Round two.

This is a rebuild of my Panzer IV ausf L from What-If IV. It's built using the old DML/Dragon Panzer IV Late Ausf. J. I liked the sloped hull armor but never liked the scratchbuilt Panther influenced turret. To me, it looks too large.


Kit breakdown...removed the add-on equipment from the hull.


I used a Dremel to cut out the engine deck and turret ring sections. The plan was to move the engine compartment forward and move the fighting compartment back.


Removed the driver and hull gunner hatches. Worked up an engine deck using cardstock, a pair of Panther fan covers and engine hatch.


Replaced the cardstock with styrene and set the engine deck down. The actual layout would change throughout the build.


Casement side panels. In the lower left you can actually see an alternative side panel design. I went through several different designs. I settled on this one because it adheres to the sloped hull sides. To gain more room I extended the fighting compartment beyond the rear of the chassis.




A shot to show the bracing for the panels.


Originally, I had planned on using the Panzer IV gun. I decided to go all-in and used a longer gun. This is the alternative gun that comes with Trumpeter's E-50 tank.


A quick mock-up to check out the gun and casement. The original idea was to have the front corners of the casement angled. I decided to simplify it and just square it off with a slight angle on the front casement plate.


Add commander's hatch. I wanted to use a cast Panther cupola but the casement roof is pretty small. I think the small hatch was leftovers from Dragon's King Tiger with zimm....some of the Jagdtiger bits.
The gun is mounted on a styrene plate. I used shaped styrene for bolts.


Gun added. I left it at a slight depressed angle. I plan on adding a base to accommodate the wacky suspension...like it's moving across rubble. It's difficult to see but I also added a loader's hatch. I went with a set of half-circle hatches. The travel lock is a leftover from Revell's rebox of the ICM Bergepanther.


Added the rear casement plate. The doors are leftovers from the Italerior armored maultier I used for the Hippo. The exhaust had to be reworked to clear the casement. I added styrene extenders. I boxed in the underside of the rear casement overhang and added an angled section to tie it in to the rear.


Add a gun sight. I simply drilled out a hole and added a curved styrene scrap as a rain shield. You can see some additions to the engine deck. The strips are suppose to be shot guards. They also cover the engine deck's seams. Added bolts made from stretched sprue.


A few more additions like tie-downs and gun cleaning rod container. The latter was left over from the Bergepanther. Also note more changes to the engine deck. The driver and hull gunner hatches are actually from the Itaeri Panzer IV I scavenged to use on the Hippo suspension. The figures are posed to relate size.


And with that she is ready for paint. I'm going to stick with a winter/snow camo scheme. I'll probably add a secondary color just to break things up.

Looks good, Alex. Really cool and unique looking tank hunter.

The only thing that strikes my eye is the recoil of the main gun - is there enough space in the superstructure? Maybe there is, but it looks tight. Difficult to see from the angle of the pictures.

In any case it is a great and aggressive looking beast!

it's looking quite nice Alex. Reminds me of a miniature Jagdtiger or the Jagdpanther II from WOT.

The casement looks small. I think it is the size and angling of the roof. It's actually a little wider and longer than the turret of a Panzer IV and about twice as high. And it's a little larger than the E50 turret and just slightly smaller than a Panther turret. To me the E50 turret looks really undersized as well but I worked the dimensions roughly off the E50 turret because of the gun.

Thanks for the positive comments.

Alex, sounds good.

Looking forward to see it with the camouflage on. It will look good.

Right then, my Australian Churchill Mk XX:











I'll upload these to the campaign directory and that should be me done on this one!

Wow, looks great, Paul! I did not even know we had this beast coming for this campaign. What turret have you used? Fits perfectly.

Thanks for participating

Nice one Paul!

Just the wipers to be added and the aerials painted and then its done:

Thanks for the nice comments.

This is one I didn't get done for the _last_ campaign.

Back story: Imagine if the Aussies had decided to build a tank based on the Churchill instead of the Sentinel they did build. Cast hull and new turret. No shot trap in front of the driver, better shaped turret and hull, 25 pdr lengthened 10 calibres for better AT performance against weak Japanese armour while retaining the excellent HE punch of the 25 pdr for infantry support.

Scratch-built turret, though it does have an M24 look to it, to be sure. I kept the same height of the Churchill turret but moved the hatches a tad outboard to account for the larger breech of the 25 pdr. I imagined a better, shorter stroke recoil system that would have allowed the system to stay under armour and to limit the stroke to something that could stay within the Churchill's relatively limited turret ring. Better ballistic shape to the turret with a narrower front, slightly elongated nose to put the trunions a tad further forward for recoil management, a heavy, external mantlet with integral co-ax and sighting telescope with a back-up American style sight periscope. Gunner and commander on the left with loader to the right. Enough room in the ballistic shape of the rear of the turret for the radio, the good old No.19 set.

Aussie railway gauge was a bit larger than the UK one so the need to remove the air cleaners and have the narrow hull didn't exist. The "Aussie" designers took advantage of this to shape the hull sides better and get rid of the side doors. This provided additional stowage space for ammo and crew kit but also provided additional stowage points on the sides for blankets and tarps.

Paul

Paul it looks looks good but why "Mk XX"? The RL Churchill series only got up to Mk VIII.

I'm calling this one done!
Thanks for watching & commenting on what has been a really enjoyable project. I'll get some nice posed pics tomorrow with a plain background in natural light for the gallery

Thanks for the back story, Paul. Adds nice "depth" to your build.

Great finish, Sean. Great looking build!

The Brits have a history of giving high mark numbers to export versions. Just going with that flow. :-)

Mk XXI would have been an ARV, Mk XXII a proposed flamethrower and Mk XXIII a bridgelayer...

Paul

You should called it the "Mark XXX". Hours of laughs

Hey Guys I just enlisted and this is my first campaign. I've been watching this one, as well as the previous WI's and just couldn't resist. I may need some help figuring out posting photos, it seems I can only post the links. Any ways, this kit was a Mobelwagen hanging out on the shelf and as I had been watching this campaign, and realizing that I probably wouldn't have finished that kit, I decided to dive in. I first lengthened the hull then started playing around with ideas and wanted something that would compliment the Panzer arm, but not necessarily be an MBT. I toyed around with Arty and APC ideas but ultimately I came up with the PzK IVP Aus A "Pionierwagen". I always admired the combat engineering role and reading WWII history, you have to honor the balls that those guys had on both sides.
So hopefully, I'm not too far along to enlist and hopefully I will get over my "fear of completion" trend and get this thing done. Thanks JP

Can't figure out how to post this photo

https://gallery.kitmaker.net/showphoto.php/photo/431265/ppuser/3884

Paul, Glad you got her finished. The Churchill looks great. That turret really turned out nice and "fits" the gun well.

Painting is going badly on my panzer. I had to repaint and hopefully will get it wrapped up this week. I'll do my background writeup when I do my final posting of progress pictures. Next project will be one of two ideas.

The first is the Stuart based "marder-styled"rig armed with a 6pdr. The second is a little something inspired by Mike's Ratte. I'm thinking a Soviet version using a chassis based on a widened and lengthened T34. Large turret with two 152mm or larger guns (I'm thinking a cruiser turret) and two normal turrets on the side. I figure it would be a mobile command and artillery support bunker.

You mean IS series not T34, right? The latter tank is hardly any bigger than the single 152mm turret the soviets struggled to fit on their KV-2.

Onward through the fog:




Not much really, but it took me all last eventing to paint the stowage, get the jerry cans in and strapped and do some more dusting to blend it all together.
More soon, I hope.

Joe, that's quite a beast! Coming along nicely.
the answer to your conundrum is not obvious. There's a blue rectangle icon next to the link info under your gallery photo. Hit that icon and another line of link info appears. Copy THAT into your post, and the gallery photo will appear in it.
I think on the forums main page, there are helpful posts regarding this stuff.
Cheers!
-Sean H.

let me try again


sweet, I like that

Excellent.
Glad to help!

Nope I'm going with the T34. It will be widened and lengthen to accommodate the main turret.

Background: The LangerSchuss was based on the Panzer IV ausf. L chassis. The large 88mm main gun was mounted in a simple casemate located at the vehicle's rear. The engineers moved the engine forward to help accommodate the long gun. It was also found that the engine served as an additional layer of armor for the gun crew and commander. The driver and radio operator were positioned in the front, forward of the engine compartment.
The LangerSchuss had a longrange, high-powered main gun. Armor protection was average at best. It lacked close-in defenses and was dependent on infantry support. The fighting compartment was cramped and visibility was limited.
Only 16 examples were built and these were initially deployed as an independent jagpanzer abteilung, supported by elements of the 166th Grenadier Regiment. They saw action during the defense of Lithuania before being withdrawn to Germany. There, they were pressed in to the fighting withdrawal where their range served them well.
The last LangerSchuss unit was a platoon assigned to Berlin's garrison. However, their role in the final defenses is suspect due to a lack of ammunition. Two were destroyed during Soviet artillery barrages while the remaining two were captured.

Off to paint for real this time. I altered the engine deck one last time. I moved the circular grills forward and added StuG III armored intake covers from the spares.


Painted a base coat of white.


I added the tools and other hull fittings. In hindsight I should have waited until after I had painted the camo.



I decided to go with a winter/urban camo scheme. Basically white with dark gray bands. The gray was too dark on the white and looked black. I repainted it using Gunship Gray instead.


The white and gray was sort of bland so I decided to go with a winter based ambush scheme. So I rough painted on some red-brown. I debated on what color to use for the "specks". I ended up using dark yellow. I figure this would work in winter and even in an urban area as well.


And here she is. No insignia or tactical markings. I figured that late in the war, it really didn't matter.












And with that she's done. It was a pretty easy rebuild. It's sort of what I wanted, but it might get rebuilt later on with a different casemate. I'll probably work up a base at some point to go with the articulated suspension.
I'll take a few days before starting part 3. I have some other projects to catch up on.

Okay then, but be prepared to do a lot of the widening and lengthening work.

Buckles and a tow cable:


Commander's MG almost done, needs a figgie, and I really need to fix the stowed tracks on the turret side, then lenses and a base.