Hi Guys

My progress so far
Academ Panzer IV
Elephant Barrel
Eduard Zimmerit(should be for the Tamiya kit so fit is not great, some disguise will be necessary)
Turret skirts are cannibalised from old Italeri kit



Still plenty of work to do!

Regards
Keith

If image comes through then many thanks to CMOT and his guide to posting...cheers Darren

A question for the experts if I may...

I'm building the Ausf.C and (correct me if I'm wrong here) some had steel and some had rubber on the road wheels. How would I know which had which? Apologies in advance if that's a stoopid question...

Hi David ..there were no steel road wheels on the panzer IV tank...There were some all steel roadwheels on front heavy vehicles such as the brumbar and the jadgpanzer IV lang..
As for return rollers they didn't show up in all steel till the late H version

Thanks! Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part in the hopes of not having to paint the rubber separately.

Darren - congrats!

Meanwhile thought I'd better post some progress. After what feels like forever working on road wheels & suspension bogies its starting to feel like a tank slowly coming together However, not sure of the position of the rear axles for the idler wheel as the instructions are a bit vague




Spent a couple of modelling sessions putting the EB exhaust louvres together - never done any etched brass this complicated before, but really chuffed with how well they came out

Hello Chaps. Three years ago I built the Tristar and Tamiya Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.Ds and had a blog here on Armorama. The images are long gone from the thread, but I have had some contact regarding info and images. Ive decided to reserrurect the info and add in images again in my new Blog. As there appears to be one or two here that are interested in panzer IVs and related (??), I thought you might want to take a peek.



More images and info can be found in my blog on The Assembly.
These will not be part of the campaign.

Hi Folks,

I have sorted out what I am doing and have made a start on one of them. I finally decided on the Dragon Stug IV (early) and the Mirage Pz IVD, both nice kits and ones I will enjoy completing.

I have begun the Pz IVD and decided to use a spare set of Revell Pz IV tracks as the rubber/vinyl ones weren't very rigid. I spent several nights hollowing out the guide horns, as the D ones weren't solid and then narrowed them down to a scale 38mm. They fitted quite well and there weren't any problems. I also put a piece of styrene strip on the side of the hull to extend the mud guards, as they were a little narrow. I started the turret and used a RB barrel, which looks quite neat in my opinion. I will carry on with the hull for now and try to get it finished.

I will start the Stug this week and get cracking with that. Here are the photos of my progress so far:

The box art for the Stug IV.


What's in the box.


The box art for the Pz IVD.


What's in the box.


The lower hull and tracks


Detail of the modification to the track guards.


The upper and lower hull together.


The turret so far.


The turret from the front.


Everything together.


Well that's it, I will post more as I get it done.

All the best,

Paul

I have had to post again as there seems to be a problem with the pictures of the tracks. Hopefully I can get them on here.

The lower hull and tracks


Close up of tracks


I hope this works,

Paul

Paul + Neil nice progress !!

Frank thanks for the pics.

Put the basecoat down,next some hairspray and whitewash.Wish me luck !!

Hi Anthony,

Nice even basecoat, I will be very interested in how you use the hairspray and white coat. I have yet to use this technique, but it obviously can give spectacular results. I am going to do the new MK72 SdKfz10 Demag with a 75mm infantry gun for the Braille Battlefield campaign, this is Panzer Grey with a white coat and is heavily chipped, so your paint job will be very informative for me.

Look forward to your next post, all the best,

Paul

Some brilliant work going on here!

I'm in that wonderful road-wheels and bogies stage of my build and should have something photo-worthy soon. I hope.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Question for you all:

Since mine is going to be a knocked out panzer - and further more a very war weary, 4 year old knocked out panzer - do you think I should have all the various tools attatched to the tanks? Is it really going to have all the shovels and picks and track-tensioners it should? Does 3 years in a training depot make it more or less like to have a full set of tools?

Personally, Id remove all the tools. I even see this at work .... a machine that is not used for some time will be picked clean for spares.

Paul: You´re a brave man ... opening the guide horns on a 1/72 model. They look great though, and add a lot IMO. Definately worth the hassle.
Neil: Great job on the etch so far
Greg: Is that a resin upper hull? More details?
Sal. Nice camo. Personally Id cut them into five pieces as they were. This also gives you the option of showing one or two missing.
Anthony: Nice neat build and paint job. Good luck with the whitewash.
Mark: Congratulations on the birth of your son. Congratulations on the nice pzr IV as well
Keith: Looking good so far. Im not a fan of the etched zimmerit. Its a bit too fine and perfect for my taste. But you got a nice base now for the paint job .. keep it going.

Hi guys
The next stages of the blog are complete.
The tamiya panzer IV D ... with some extra details to give it a lift



Tamiya and Tristar together ... 30 years between their release dates.


My Blog

With there being 30 years between release dates, which one did you prefer building?

Des

my panzer four has now arrived and I can confirm that this one is a IV and not a III. will start construction shortly

Frank,
Thanks for the complement and advice.
The Tamiya kit actually looks like the 1 with the more detail, Whats your opinion of that

Well ... this is a hard question. The Tamiya kit is poorly detailed so you have buy a good few updates IMO, which end up costing 1.5 to 2 times the cost of the Tristar kit, and the detail is still second place behind Tristar. And no matter how much money you throw at it, it will never be fully accurate as the hull is out of scale to suit motorisation. My biggest obstacle today is time, and to do all this work with different parts probably takes 3 times longer than building the Tristar OOB.
Quality wise ... Tristar still wins every time.

On the other hand, since I got into modelling, Ive been watching guys update, convert and super detail models and have admired and been inspired by this so much, Ive always wanted to try it for myself. So theres a lot of personal satisfaction with this kit ... that building an OOB could never compete with.

Eventhough I love panzer IVs, Id never buy this Tamiya kit again. Even if I got it free, I would swap or sell it. I wouldn´t waste my time or energy on it. I´d build the Tristar again without blinking ... good job too as I have the Ausf.C and the Ausf.D tauch waiting!

Frank,

You madman! Three builds already posted and I'm not even half ways on mine! Always good to check out your builds . . . so clean and tidy with some excellent photos. I'm currently in the process of working on some photo-etch front tow shackles for this campaigns project when I noticed that the tow shackles on your Tristar Pz. Kpfw IV Ausf. D are incorrectly orientated in that they should be facing towed in and you've installed them towed out. I hope that you haven't started painting?

I have the oldie Tamiya Pz. Kpfw IV Ausf. D in the stash and am thinking of doing some upgrading, when I get the chance, similar to what you have done with your kit but with the added superstructure armor. Really super job with what you've done on your kit and inspiring to boot!

-Eddy

Frank,
Thanks for the explanation and your opinion. Must be all the AM that you added to the Tamiya kit that is making it look better. I built that old Tamiya kit OOB a while back its sitting on my workbench with no paint on it and I'm debating what I should do with it

Neil,

Externally the Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf. B and C are identical with the exception that the Ausf. C had a slight shape difference on the internal manlet gun cover opening (check out the photos in the Cybor-Hobby reveiw listed below). Also an armored sleeve was fitted over the coaxial MG 34 to provide added protection. The upper turret armor was increased to 30mm from 20mm around the front, sides and rear. The biggest difference between the two versions came in the form of the refined Mayback HL120TRM 12-cylinder gasoline engine that became the panzer IV standard until wars end. Externally you wouldn't notice the increased turret armor or engine changes between the Ausf. B and C. Some later models of the Ausf.C were provided with a wishbone shaped frame assembly mounted under the main gun designed to deflect the radio antenna out of the way when the turret was traversed to the right. This assembly was also retro-fitted to some of the Ausf.B vehicles.

A total of 45 Ausf. B's were built and due to attrition were phased out of front line duty by 1943. The Ausf. B's served in Poland, France and Russia. The few remaining vehicles served well into 1944 in France for training and some of these were used to halt the Allied invasion in Normandy, France.
A total of 134 Ausf. C's were built and remained in service until 1943 when newer panzer IV versions and combat losses completely replaced it. Both Ausf. B and C versions were painted overall dark gray at the factory.



In this well published photograph of an early Ausf. B ("Heidi"), depicted in in its factory applied overall dark gray paint and retaining much of its original equipment including the 36cm wide tracks, is seen with its crew somewhere in northwestern France, preparing to halt the Allied invasion. Of interest are the mid-production armored road-wheel hub covers that it is sporting.

Here are a few build logs that may be of interest to you and a kit review of the ausf B.

Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf. B build logs
http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5052
http://www.xtrememodelling.com/foros/viewtopic.php?t=574&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Panzer IV Ausf.B (1:35) review
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/1653

Hopfully this little bit of information will help sort out the differences between the two mentioned variants and aid you with whichever version you decide upon on.
-Eddy

Neil,

OOPS! Sorry about the links . . . there click-able now.

Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf. B build logs Here and Here


Panzer IV Ausf.B (1:35) review Here

-Eddy

I managed to at least make a better start on mine today. This is the Dragon Ausf.C kit, BTW. A surprising number of parts go into the suspension and drive assemblies, some of which are completely unnecessary to the kit. Gears and whatnot that go inside other assemblies to vanish forever. Kinda like Trumpeter Aircraft models.

The lower hull is mostly done as are all the drive and road wheels.


More soon I hope!