I am new to the forum. I just return to the hobby after 20 years. My last few builds are planes. I just get back to armor.

This is my build of 1:35 Cyber-hobby Panzer III Ausf M. with resin interior from Verlinden. It is my first attempt with resin interior with armor. I have not done a lot of research into the interior of this particular model of Panzer III so there will be some inaccuracy.

Comments are welcome.

It looks pretty good for someone who hasn't been building for twenty years; and welcome to the forum. Looking forward to seeing more of your build.

The level of detail and the painting of the interior is very impressive.

Very well done.

S

Welcome back to the hobby Thomas. Absence of 20 years dosn't show in your fantastic work.

- Johan

that is VERY nice... putting my efforts to shame :-(... looking forward to more of this

Thanks for the comments.

I am still tuning my air brush with the Vallejo paint. It some times gets too thick with 20-psi and clot up the air brush... (20 years ago, I use spray cans...)

Currently, I am working on the turret and the other interior bits. I will post more photos.

I have not had a lot of time working on this. Slow progress but here is a few new photos.

With the interior details, you have to remove the side facing the engine compartment. You also have to remove all the structure that assumes there isn't any interior.



Adding details in the turret. I have to sand down the attachment point from the storage bin at the back.


The stand for the gunner, need to make sure the middle L shape bar is align to the commander's seat. Also check the length to ensure there is clearance to the interior details.

I decided not to attach this to the base of the turret to avoid breakage.


The current state of the chassis.


Top view:


From the side, you cannot see much of the details from these openings.

nice work so far... looking forward to more updates

Great job Thomas. The interior looks great.

fantastic work so far. what paint scheme are you going to do?

Thanks for the kind comment.

I plan to have it in desert yellow with khaki green patches. The paint scheme of 24th Division in Russia during 1943.

Currently, just finishing up all the parts and prime them. I will post more photos later...

Quite impressive. You have some serious talent, especially for having a wingy things background. I've been contemplating whether to use the Verlinden or TWS set. Seeing how well done the Verlinden set is, I'll be saving $20.

I need to cut and shave away a lot from the Verlinden set as it is targeted for Tamiya. That is the most time consuming part. Especially fitting the engine and the firewall.

That's strange. The interior meant for Tamiya's panzer iv is smaller than that of the Dragon kit.

if you are using tamiya paints don't use the labelled desert yellow, you should be looking at xf60 dark yellow, or other brand equivelants.

Tamiya kit does not have the torsion bars while the Dragon kit has. I have to remove those in the Verlinden parts but preserve the floor by cut out groves for the torsion bars. Therefore, you have to sand away a lot of the base. Also the driving compartment is narrow so I have to use plastic sheet to rebuild some of the platform for the ammo boxes.

The second issue is Verlinden seems to expect you either use the engine part or the front compartment but not both. So the fire wall that separates the two does not account for the space for the engine. I have to cut away the space for the engine's drive train and scratch build a little of the details for the engine side's firewall. I think the front compartment base is a bit on the long side, so also squeeze the engine compartment.

Thanks. I am trying out Vallejo paint, I am using their dark yellow.
I still have some trouble finding the right pressure for Vallejo paint.

i couldn't help ya with pressures, I use a rattlecan or a brush! i'm sure someone will have a good setting for you to try

I have started painting and assembling the turret. These just have painted and have a wash. I am still working on some finer details before closing up the turret.

I have added a scope and a MG-34 machine gun from the resin set. The kit does not have those parts. The glass blocks are painted with clear green. As most of the German armour has a green tint to it for their glass. They are covered by micro-film at the moment and will be cleaned after all the weathering is done.

I put Tamiya smoke to make the beech of the gun looks a bit oily. It doesn't show up clearly in the pictures...







The upper part of the turret.


The lower part of the turret.


The gunner's seat, this attaches to the port side of the commander's seat. The turret control should alight with the commander's seat and above the square block above the drive train.



How things are relative to each pieces...

Moving along with the build, finishing up the turret. I have also added the radio set into the driving compartment. Finishing up the chassis. Hoping to start cleaning up the lose ends in the next few days.

There are fewer and fewer parts left. I have to say the naming of the parts are very confusing with this kit. Too many sprue tree are named "D" or "G" as they are pulling parts from various kits.





Added the radio set which is mounted to the roof of the driving compartment.



The turret is quite busy. Still need to add the shell holder and the gunner's seat and turret control.

I am making a bit more progress. Base coded all the parts with German red brown primer and start painting the wheels with a light coat of dark yellow.

Preparation for painting the base primer. I filled the gap between the engine compartment and the main body with a 0.5mm thin plastic strip. I did have to remove a bit of material from the original parts to accommodate the firewall from the resin kit.



First coat of primer.




Initial coat of dark yellow and still allow the primer to show through.

This is just a quick update. Things are moving along.

I put on a few light coat of dark yellow to simulate wear. Next step is the camouflage (yellow olive) patches. I am quite happy with Vallejo paint. The only issue is even at low pressure (15psi), it still has residue build up on the needle of the airbrush. It requires frequent cleaning during the process.

I added camouflage. I cannot find any reference to the camouflage patten so I just base it one the instruction sheet and guess the top view patten. I hope it is reasonably close. The next step is to put light color in the centre of the top patches to reflect bleaching by the sun.

I am a bit disappointed by the airbrush, it still clods up easily.

This build just keeps getting better!