Does anyone know if this kit from Trumpeter kit #0922 has the parts to make a regular PzIV J .. not sure what exactly was changed in the kit,other than the addition of the antennas

Hi Tim. According to Chamberlain and Doyle in Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two, it would appear that, unlike the PzIII versions, the PzIV retained its main and secondary armament, so theoretically you could make a gun tank from the observation version. Apart from the various antennae, there was also a periscope fitted to the left side of the turret roof. You would need to remove the evidence of this. 90 vehicles were converted from July 1944 to March 1945 by Nibelungenwerke.

I appreciate the reply,

Tim,

After a google, but not an exhaustive, search, was not able to find screen shots of instruction or the sprue for the commander cupola (sturmgechutz) for Trumpeter's Beob IV. However, I did find screen shot of the cupola for Trumpeter's "standard" PzIV ausf J, which showed that the "standard" cupola is on its own sprue. Based upon that image, it is doubtful that the "standard" IV cupola is included in the Beob kit.

Apologies, the information I posted may have been misleading. I now discover that the photo I was referring to in Chamberlain and Doyle had been wrongly labelled as Pz.Beob.Wg IV, it is in fact a Pz.Bef.Wg IV which was also equipped with a standard cupola and the T.S.R. 1 observation periscope as well as extra antennae. Dragon's 1/35th scale Pz.Beob.Wg.IV correctly comes with the Stug cupola and the photo that sent me wrong is reproduced in Doyle and Jentz's New Vanguard on the Pz IV, but correctly identified. This publication also states that the Stug cupola was fitted to the Pz.Beob.Wg IV and that the T.S.R. 1 and the SF14Z scissor telescope was to be issued as basic equipment to all tanks, not just Bef.Wg and Beob.Wg.