I have build the old Dragon Panzer IV J Late (#6022). At this moment it is in it's base coat, ready for the camouflage scheme. Now that the campaign has been extended, I should be able to finish this one within the given timeframe.

Greetings,

Max

You are signed up.

There are two tricks to getting to the campaign page of an "expired" campaign.
1. Search the thread for a link to the page. When a campaign is approved, I post a message with a link to the campaign page so people can sign up.
2. If you go to the list of campaigns page, if you click on the type of campaign it was (in this case Armor/AFV), you will get a list of all past campaigns of that category.

Thanks Gary!

Hi Bob,

I reckon we have gremlins, borrowers and carpet monsters in my model area. I seem to spill or misplace or drop things all the time, got to blame someone(thing) I suppose . Thanks for the comment.

All the best,

Paul

Paul, my nickname should be "Droppsie, Butterfingers, or Gremlin Breeder" I spend more time picking parts up from the floor than attaching them to the build but, I stll love the hobby.

Bob

Hi all, I've been a quite admirer and never thought I'd actually get this far with my build because of the zimmerit (which still isn't the greatest but it'll work for me). I ended up cutting up a stugIII set from cavalier to fit this 1/48 conversion. Who knows I might even get it painted before the deadline

Nice build, Paul. A very nice Pz. IV D. Your little accident does not show up on the finished model.

Nice conversion, Greg. Are you going to do the colour scheme on your reference book? I think an overall yellow scheme would make it possible to bring out the texture of the zimmerit very well.

Marnix, No worries pal, you are in the list; so, Go on!!

Happy Modeling

Byron
P.D.: seems that Gary has already answer the question, well! see you!!

Byron,

Glad we got that extension! All my hopes of finishing before 31 December were wrecked by a cold, but I did finish my Stug over the weekend. I know it could be improved as a kit, but with all the issues in a model more than 30 years old it just wasn't worth starting the whole aftermarket game...





I've uploaded these two pics to the gallery for my ribbon - I wish everybody good luck getting done by end of Feb!

Regards,

Tom

Hey gang! Nice to see some great progress going on here. I'm glad that I am not alone.

I finally have beat the darn L & L tracks into submission. As usual with these type of tracks, the instructions were quite wrong when it came to positioning the individual links. Not only that, but each side required one link less than was called for.





Next up is a bit more pre-shading and the base colour coat. Then the fun with the camo can begin.





Cheers,
Jan

@ Jesper - good idea to do a yellow base- less work too but I like the look as well.

@ Tom - beautiful camo job! the spare tracks stick out to me though - maybe a little #2 pencil for bare metal and a little bit of rust to make them used --- just a little.

@ Jan - good progress. I can't imagine doing so many individual links would be much fun Looking good though

Greg, thanks for the comment. It is always a challenge to do justice to a subject. Each step is a learning experience and prepares for the next one. I guess that's why we enjoy this hobby.

Cheers,
Jan

Made some more progress today. I needed to spray some red-brown for a couple of other projects so it stood to reason that the JPz should get some too. Except for the side skirts and the hatches all parts are now glued. The worst thing was the gun mantlet as it came in two longitudinal pieces with no locating pins or tabs. Add to that the fact that it also had no mounting mechanism to the barrel other than a flat piece to a flat piece.





Cheers,
Jan

Greg,

Thanks - those tracks do need something, but I'm thinking more in-grained dirt rather than rust. They aren't "spares" in the traditional sense waiting to be used, instead they are a tanker's security blanket (surplus tracks welded on as extra armour) so would have no bare metal from contact with wheels etc. However, they are too monochrome in the pics... (The real things had a high mangesium content, and tended to look a very dark brown with a slight reddish tint except where polished by contact.)

By the way, I did add metal highlights to the running tracks (especially the cleats) but it doesn't seem to show in the photos. I might need to experiment more with lighting...

I'm just watching Jan's build, wishing I could grow fingers small enough to deal with that braille stuff! Excellent work, Jan.

Tom

Thank you, Tom. Any comments, especially complimentary ones, are always appreciated. It's not about finger size but more about tweezer size and stubborn determination. If you check earlier in this thread you can see a picture of a selection of my weapons (tools) of choice.

More progress after checking out some museum pictures of the actual vehicle. The Italeri kit missed the towing eyes on the front glacis plate.



The muffler actually has some straps holding it and a box affair to its left. I'll thin the straps out a bit later.



The hatches had no way of being mounted open so I scratched a hinging mechanism from pictures. I wish the pieces could be smaller but the thinnest pieces I had were .005" (.127 mm). They should look better after some painting. In the commanders hatch you can just make out the scratched radio. Shone a small flashlight on the model in an attempt to have the interior details visible.



Cheers,
Jan

Jan,

That stuff would drop me into a coma! Although I can't do it any longer, I always loved 'messin' with the larger scale guys by turning out 'lil' gems'... what you have there I know is going to be a gem of first order. Keep going!!!!

Ok! Jan, stop this torture of the eyes how do you and the others do such nice work? BTW I still love the camo.


Bob

Roadwheels...
Finally. All painted! Every single one of them.

Next time I'll certainly look for some wheel masks. While painting, I couldn't help wondering why Dragon chose to providing the tires as separate parts on their Panzer IV kits...
IMO, separate tires would really fit in the category of "smart".

Painting the inner tire edges proved all but impossible with the wheel halves already glued together. Only after struggling through perhaps half-a-dozen I got an idea of trying masking tape cut into thin strips. Applying the tape took some time but slopping on the paint was much faster and the results were sharp.


I've been also somewhat busy painting the vehicle tools, spare tracks and machine guns. No pics of them this time as their still in-progress.

Next I'll be applying some washes and what-have-you to the lower hull so I can get the roadwheels mounted and start assembling the tracks.

Nice progress, Jan. Nice looking Jagdpanzer.

Eetu, great way to mask the road wheels. I admire your patience in cutting the tape and masking all 16. Phew!

Thanks for the comments Pete, Bob and Jesper. At least with this build I haven't run into too many problems. I must admit, I do get a certain pleasure from "rattling the cages" of the larger "Lego" builders. As I continue to extoll, it is a matter of mind over matter and the right tools to get the job done.

I have done preliminary preparation of the details on the tools. I always like to do that before the last camo colour. Even with the third colour sprayed it's just a matter of touch-ups here and there.

Progress shots.





Still trying to get a shot of the interior as the naked eye will see it. You can make out a bit in the commanders hatch.

Cheers,
Jan

"Lego builders", Jan? You must be kidding! That Danish stuff's way too expensive! Makes Tasca Shermans look economical...

Your micro-panzer is looking pretty good!

Tom

Just a little update. Decals are on: