I picked up cyber-hobby's 1/35 scale “Orange Box” Series Kit No. 09 (Dragon Models Limited Kit No. 9109); Flakpanzer IV “Kugelblitz” kit at a steal at a recent convention. I wanted to do my homework on this first before jumping in. It seems many indicate that the reboxed kit does have some accuracy issues with the older Panzer IV hull that is included. I thought it would be fun and challenging to do what I hope is a straight forward conversion/upgrade and create a Work in Progress (WIP) thread to convert DML’s Kugelblitz to a Panzer IV variant that should be historically correct and available with more detail/quality in both a kit and accompanying PE.
" BORDER="0">
For starters, DML’s Kugelblitz hull seems to be based on a late-model Pzkw. IV (with the twin exhausts). Most of the documentation that is out there indicates this flakpanzer was based on a Panzer IV J mid production hull. Regardless, there could be some discrepancy here since only 5 were reportedly built during Panzer IV production period of variants Ausf. H through J. It is also possible the factory could have converted an older Panzer IV variant that was available.

To make this more interesting, I have decided to try to build a specific vehicle that was reportedly involved in the fights near the town of Spichra, Thuringia in early April 1945, where it was destroyed and remained buried in the Spatenberg hill until its excavation in 1999. This may have been the only Kugelblitz that fought against the western allies as other documentation indicates the rest were sent to defend Berlin. However, this vehicle was the only one that was "partially" found. Below is a great read on the battle which is where I located the below pic of the turret found in the mid-1990s. It is written in German but I used Google Translate to convert to English. It does an okay job but some things do translate a little off.

http://mihla.de/chr/chr0102030405/050313V2.HTM


" BORDER="0">

So my first decision was to determine what variant it was "likely" built on so I can upgrade the overall kit with a more detailed hull (aka more recent mold). Most of what is out there indicates that a Panzer IV J (mid-production) was the likely variant, therefore I ordered Dragon's 1/35 PZ.KPFW.IV AUSF.J Mid Production (Smart Kit #6556). This kit has had very good reviews and should give an overall jump in quality and detail. I think one of the negatives from some is that it includes DS tracks. However, one of the advantages of the older Kuglebliz kit is that it came with the individual Magic Track” links, given me the option to use those instead.

In order to increase detailing even more, I decided to include a PE set from Griffon and drop in a simple interior from RJ Productions to allow open hatches of the driver/radio operator. I ordered both last week (I found that in itself no easy task as neither of the above kits are in production anymore). See pics below for comparison of the various kits I plan on using.




I look forward to any advice or tips!

Sorry about the thumbnail size above. Will try again on the images. Below is a pic of all kits in the upgrade/conversion. Also note the DS tracks and Magic Tracks by there appropriate boxes! Hmm.... I wonder which I will use.

" BORDER="0">

I haven't completed many conversions prior to this and figured this will be a good start between the hull from the Panzer IV J kit, Griffon PE, and interior goodies. The PE is mostly to improve on the fenders, tie downs, etc. A very detailed set of side skirts/brackets is also included in the DML Panzer IV J and Griffon PE set, however, I have decided not to use them since there is no record of side skirts being used on other Flak Panzers and if they were present on the donor hull (assuming the Kugleblitz received a used Paunzer IV hull), the would have likely been removed during the rebuild.

" BORDER="0">

Obviously the main difference between these kits are the different turrets and I plan on building the Kugelblitz turret straight out of the box. However, there are also some significant differences between the upper hulls of the Kugelblitz compared to the standard late variant Panzer IVs that will need to be accounted for.

The conversion of the standard superstructure of the Panzer IV’s to accommodate the Kugelblitz’s 3 cm MK 103 ball turret required adding a wider turret ring (reportedly used the Tiger ring). Therefore the factory modified the superstructure by moving the driver/radio operator hatches forward and at a slight angle. The roof itself was modified to run horizontal all the way to the driver plate, making it significantly higher. How the two kits separated these various parts of the upper hull would determine the need for simply swapping parts or cutting/kit bashing/gap filling etc…

Upon opening the Kugleblitz and Panzer IV J kits I did a few measurements and dry fitting with the key parts of the upper and lower hull. Right away I noticed the difference in detail between these two so I was pretty happy that the extra cost and time should be worth it. In the pic below you can see the obvious difference in detail between the two lower hulls, as well as the upper front plate (which I may modify as well).

" BORDER="0">


However, upon close inspection I realized they didn’t make it easy for me since the upper hull on the Panzer IV J kit was more or less one piece compared to the separate pieces of the Kugelblitz upper hull; making combination a little bit more tricky! Plus, in order to take advantage of some extra detail on the Panzer IV 6556 kit (especially around the engine deck) I needed to cut off the back third of that kits upper hull and combine it with the upper hull in the kugelblitz kit. The pictures below show the line where I plan to separate the upper hull of the Panzer IV J and combine it with the Kugelblitz hull.

" BORDER="0">

" BORDER="0">

I hope to get this started this weekend!

I was thinking of getting one of these for my What If series, to be used as a ground close support. Will follow to see how the turret builds up.

Funny you should mention "Ground Close Support". I had the same idea to do something along that theme before I started this project. However, I asked a couple of modeling buddies when planning this and they didn't think it was a good idea to do a diorama theme of a Flakpanzer on a ground attack role. For now I am tabling the idea as I want to concentrate on building the vehicle first. However, I do eventually want to add it to a diorama or vignette scene and will consider my options then.

To be honest, the ground support theme is very appealing to me since it is unique in a sense it is not its normal role and the fact this particular vehicle likely met its fate during such an encounter. If you read that link to the battle I posted above it involved a small German force defending a town, hill, bridge etc. initially from a US Recon unit. That alone generates all kinds of unique ideas!

Hi Bryan,

I have the pre-Orange box Kugelblitz in the stash, so it's an opportunity to pick up a thing or two from your project. Pulling up a chair to watch this build progress.

My preference would be for the Magic Tracks -- would it be the correct ones for the hull / roadwheels you intend to use?

Cheers,

Tat

I think it would be a great idea to have your flak panzer part of the defense. The Germans had no problem using everything they had at hand.

Hi Tat,

I was leaning the same way. I understand they are both a curse and a god send... If that is the correct term. Regardless, I have never used them and would like to give them a try.

I haven't verified it yet but I do believe they will be a correct match. The DML kugleblitz hull/roadwheels I believe are modeled after a H or a early to mid J variant. I am not sure there is a difference between these as far as the tracks/road wheels are concerned but I will check out more before I decide. Anyone feel free to chime in

Couldn't agree more. One possibility is to have the crew out inspecting a knocked out US Jeep or possibly M8 or M20 soon after the US recon incursion. Those vehicles were often the main force of US recon units. I would think this Kugleblitz would be on the winning side even if against a M8 Armored car with its 37mm. Especially since they would be the defender and should have the element of surprise.

If you are in a mood to splash some cash this kit and other releases of the vehicle will benefit from new gun barrels. Schatton Modelbau do the Mk103. They are expensive but are a leap ahead of the kit offerings.

Absolutely correct! For instance, if you check another link from the website Bryan gave us the link to, you'll see that in the same battle, alongside the kugelblitz the Germans also used a Möbelwagen for ground fire:

http://mihla.de/chr/chr0102030405/051203PA.HTM

Also, there is plenty of footage on youtube of flak units shooting horizontally (= ground fire), and not just the 88mm...

EDIT: repaired the URL

Excellent stuff. I will check out the Schatton Modelbau barrels, although DML has included upgrade barrels in this reboxed kit so I will see if they are a big improvement. Hopefully they are not to much $$! Because you are right, I am already dropping some $$$ on this build. But... the last model/dio I built took me 1.5 years to finish and that is working on just it alone. So if I spread the funds out over that period it comes to some pretty cheap entertainment, at least that is how I look at it

Good point about the Möbelwagen for ground fire! That is what I thought all along. Don't know why I had some guys disagreeing with that approach. Maybe adding a heavily battle damaged M8 beside the Kugleblitz would be fun after all!

I am a little puzzled as to why you assume that the Kugelblitz turret would have been fitted to a standard mid-production Panzer IV Ausf. J hull. The turret ring on the new turret was substantially larger than that of the gun tank, which is why the Dragon kit hull has the new superstructure with the angled hatch openings.

As far as what should stay "mostly" the same, the lower hull will be standard, along with suspension etc. The superstructure (upper hull) is what had to be modified at the factory to accept the larger ring. Here is a link to what someone else did. Keep in mind this was for a Tamiya 1/48th scale kit. Note that he raised the roof of the upper hull so that it is horizontally straight vs dipping at a angle as it does in the Panzer IV. He then moved the hatches forward and at slight angle. However, by combining the two above kits, most of that work will be done.

http://www.panzerbaer.de/models/48_cmk_flakpz_kugelblitz-b.htm

Below is a good link on the history. Sorry it is in German.

http://www.dmmb.info/t9081f95-Panzer-IV-Kugelblitz-mit-Flammvernichtern.html

The discussion above basically indicates it likely used the J variant. It discusses that in several places. Here is one discussion from the translation (forgive me I did not clean this up from Google Translate):

"With the beginning of the development of ball lightning [Kugelblitz] tower is still planned using current Ausf.H tubs. From May 1944 Ausf.J wells were then available. Which pans the real built Kugelblitz based whether old repair chassis or newly built chassis served as the basis of ball lightning. is unknown."

Another discussion includes the hull changes, and I quote:

But the slight bend in the battle space-roof of the Panzer IV was actually straightened up, to have a flat surface for the turntable and the tank collar. That was sheer necessity, the slewing ring of ball lightning actually accounts for the Tiger I and needs corresponding space. Therefore, the repositioning of the hatches of the driver & radio operator.
The DRAGON kit is perfectly correct in this regard. Interestingly, the cardboard cover image of the new edition under the cyber-hobby Orange Box Label a standard excessive sloping roof space combat. But the cardboard content has the correct straight roof with the inclined driver & radioman hatches."


Finally, a great review was done on this kit when it first came out on missing-lynx.com which discussed super detailing it by adding the appropriate parts from a more detailed Panzer IV H. But as I indicating earlier, a lot of info points toward the J variant. Plus I think the author was indicating that a recent Dragon H variant had just came out that would be a good match. The J variant I selected came out a couple of years after this review.

http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/german/dml9109reviewcs_1.html

Hope that helps. If anyone finds anything different please let me know. If so I may have a nice standalone Panzer IV J kit to do afterwards!

A quick update on the progress of the conversion. I have been skipping around on the DML instructions in an attempt to get a rough lower and upper hull fit to see if the conversion will require minimal, major, or somewhere in between. I think I am more the latter, which I will gladly accept.

As I indicated in an earlier post, I combined the upper hulls of DML’s Panzer IV J (engine deck area) with the rest of the Kugelblitz upper hull. This was mostly for the increase in detail of the Panzer IV J kit, but also for fit issuers regarding future Griffon PE additions specific to that model. Before I went to the trouble of filling and sanding to finalize where those sections are joined, I wanted to make sure I did not have to complete any additional surgery or adding styrene that would require me to redo those steps. Thus, I completed the rear sections of the upper and lower hull as well as most of the front of the lower hull where these lower and upper hulls join.

As you can see in the pic below, there will be a slight gap due to the newly formed upper hull being slightly shorter than the stock Panzer IV J Upper Hull. I believe this is largely due to slightly thinner front plate of the upper hull from the Kugleblitz kit. Although I feel the Panzer IV J’s front plate is a bit more detailed, it makes more sense to use the Kugleblitz’s part since this is one of the main differences between the two variants; that being it is the correct height and fits better with the reworked hatches. The below pic shows the gap along the simulated metal brackets that join the rear plates of the upper and lower hulls if I have the upper hull all the way forward.

" BORDER="0">

A decision will have to be made where to add the filler to make up this small gap. I thought about centering the upper hull to the lower hull and split the difference to allow minimal filler to each end. However, I think doing so may create future fit issues with the PE fenders at the rear (I understand it can be tricky there in general). In addition, adding filler to the rear could be more obvious since it would, in a sense, change the width of the metal strips/fasteners at that connection.

I believe by pushing the upper hull flush against the back and adding filler between the top of the lower hull where it joins the front plate of the upper hull will be the most realistic and least noticeable way to correct this. In in reality may still be close to what the original vehicle was like.

" BORDER="0">

The only remaining fit issue involves the lower horizontal support inlet / outlet braces where they will touch the lower hull. However, this can be easily correct by sanding off a little material in the indicated areas shown in the photograph. I have seen this same issue on other build blogs that did not even do a conversion.

" BORDER="0">

The next rough fit on this conversion involved the quick drop in resin interior from R&J. Keep in mind that this kit is generic and made to fit the various Panzer IV kits out there from most of the manufactures. Also, I only decided to add this because I am planning on keeping both the driver/radio operator hatches open. Thus, I did not need a very detailed interior.

" BORDER="0">

The instructions that came with the resin kit indicated that for DML hulls you must remove the front supports of the lower hull to even begin to test fit it (see pic below).

" BORDER="0">

As you can see in the photo below, even with those supports removed there will be a bit more needed to get it to fit. To be fair, the instructions do indicate that trimming maybe necessary along the bottom of the resin mold; depending on your model.



The key is to get the driving housings on the resin mold to line up with those on the outside. I used my dremel to cut as much of the bottom off as possible. After 3 or 4 cuts and dry fittngs, I came to the conclusion that I would also need to cut off part of the front of the transmission housing and brake housings that would not be seen through the crew hatches. Just a bit of warning, this particular drop in interior may not be the best if one wanted to model the vehicle with the transmission/brake hatches open. In addition, the 75mm ammo storage would also need to go. I am not 100% sure what went here on the Kugleblitz so for now I may just keep it as a flat surface in the finished vehicle and maybe add some gear that can be seen through the hatch. Still plenty of time to figure that one out.

[img]" BORDER="0">

" BORDER="0">

Now to start back at step 1 and do all those wheels and suspension.

this has always been one of those german late war armour that has always just drawn me to it,i guess because the strange design.this will be a build i will follow.

This is going to be a great conversion. I always thought the Kugelblitz turret was an incredible innovation.

This weekend I started on the next biggest unknown (for me that is) and dragged out the heavy duty PE tools. Since I wanted to try to build this kit using the very detailed fender set from Griffon, I decided that soldering was the way to go. This will be my first attempt at soldering PE and with PE that has so much built onto each other (hence the reason why CA glue would be a little scary). Thus, I knew I needed to build the fenders totally separate from the model and only add them once all the PE steps are complete. The below pics show this progress of only one fender and how is starting to compare to the Panzer IV J's plastic injection part (which I must say isn't bad either). It feels good knowing that if I royally screw this up at least I can use the kit part without losing to much detail.

After this pic was taken, I did start to run into some trouble when adding the top horizontal pieces. I wanted to start from the front and work my way back to make sure they lined up correctly. However, upon adding the forward section (the one that actually supports the hinged front fender), the heat from my torch impacted an earlier joint I had soldered and part of the framework disconnected I had even switched to a lower temp. solder knowing that the other joints were near. Needless to say I lost quite a bit of time rebuilding it. Thus, I know I need to work on better use of shielding or heat sinks and possibly consider CA or Epoxy for some of those horizontal surfaces.


Any advice is greatly appreciated!

" BORDER="0">

Been awhile since I updated here so thought I would share a couple of more posts before I get to far ahead.

The Griffon PE set is great! Very detailed and really teaches you to plan way ahead. But I have to say it probably takes you almost five times as long to use PE as just straight building. But in the end it has detail that can't be matched.

I have finished building each fender almost exclusively using a mini torch and High and Low Temp solder. I did use a soldering iron in a couple of tight places where it was nearly impossible to shield earlier joints. But I definitely prefer using the mini torch. I must say shielding is so critical when joining PE especially with the torch method. A friend in my AMPS club taught me the old wet tissue method which saved me from pulling my hair out. Other methods used including the metal clamps themselves (of which you will need plenty of variety) or any scrap of metal you can find as heat shields. Basically, once I mastered blocking/shielding, my PE build became much easier.

Before mounting the fenders I wanted to do most of the interior work in the hull. This included attaching the R&J Resin Drop in set and doing a bit of scratch building using pieces from the parts bin, old PE, and even a few old decals. I could not find any interior shots of the Kugelblitz, therefore I looked at several Panzer IV interiors as well as a good example of a Flakpanzer IV "Wirbelwind". This should give you a rough idea of what it was probably like in the lower hull of the Kugleblitz but also leaves some room for interpretation (and imagination ). Because this will only be viewed from the driver and radio operator open hatches, I didn't focus on making this super accurate. If that was more of a priority then I would have purchased a more complete interior kit from other vendors; especially since there are a lot of missing details with this R&J kit. Most notably missing include the radios, driver gauges/controls to the right of the driver, and misc. equipment mounted on the sides of the hull. Thus, I got a bit more creative with those items. Below is a series of pics of the interior before it was primed and finally painted and weathered.

img]

[img]img]

I decided to use the hairspray technique to show wear and tear from the off white painted interior down to the primer. Since not to much would be visible this was really just an excuse to practice the technique some more. I did this by priming the interior with a rust colored primer from an automotive store.

[img]" BORDER="0">

After the primer dried I simply hand painted the chipping fluid from AK and later mixed Vallejo acrylics to create the off-white color for the most of the hull/interior bits and a dark blue (almost black) for the transmission. After this dried I added water to areas I wanted to show wear and used a stiff paint brush and toothpick for some chipping. I followed this up with pin washes to represent dirt and grime and finally some dry brushing to bring out some raised detail and metallic wear. I used an acrlyic paint for the wash, which I likely will not use again. I feel oils or enamels are much more realistic. But this was a good place to try something new since little will be visible. Again, this was just a quick and dirty attempt to have something visible thru the hatches. I did not spend a lot of quality time on the painting that I plan to do on the exterior. For example, I hardly ever hand paint anything but this saved me a ton of time by avoiding getting the airbrush out. The below pics were taken before I sealed everything up with Tamiya Flat Clear.

" BORDER="0">

The Panzer IV J kit also came with more details for the upper hull then the kugelblitz kit; including interior parts for the MG and the driver vision block. These had to be mounted to the Kugelblitz interior front upper hull, requiring some scratch building, filling, etc.

I decided the main thing was to get the fenders fully built using solder and then mounted to the lower frame. I would then work later on adding details such as PE tool holders and other misc. PE. using CA glue. However, to mount the fenders to the lower hull I initially used CA Glue to temporary hold it and then applied a generous helping of two part epoxy glue (JB Weld) and let that set for 24 hours. I must say, JB Weld is pretty strong stuff (once it sets) and I feel confident that they are not going anywhere.

I probably could have also mounted the PE fenders to the upper hull first and then attach everything as one piece to the lower hull. However, I felt it was easier to line everything up by attaching them to the lower hull first, then lining the upper hull to them.

Next up is mounting the combined kit upper hulls to the Panzer IV J lower hull and various filling and sanding to make them seamless. This will be the true test of how successful this conversion process will be.

Next up was to finally mount the Upper Hull. Recall this was created by combining the rear engine deck from the DML Panzer IVJ kit and the front hull of the DML Kugelblitz kit. Detail is much higher with the newer DML offering, which includes separate parts for the engine covers and many other misc. items that attach to the hull. Where I can, I will use the Panzer IV J parts to complete these other details.

With all the modifications of combining two kit hulls and the Griffon PE set, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy match since the designed connecting points for the hulls are no longer there. I knew I was going to have some gaps front to back and decided the best way to handle that was to basically split them evenly so that there was only a slight gap in the front and the rear of the upper hull, vs one big one on one end. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not going to be as bad as when I test fitted early on. Plus, the fit along the sides where the PE fenders meet the upper hull was pretty good. A little more CA glue along there helped eliminate any small gaps.

To get these two hulls joined, I needed to get out the big guns. Once again I thought epoxy glue would be my best bet. I did not think CA glue would be enough to hold them, especially with so few points along the hulls touching and the fact some of those points included PE to plastic. The problem is JB Weld takes almost a full day to cure so I used C-clamps I originally bought for aircraft hulls and wings to hold the upper hull to the lower hull. The JB Weld also does an okay job as an initial gap filler, especially along the front section (see pic below).

" BORDER="0">

The below pic shows where the two upper hulls are joined, which will later be filled and sanded. Notice the small area that juts out along the sides where the two halves join. This will require additional surgery since there should be only one stage of the deck expanding wider to the front. This makes it look like two separate levels for width expansion. After sanding, I will have to rescribe the panel line separating the engine area from the fighting compartment.

" BORDER="0">

I decided the best way to handle the gap where the upper hull joins the rear armored plate would be to remove the molded on horizontal fender support bracket and replace it with the Griffon PE Part I originally left off. Basically, I should have done this all along but made a decision early in the build that it was one item I didn't think needed to be replaced with PE. Thus, now it will take me much longer to remove since I now have all these other parts, including the PE fenders, surrounding it.

The below pic shows the small gap at the rear of the upper hull. Not to bad. Replacing the plastic fender brackets with PE should correct that, plus I cut the left side of the bracket off early in the build (can't remember why) and now can't find it. So they gotta go... More on that later.

" BORDER="0">

After letting the epoxy set for about a day I went back and began adding filler using Plastic Putty, followed by Mr Surfacer 500 to the various gaps. In most areas I diluted the Plastic Putty with water to make it flow in the gaps a little better . The diluted putty also made it smoother and easier to wipe off from areas that didn't need putty. This will help with later sanding around all those small details I do not want to lose. After some initial sanding I used Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill small gaps that are sometimes left with the Plastic Putty. It seems to excel at self leveling. Just not as good with the large gaps.

Below are some pics prior to starting the sanding process. Will post more after everything is sanded. Looking forward to adding all the small details next.

" BORDER="0">

" BORDER="0">

Here is the molded horizontal fender support bracket replaced with the Griffon PE Parts. Definitely was difficult sanding/cutting the plastic ones off with this much put together.

Because I had to cut off the plastic muffler brackets anyway to remove/replace the above, I decided to just replace them with spare PE brackets. These are much closer to scale than the plastic ones were.


I also redid the upper PE bracket on the top of the engine deck so that it is now underneath the tow cable hooks. The Griffon instructions illustrate the hooks underneath the bracket so mounted them that way but I didn't like they way it fit. Thus I went back and referenced photos. Most do show the hooks on top so I redid it to match period photos and other models. Just something to be wary of if you work with the Griffon PE and Panzer IVs.

The picture also shows the front and rear upper hulls now completely filled and sanded. Because I needed re-scribe the panel line between the too I ended up using CA glue mixed with microballons to fill the area as it is much easier to re-scribe panel lines using this material as filler. I used my trumper rescriber for that.

I had to cut off the closest rivet heads at the end of the engine deck side to complete the sanding. I will replace these with extra PE rivets.

" BORDER="0">

Made a ton of progress this holiday season. Finally have the two kits merged along with most of what I could use from the PE Griffon set. I cherry picked the various tool clamps/clasps as some of the dragon ones were not to bad from the later Panzer IV kit.

I loved the brass gun muzzle/barrels from Schatton Modelbau. It came with a brass rod to help with alignment of all the individual smoke dissipater tubes (each one was a separate part). Worth the extra cost as the one in the kit (even the upgraded orange box one) is lacking some detail.

Finally, next up is primer!
" BORDER="0">


" BORDER="0">

" BORDER="0">

" BORDER="0">

" BORDER="0">