I often see people scratchbuilding the spings at the front and rear of the fenders on Panzer IV's...I am myself going to attempt the same and i was just wondering if anyone had any advice, closeup pictures, how-to articles, etc or any other kind of information that would help me with this task as this is my first attempt at scratchbuilding them...

Hi Michael,

These springs were made by wrapping fine copper wire around a small drill bit.

The spring was slipped off the drill bit and cut to length with an X-acto knife by chopping down between coils. I used the kit parts to measure the correct lengths.

I made the retainer bolts from two disks punched from sheet styrene with a Waldron punch and die set, but in the past, I've also made them from stretched sprue. In either case, allow the mounting bolts to dry completely before attaching the springs. Again, I used the kit molded springs to measure the locations for the mounting bolts.

I used the blade of the X-acto knife to bend down the last loop on each end of the springs and then slipped them onto the mounting bolts.

I got the fine copper wire from the woven sheath around a coax antenna wire, teasing the strand of fine copper wire out of the woven sheath.

The drill bit was sized by holding it up next to the molded kit springs and allowing a little extra for the diameter of copper wire to be wound around it.

You can improve the appearance of the scratch-built springs by stretching them slightly while still wound on the drill bit. This will open up the spaces between the individual coils to show that the springs are actually wound and not solid plastic.



HTH,

wow...thanks for responding and taking the time to explain in detail how you do it...this helps a lot...Thanks man...i really appreciate it

do you have any close up pics of the scratchbuilt springs unpainted?

Mike D.;

Hi! I've done the same sort of thing as Mike R. described. It's very easy and comes out looking exactly like a tiny spring. Just FYI, I used a piece of 28-gauge copper wire for the "mandrill" to wrap finer brass wire around to make the spring. A skinny sewing needle also works well.

After doing some springs for an old Tamiya Wirbelwind kit (where they came out mondo cool-looking), I decided to do some home-work and see what these springs looked like on real Pz. IV. Turns out from many pics that often the spring was enclosed in a piece of tubing and not much visible ! - which makes sense from an engineer-with-some-OCD perspective. So - kits with a slightly saggy real spring could be both cool and sometimes realistic - kits with a straight piece of rod (for the tubing over the spring) with wire loops over those pins at the ends would also be appropriate. (and the wire loops over pins / bolts for the ends of the putative enclosed spring would be the quite cool detail seen, too.)

Bob

Hi Michael,

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been out of town for a week and somehow missed this post in your thread.

I searched through my in-progress photo files, but couldn't find any specifically taken of the springs under construction. Don't know why I've never taken any - just never have.

However, I did find some views of the springs in other pics that I could enlarge and crop to try to show some of the details. Hope these help you:



Happy modeling!

I wrap .1mm wire around the "springs' included in the kit leave a little overhang. This ensures proper size. After it is wrapped around the kit piece, gently slide it off. Wrap a little of the wire, at the ends around a needle or similar. And, you have your made to order spring.

Great...that's exactly what I was looking for...Thanks Man