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Building a Panzer IVJ - Part 1

Now that the hull and turret are completed I added the turret side armor. I’d left it off till now to allow better access to the turret for weathering. Once in place it was weathered to match the turret, the front edges were given the bare metal look as well as some of the top edge. The jack block was added at this time also. I used Eduards hardware and a chunk of Balsa wood for the actual block.

Now the bottom of the hull is painted burnt umber, and this color is allowed to come up the front and back of the hull a bit. The suspension is oversprayed with a random pattern of this color creeping up the lower hull sides. What we’re going for is a dirty, muddy look. At this time the wheels are given a light overspray with the same color. Next a light overspray with a lighter shade of brown-I used dark tan, on the upper areas of the raw umber-this gives the effect of dryer mud. This is also sprayed up from the underneath to spray onto the fenders and front and back of the hull. Now that the area behind where the wheels will go is finished it’s time to add the wheels. Remove ‘em from the sprue, clean ‘em up, touch ‘em up and put them in place. Notice I only attached the inside parts of the return bogies-this will facilitate the placement of the individual track links later.

The brackets for the side skirt armor were attached using the kits parts not the Eduard p.e. parts. Why? Did I cop out!? Naaa. This is going to be shipped ‘cross country and I just didn’t trust the Eduard brackets to have enough strength.

Well that’s it for this time. Next time we’ll cover the p.e. sideskirt assembly, painting and weathering/damage, tools and brackets, individual link tracks and decaling.
 

©2002 - Text and images by Mike Taylor - All Rights Reserved.