About those armored side-skirts... Did all IV H's have those? I'd almost rather leave them off...

go ahead, lots of G's, H's + J's just had turret skirts. i leave mine off, sometimes i just leave the rails on.


" Ob Sturm oder Schneit................................

What about the turret skirts? Can I leave those off too? I'd rather just ditch 'em all. #:-)

Nick,
Yes, the "H" came with the side skirts on the chassis and turret. However some units, not really sure wihich ones, removed the chassis skirts but kept them on the turret.
The idea was to help defeat the hollow charge AT infantry weapons.
Of course, the chassis skirts were damaged or knocked off in the field.
HTH.
PS - which kit and what markings are you going to use? I will try to check my refs tonight and let you know, depending on which kit you are building......

Thanks, and were the Ausf. H's deployed in the North African front? Or were they too late for that?

Ron's right; I've never seen photos of a IVH without at least the turret skirts. Hull skirts often got ripped off and the rails all bent up. I also think maintenance was a factor; it was almost impossible to service the tracks with the skirts in place. Remember, those were quarter inch armor plate--REAL HEAVY. I suspect crews ditched them to make dealing with thrown tracks and such easier. I'm doing Allied stuff these days, but I have the old Squadron Panzer Colors series, SS Armor, and Pzkw. IV in Action and I too would be happy to look for answers to questions you might have. I am working slowly on an old Tamiya IVH; it will be derelict with the turret lifted out of its ring and a partial, shattered interior.

Greg

Well, just one question: Were they in service quick enough to be employed with the Afrika Korps?

Nick,
As near as I can deterimine, by going through my references, the Panzer IV H was not used by the Afrika Korps. The DAK had PzIV "D's", "E's", "F2's" and "G's"

Oh well... I had the Afrika Korps decals all ready, too..
Its off to the Ost front for this Panzer.

FYI, Airwaves makes a turret and hull armor rail set in PE. They look good and you can bend them up to look like the actual things. They give patterns so you can make the armor skirts out of sheet styrene and hang one, two or all on the racks.

They Always fell off, And in the latter versions they had side skirts made of a type of netting like mail armor so it wouldnt get snagged on sh@t . I'm actualy building one as we speak and i found out if the skirt is faced with enough pressure to bend the steel then its an aufull lot of pressure so you would just lose the skirt. never leave a skirt on a Pzkw If its bent to sh@t, It dosnt make any sence becouse with that much damage the skirt would be gone.