Hi all,

I recently purchased an Academy panzer IV (for the good price), I decided to start building it a few days ago and I realized how poor the quality is … so I have decided to build it as a knocked out vehicle. I would like to know how to imitate burnt out rubber on the wheels. Also I would love to know what size of a hole a shell from its 76.2 mm main gun would make in the turret armor of a panzer 4?

Any picture you guys can show me would also be of great help.
Thank you guys for any help you can give me, and for any photo you can show me!!

Regards,

Ola Vladimir
Once Rubber burns and it isn't put out by rain or fireextinguishers it keeps on burning. So if you want to depict a burnt roadwheel you should either remove the rubber part of the tire which is a lot of work and you should recreate the rim at the back of the wheel. There are some AM companies out there who make burnt roadwheels. After that only thing you should do is drop some White and greyish pigments around the roadwheels to simulate the ashes of the tires.

For a hit from a 76,2 round it is hard to tell. There are so many variables thhat determine what happens on impact. If it is a clean hit the impact hole should range somewhere among the diameter of a fist up to the size of a CD. should it encounter something else like a ridge or something exploding the round right at impact the damage could be even greater.
Check out this site it will give you a lot of ideas on damaged vehicles
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=42446

Just a few period pics for inspiration :











Here you can see that the rubber on the burnt wheels is gone



Frenchy

You´ll find, uilding a wreck is easier with a Tristar or Dragon kit with more parts. beacuse of the better part break down, its easier to show it damaged. Both also have the option of leaving off the tyres.
Personally Id use the Academy kit for a painting and/or weathering exercise.

Hi again,
Thank you guys so much for the help,

@ Robert: Thank you for the advice, would the area around the impact hole be burnt in color (black) or would it just be burnt on the edge? Thanks for the link
@Frenchy: great pictures as always, thanks
@ Frank: Yea I know it’s a terrible set, but being the first knocked out vehicle I build you could say I am testing some methods out on it.


Thanks again guys,
Regards,

Again that depends on the type of ammo used and how it reacted on impact. Normal panzer grenades and strengthened core grenades usually slip right through the armor leaving a hole around the size of the round and explode inside the vehicle leaving a lot of damage on the exit side of the impact.
Hollow charge grenades start to melt metal on impact and burning everything on the inside of the vehicle. The latter often shows burn and melt marks on the outside of the vehicle around the impact hole which also usually is very small. From what I understand after impact the vehicle catches fire and burns out completely. So aside from the burnout not much damage is done to the exterior of the vehicle.

Thank you Robert for your help!

Regards,