Adding to their long list of Panzer IV''s, Dragon has released a Panzer IV Ausf.H with zimmerit. Here Kevin Brant takes look through the box.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Pretty nice review, and sounds like a very cool and interesting kit - except for this DS track business. Blah.

As a point of quibble or maybe just plain confusion: This kit (the H mid-production w/ zimm kit 6611) is NOT the first Panzer IV H kit with zimm to be released by Dragon... that distinction lies, I think, with the H- late production w/ zimm kit 6560, released back in 2010.

Both 6611 and 6560 do share many of the same features and parts - but the 6611 kit offers turret schurzen with zimm, which will make this one quite different from the late production kit.

Sadly (My Opine, of course ), both feature those DS tracks, and thus have lost quite a bit of appeal to me - I confess to really having been enthused over seeing zimmerit so well done on a kit - fine enough so that I almost jumped onto the late it, with the thought of getting nice zimm without all that work... but found that I would need to get some AM link tracks to make things look right. This new kit likewise initially called me - and also let me down with DS.

I'll either just wait to see one in a show, some sale event, or on evilbay for cheap - cheap enough so that I can afford to get the link tracks by some other kit or AM source - or I'll have to go without. Thankfully, I think I have almost enough other nice kits in my stash to last until, oh, 2050 or so. And I am quite sure I'll be done with modeling long before then!

Bob

I'm in the beginning stage of building this kit after finishing my Nashorn.

I want to build the 8./Pz.Rgt.3, 2.Pz.Div. Normandy 1944 – three color camouflage. What are the colors for this scheme?

Names depends on what brand of colors you are using but generally it would be a dark yellow basecoat, with olive/khaki green and red brown patches.
Maybe you should start a build log with your kit? I think you could get better help in a separate thread!

Hi Kevin ....The zimmerit is fine for many Panzer IVs it did not go down the sides of the turret or the hull sides because of the shutzen .. Some had more than others but is not wrong. I know a lot of people don't like the DS tracks but if you put them on and add wads of papertowel between the return rollers and then glue the tracks to the wheels , you can create a good sag and if it is not perfect the shutzen hide most of the problem anyway.. do not hold back from getting these great kits because of them . and Yes they should either put both in the box or have the for sale separately but I can live with them in most situations and are a lot easier for a beginner ..

Interresting argument.
So you´re assuming a beginner does start right away with a 600+ part Dragon kit? Maybe...
Which is sold for more than the cost of two Tamiya kits from the 70ties? Maybe...
And after putting those 600 parts together,following Dragons often flawed and unclear instructions, he can´t deal with something like 90 additonal parts per side? You must be kidding me.

(You might have noticed the irony in this comment. Just to make that clear, no personal offense intended. But there is simply NO way DS tracks can go with Dragons aspiration of accurate models. If we want rubber tracks, we can go back to the 70ties.)

Well I've been doing models for over 40 years and when I built the Sherman firefly with three pieces per link ... I was not impressed..
I like to build and kits to take to shows and I have won a few times ( Use Friuls most of the time so don't really use the magic tracks),but I don't always need to go over the top and in those cases DS are fine with me ... I did say they would be nice to have both in the box .. I still say this ...



behind this....


is good enough for my shelf ...

and why does every new review always turn out a argument over DS or not .. I just said don't pass it up because of the DS tracks ..It's a great kit.

I would whole-heartedly agree with the question of why each new kit review devolves to a debate about DS tracks.... This is a kit REVIEW - the reviewer offers his/her opinions about the kit, and the rest of us comment to that review and what it discloses about the kit - and should not, IMHO, become some forum for simply flogging the merits or not of the DS itself. But the DS are a feature of the reviewed kit and may contribute to the viewer's decisions regarding purchasing it.

For those, like me, who find the DS tracks to be off-putting on modern high-detail (and increasingly expensive) kits, the inclusion of same in a specific kit is worth knowing about and worth commenting on - in the context of it being a more- or less-liked detail of the kit. It's a feature which may affect a potential buyer. Those who like the DS are equally free (and it's surely appropriate for them to say so) to comment that this is a feature that they like in this kit.

These reviews do exist in a larger milieu beyond the specific kit; Dragon makes many kits. In more-recent times, this company has apparently seen fit to increasingly move to DS tracks in lieu of their very good link "MagicTrack" sets. It's a general decision and a general issue for some of us modelers, and the trend certainly desires us to comment on it in the general even when the review itself is specific. This kit is just one player in a bigger game and context, as it were.

It is salient that the reviewer has ID'd many interesting details of this kit which could certainly make it attractive -zimm on the turret schurzen being one of those for me. The review also ID's those DS tracks - which, speaking only for myself - effectively cancel-out the other attractive features. But each of us has our perspective and should respond accordingly.

Yes, we SHOULD use these review threads to state our opinion about what we just read about the kit, and, it seems fair that those who consider a detail to be a specific case of a general type (DS tracks in THIS kit are a specific case of the increasing appearance of DS in the line) to comment accordingly. It is not, however, of much apparent use to debate whether one can or cannot get one's desired results from DS versus other products, and how, as a general discussion HERE, IMHO. THAT debate does have a place and time - elsewhere, I think - and certainly is of merit. It just doesn't have anything to do with this kit or this review!

Just my opinion, of course, and other's mileage is sure to differ!

Bob

Boy! Did I get this thread going every which way.

What Aftermarket metal barrel goes with this kit?

I got this kit few days ago as a try to get into 1/35 from 1/72. I gotta say that the amount of parts was overwhelming as my bench was full of sprues mot to mention almost half are left over from the build.

Karl you obviously never built Dragons Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.E kit 6264 back in 2005,that box was over loaded with sprue's and the part count was over 1000.
I remember I spent hours just looking at the parts and could never get them back in the box
But the kit had a lot of fit problems.

Gents, the Pz. IV is THE iconic AFV for the Wehrmacht. Your Tigers and Panthers were made in waaaay to few numbers, and were cranky and tended to break down (kinda like me). IMO we can't have too many good Pz. IV kits. No, I don't like the DS tracks, but I never used the Magic Tracks, either, so it's a moot point for me.

It's an excellent review and I'm glad to have it. Will consider getting one of these.

QUESTION: I went looking for this kit and can't find it anywhere. Did it get released?

There are pix showing Zimmerit is applied on the turret skirts

No idea how to paste a pic here.......

Kauli

YES! That zimm on the turret-schurzen is probably the key new and special aspect of this specific IV-H kit - it allows one to model one of several IV-H with zimmerited turret schurzen that otherwise required one to apply some AM or DIY zimm there.

In general, to post a picture HERE in a thread-post, FIRST you need it posted somewhere else - either in a KitMaker Photo gallery, or on some picture-hosting site. I don't think that you can post a picture direct from your computer to here - as the picture posting, using that little "[img]" button, requires the picture to have a URL, and your computer is not a url address.

FOR ME, the simplest route is to first upload jpg pics from my computer into my KitMaker MyPhotos gallery. Once there, the picture is on the KitMaker server and is accessible by simply logging into your Photos, and selecting and pasting the image url you want into the line opened by the "[img]" button.

Seems a little complex, maybe, but actually just a few clicks. I THINK that the url from any picture-host server would work the same way... But others who use those routes will address that, I am sure! There are other routes that also work - this is just MY way of quickly getting to a pic in a post!

There is a short description of this posting process somewhere on Armorama, I believe... Maybe in the Home tab?

Hope this all helps!

Bob