I had thoughts of doing one of these a while back as a "Panzer '46" project, but didn't ever get round to it. More "what if" than "what was". I thought of adding the Stug IV style low-top swinging shurzen, so the turret still had 360 degree traverse at zero elevation, some turret shurzen and Panther-style engine deck spaced armour.

Flakpanzer would have been priority targets for Allied Jabos and any additional protection would have been beneficial. Even the humble 20mm Hispano cannon shell has considerably more effect given an extra 300mph+ velocity by the firing aircraft, and the Russians were routinely using 23 and even 37mm on Shturmovik. Nothing was going to work against air-launched rockets.

My Kugelblitz conversion is finally (more or less) complete. Here is before

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And here is after...


I didn't take that many in progress pics of the painting and weathering. But for my next build I will do so, especially prior to all the weathering. Weathering surely makes a huge difference in the completed model. But in the end I think I am happy with the outcome. I am planning to finish this off as part of a diorama of the fighting with US recon units in the Spichra, Germany area in April 1945 (event described in the first post). Being in the Spring, the terrain surely would have some mud to contend with so I wanted to show that... but not overpower it too much (i.e., not fully cover the suspension/road wheels/tracks). I think I acquired the balance I was after. Would love to hear some feedback on that.

Before mounting it to the dio I will likely add some gear to the outside (maybe a gas can beside spare roadwheel) and top it off with some pastels for dust etc. Since I plan on having hatches open showing the partial interior, I will probably add some gear inside as well.

I will add more pics and type a summary of the build listing paints, weathering etc. in a follow-up post. I know leaving a vehicle in primer/partial primer is a bit controversial to some but I wanted to portray how the Germans may have rushed this one into service. In the end no one really knows what the final finish was and if they had time to camo the turret to match the Panzer IV J hull it was mounted to. I have not done a vehicle in primer (or partial primer) before and thought this would have been a likely candidate (if any) to be done this way. It was fun building it like this and trying different techniques to weather the two sections. In this situation I assumed they mounted the completed turret to a slightly used Panzer IV J hull, hence it is a bit more weathered than the turret.

To recap, I built this to make a more detailed 1/35th Kugelblitz by combining parts from the two kits below along with some detailed aftermarket parts:

• DML's Cyber-Hobby “Orange Box” Series Kit No. 09 Flakpanzer IV - Kugelblitz
• Dragon's 1/35 PZ.KPFW.IV AUSF.J Mid Production (Smart Kit #6556)
• Griffon Model PE Set for Panzer IV Ausf. H & J (BPL35010)
• RJ Productions Resin Drop In Interior
• Schatton Modelbau Metal Gun Barrel/Muzzle
• Additional items from the "scratch box" for the interior

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I find it ironic that Dragon just announced they are releasing a new Kugelblitz kit, possibly using some of the same sprues that I borrowed from their 6556 kit. I will be curious to see how they do it.

For the hull, I used a late war ambush camo scheme. There are several varieties used for the Panzer IV. In the end I settled for the tri color camo pattern by mixing the following Tamiya acrylics in my airbrush:
Dark Yellow: XF-60 Dark Yellow (mixed about 70% Dark Yellow and 30% Buff).
Green: XF-58 Olive green (lightened just a touch)
Red Brown: XF-64 Red Brown

For the unpainted turret left in German primer, I initially used Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red mixed with drop or two of Tamiya Clear Red; especially for highlights. However, I felt this was still not red enough for German primer. Instead of starting over I actually used oil rendering techniques described well by Michael Rinaldi in his Tank Art series. In the end I am still not sure it is as accurate as it could be but I enjoyed practicing this technique using various oils to create subtle shades. I love the control oils give you (aka more time to correct for mistakes...).

I mostly used Vallejo acrylics for detailed painting of the tools, gun barrels, rubber, etc. I then added a gloss coat for decals and paint protection from weathering.

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I used either oils or enamels for pin washes, streaks, etc. and then used oil paints to create subtle shades (rendering technique) listed above on various panels on the turret and hull. The other thing I like about the oil rendering technique is how it tones down the gloss surface to make it more of a satin/dull finish. At this point I was hoping I could avoid adding a final flat coat as it seems some are getting excellent results in doing so.

I wanted the Panzer IV J hull to look like it was previously used in battle (perhaps losing its turret) before lucky enough to become a Kugelblitz, therefore I added numerous paint chips, usually with a lighter shade of the base dark yellow and following that up with a brownish grey inside the yellow/lighter chips. The turret received a few small chips of the brownish grey. The tracks were finished off the model first by giving them a base coat of a Tamiya Dark Brown and then numerous darker brown enamel washes and rust colored pigments. Metallic surfaces on the model were created using dry brushing techniques by mixing dark oil colors with Testers' silver. For the exhaust I used Vallejo Rust acrylics mixed with pigments (lighter to darker rust tones).

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The mud and dirt finish was completed in stages, with an initial application before mounting the finished tracks. This allowed me to get some mud behind the road wheels. After adding the tracks, additional mud covered surfaces were added, including the outer edges of the inside of the tracks. I wanted to try out some of the new mud products that recently became available so picked up a combination of Vallejo acrylic and AK Interactive Enamel products specifically for mud effects. I added the Vallejo acrylics first since the ones I picked up are lighter in color and should be a better representation of dried mud. I followed that up with the darker AK enamels. When mixing these products, I did add various shades of pigments and static grass for more realism and thickness.

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Although I initially wanted to complete this build without applying a final clear coat; due to the pigments and lose environmental elements of the "mud", I decided to seal the model in Tamiya Flat from a rattle can. The flat finish did unite the turret and hull a bit better but I did lose some of shading effect I created with the oil rendering techniques. Always pros and cons to clear coats. I then went back over the lower areas of the hull with the darker AK colors (which also have a satin finish) using a paint brush to "flick" the paint for that fresh mud splatter look.

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I left the two hatches in the hull and the TC's hatch on the turret open as I plan on adding both a driver and TC here.

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As indicated above, I want to portray this flak panzer in a dio defending the hills around Spichra, Germany and plan on adding a US Recon unit to the scene. This has been a time consuming build, mostly due to all the PE work. But it has been fun and I tried a bunch of new techniques.

Bryan,
Wow! I have to say I'm really impressed with your build. Everything just looks fantastic. I really like the way you've painted and weathered it.

I hope to see how your diorama turns out.

Gaz

Thanks so much! I had some great input and advice from my local AMPS group in Columbia, SC... Wildcats! Great bunch of guys. I will be sure and post the final Dio here as well. Probably start that up mid summer or so.