I have just completed Academy’s Panzer IV Ausf H/J. This is my second German armored vehicle.

Unfortunately, shortly after this kit was ordered my good friend Dave Tong, aka SS-74, mentioned this Academy kit is basically an old Tamiya knock off, and as such, is not the best representation available for this vehicle. I respect Dave’s knowledge of this hobby, and as usual, he was right about this Academy offering.

The kit leaves a lot to be desired regarding fit issues and molding. Therefore the following pics represents a model not meeting the expectations of German aficionado’s.

This is an oob build, and basically shows what you get for about $14 USD. Painting involved pre-shading the edges, nooks, and crannies with mud brown, followed by a base coat of dunkelgelb. Additional cloud patterns of lightened dunkelgelb were applied to the flat areas for highlights. Dry brushing with rail brown and steel, along with a dark wash completes the model. The tracks are shot with roof brown, with a light mud wash and steel highlighting. The IV is not marked.

Obviously this is not a show stopper, but I’ve always liked the IV and gave this one a shot. I hope you appreciate the pics. As usual helpful comments are appreciated.

Steve

ps: The first pic is the IV with his "Big Brother"

It may be a knock off of an old kit, but you've done some masterful work with it. Really interesting look to it, has the feel of something that's been around the block a time or two (or twenty!).

Don't sell yourself short, that is an excellent looking model. Remember, you are judged first and formost on your basic skills with what comes in the box and you've done a super job with that.

Ok - so its an old kit - so what. You built it well. The overall finish is very nice. A great addition to your collection.
The first photo is cool, I like the overhead comparison.

Very nice job Steve. I just love it. Just one question: why you decided not to put markings on it?
Bravo!!!

Lord WWH aka Steve (I am going to skip other titles here, because this is a public forum)

Despite the old kit, your superb skills in painting and drybrushing shine as usual, this is one sweet looking tank despite the age of the kits.

I have been following your work closely, I had noticed a certain style of your model which I like very very much. You don't put too much rust/mud/grass on the tank, your weathering has a faded look that I really did. Very nice style. I am thinking about try to duplicate this effect for my Tauchpanzer.


Oh a small thing, the driver's periscope, if you can paint it black with a thin coat of future to duplicate glass, it will be even better, and the headlight, although it's covered, but see through the slit, it should be a rather black color or even silver slit. but this is me.... I got a fixiation of anything has lens on it. (It's a sad sad A/C modeller thing) I am sorry.

Overall, Superb job!!!!
#:-)

That looks really nice. I think one of the benefits of building a cheap kit OOB and doing a great job on it, like you did, is showing some of the younger people here what you can do with a kit without spending 25.00 on PE, 35.00 on workable tracks, 15.00 for an aluminum barrel, etc. etc. Your model demonstrates how much fun you have for 14 bucks... :-)

It's a great job Steve.Congratulations !
This is one of the best vehicle i like. Any kinda Panzer IV chassis.
Nothing happens if its old Tamiya or wotever.
It's very well done and finished. :-)

PS: U know u still can add the decals ..

I don't know how easy it was to build or how accurate it is, but it looks great! You've done a great paintjob and weathering.

Just curious. How was the kit besides old? Did it come with skirts and skirt rails? I'm not entirely familiar with the Ausf H/J Pv IVs, but what are those two tanks on the right side?

Dang that is sweet
Very nice work there. Who care's if it's an older kit, you enjoyed building it , didn't you? And you did a very impresive job :-)

Well done

A good tip for doing this I came across recently was to cut a little bit of negative film... the dark bit at the end ... to the size you want and glue it to the periscope.... black and has a glass look. Use a smooth clear glue to fix as anything else might show bumps or the colour come through.


Brilliant model Wewillhold. This is what i like. Perfect finishing and as the other guys have said .... you dont need to spend a load of $$$ to get a nice model.

Terrific looking model, WWH. I love the shading/weathering you've used, and particularly like the way your tracks and wheels came out - those are areas I struggle with continually with armor.

Thanks for showing its still the modeler that makes the kit great, not the other way around.

Cheers,
Mike

Alright Steve this is official notice. Your "Pick on SS-74 for posting a ton of good looking models" membership card is hereby revoked as you seem to have adopted this same practice from him.

That is a great looking tank, Steve.

LOL!!! baby, 30MB in MSN storage, 30 MBs!!!!! #:-) #:-) #:-) #:-)

Nice job Steve.....Keep up the good work .I'ts fun to grab an old kit and just go downtown on the painting once and a while.... The only little thing I noticed that you didn't do was to remove the guides for placing the turret shutzen on the top of the turret...you can see them near the front of the turret on both sides...I always have to point out something don't I!! sorry bout that..

Rick

Great work WWH. Who says you need tons of aftermarket stuff to make a model look good? I especially like the weathering and shading. Your drybrushing..was it a coat of brown then steel, cause it gives the tank a very believeable worn look that lots of other "fancy" kits don't have. Your stuff is very good, don't be so modest, HAHA.

got to echo everyone else thats a superb job on the painting front ,all the excellent work i see on her inspires me to try a little harder

what more can I say Steve :-)

Steve,
Great job.That should win you the S.P.F.A.S.E award

Silk
Purse
From
A Sow's (1)
Ear
Basically,take a so so kit,add good modeling skills,and come up with a winner...

Very nice. I also have this kit, although I recently obtained the nicer DML kit of the IV. I am going to do mine with all of the skirts as a practice piece. I also bought the individual track links for the kit but not sure that I will use them...

Are you going to put any markings on the tank?

Scott

This just proves that it is not the price of the kit but the talent of the kit builder. Great job. Thanks for sharing the photos with us.

SteveWWH,

Hey buddy, no matter where the kit came from, you just did a fantastic job on it. I always like your skill of weathering. Did you do the wash before drybrush or the other way round? What color do you use to paint the woodstock of the machine gun? Since I am not a rivet counter, I don't do any research and I think I will do the same thing you did on the periscope and the slits.

GREAT JOB AND EXCELLENT WORK FRIEND - CONGRATULATIONS
ROBERTO

Rich, this is one of the "motorized" kits, so you have to fill the openings in the hull bottom and sides. In addition, the "holes" molded into the hull top to receive the tools, grabs, and other parts are just HUGE,--- way way over size, for the size of the part,-- so filling required there also. The "doors" on both sides of the turret are a little out of size and their connection in the hinge area was really bad---but again positioning and filling gets you by.

This kit did not come with the side skirts.

On a positive note, the suspension area and wheels are well molded, the two piece gun tube cleaned up nicely, and I thought the tools were well done.

This is a quick kit build that requires some noodling--- but for the money I shouldn't complain.




Fabio ---to be honest this is sloppy on my part. I was involved in the painting/weathering piece and was too far along when I realized I had blown by the decal application phase. I was afraid putting the decals on at that stage would give an unrealistic look versus the weathering on the tank. Basically a goof up on my part. #:-)




Lord Bison---you are correct Sir!



Sushi Dude----I applied the wash first and finalize with the drybrush. The woodstock is acrylic "burnt sienna" with a splash of black mixed in, and when dry, washed with very thin black acrylic and thinner.

Sincere thanks to the others for your kind words. :-) :-) :-)
Steve

What a great job! I really enjoyed the photo spread. I concur with others on this thread, the age and poor fit issues you had really don't matter, your skill is obvious for all to see.

What's next?!?

great job wwh! i love the way you fade your paint jobs.