Academy is working on a new Panzer IV Ausf. H (mid) to be released next year.

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Thanks!

Given the plethora of perfectly acceptable PzIV chassis (everything) already available, why bother? Looking at the pics, this kit is hardly ground breaking and looks like a 1980's Italeri tooled kit in terms of finesse.

Gary

Oh no! Will their old Tamiya knockoff not be available anymore?! ^_^

A week ago I was at the local hobby store and got into a brief chat with the owner. He personally liked Tamiya kits because they are easy to assemble and the results look great out of the box. From his experience, the Dragon kits do not sell well and he believes probably because they are complex. Academy obviously identified a market for this kit, even though there are "better kits out there". I bought the Academy M1A2 Tusk SEP 1 and 2 over the Rye Field Models and the Meng kit because of the price and the ease of assembly. I have several Dragon kits unfinished because I got frustrated with the complexity of the kits.

Just what the doctor ordered. We need something a step up from the Tamiya that doesn't require a degree in engineering to build like Dragon. Even includes zimmerit!

Let's review the actual kits available now: Italeri is still nice but really ancient, Tamiya is easy but lacking, Zvezda is a huge disappointment. Dragon is the high end of the market, what is there for a mid range builder? Not everyone has the deep pockets and spare time to tackle the intricate details of a Dragon kit. This looks to be a good alternative, nice details and options but not as involved.

But if course it is Academy so every thing will be wrong. Tamiya gets a pass and Academy gets scrutiny. Even when they do something right it's still not good enough.

Nice SS panzer IV

Looking at the sprues there'll be a lot more more coming. The options are there for everything from a G, through all the H varieties to the J. The hull side ridges point towards the self-propelled guns' gun mounts?

i can see even brummbar's spare road wheels holder.

It looks really good. Im excited. Being Academy, it will be great value. Lots of extra versions on those sprues.....different hull rears, drive wheels, idlers, etc. AND IT COMES WITH DEF MODELS ZIMMERIT. I cannot tell you how fantabulous this stuff is.....precut, dip in water, apply. No messing or cutting about I ve used this stuff on 2 Tigers and a Sturm Tiger and it is amazing.

Is the color of vehicle number correct? Red?

Red with white outline, and that is what is in the picture, is correct along with several other designs.

Then the Star decal set is completely incorrect. They are black

FYI. http://www.hobbyeasy.com/en/data/k3ir0aldxrtvprlroj.html

I built an Academy Tiger a couple years ago. Except for the tracks, I thought it was splendid.

GAz

Look at the instruction of Dragon #6611. The color of turret numbers are all black HJ's Panzer iv. H in Normandy. So the Dragon decal is wrong too.

I'm just wondering about the Zimmerit decals and how effective they're going to be depicting something 3D on a 2D medium...

They're not 2 dimensional. Like the Archer textured decals they are quite 3-D.

They used both black and red outlined in white, sometimes just the white outline or even yellow outlines. The infill color could be almost any color. Black and red the most common but yellow and blue have been seen.

I didn't ask about general color of German tank turret number but the color of 615, 616 and 618 panzer iv in Battle of Normandy.

Well you never asked about specific vehicles but if the decals have black numbers for those tanks than I'd go with those. Model companies do some research on their subjects but how accurate they are is debatable for some manufacturese. And unless you can find color photos of 12th SS Div your guess is as good as anyones. The photos of 615 and 616 show that the numbers are about the same shade as the balkenkreuz which we know is black so I'd go with black.

These are resin decals. Fully 3-dimensional.