I have a little more of the upper turret assembled .
The kit gives you 3 gun barrels to choose from.
The L43 in both plastic and metal
The L48 in plastic you could use this one if you want to convert this kit to an Ausf.G version .

The Muzzle-breaks

I used the front as a jig to line up the parts of the guard




Painted.


Finished for now.
Donald

Awesome work! I may have overlooked an earlier comment, but are going to use the bulb muzzle break?

Yes, The other one is for the longer L48 Gun Barrel used on the Ausf.G
Regards.
Donald

A little turret front assembly .
Installed the Gun, Yea I need to do a little touch up painting here.

The Breach Guard is next, it's easier if you start with the left side first. There's a gear that has to be engaged there.

This is it.

You did make it movable didn't you ?
Part F2 is actually F5, F2 is the inner Ammo Bin.



Finished for today.
Donald

Very nice finish in the breech – I don’t know the answer but I’ve seen a few photo refs of other German tanks’ breeches painted varying shades of green. Do the Instructions call out gloss black and/or do you have other sources?

Great work so far Donald! Lots of good tips that I will use when I build my Ausf. J.

I believe they were usually painted black Gloss paint holds up better than flat paint. The Green you usually see in Museum rebuilds.
Hey I could be wrong and probably am.at least their not Pink.
Regards
Donald

This is close to the J model, I had a Ausf. J build here on this site.
I'm happy that you like it.
Regards.
Donald

Now fore some more Turret work.
The edges on the front view blocks need trimming as shown or they don't fit.

The areas require enlarging to get the arms for the view port to fit.

No to touch up the paint

Finished for now.
Donald

You will have to trim the tabs and front edge to get the gun to fit.

Like this.

For the turret basket, I dry fitted the parts to the hull.When everything was lined up correctly I glued the upper ends to the turret bottom and let it dry.

Test rotate to the left, fine no binding here.

Test rotate to the right, good no binding there either.



I did it this way to be shure everything fit as it was suposed to.
Hey it worked.
Now to work on the small parts for the turret interior.

Regards.
Donald

Here's the Turret interior all painted , Assembled & lightly weathered inside.
I placed it in the hull to get an idea what it looks like without the shell in place.



The wiring off the front posts is thin solder painted black. It really doesn't go anywhere .

Here's the turret basket by itself.


Here the turret is completed and masked off and painted.

I found that it is easier to mask off the openings for painting before joining the top and bottom together.

Tomorrow I'll remove the masking.
Regards.
Donald

Just a little today.
There's a part , the vision blocks for the front side view ports.
You need 3 Ea. of GP2 clear blocks for the 2 hull side ports and 1 for the turret side port.
Here's the problem , they only give you 2 parts when you need 3 parts. I'm lucky there as I have left overs from the Ausf.H that I did earlier.



I need a Nap G night.
Don

I missed this one.

Here I test fit the assembly of the cupola .
The parts for the vision blocks need a lot of clean-up .

The clear parts don't fit in their mounts.

You need to sand the sides to get the blocks to fit, also widen the slot slightly in the bottom of the blocks.

It fits now.

Here's how I opened the view in the Cupola, the instructions would have you close up everything .
Place the bottom of the Cupola on top the turret, this is so you can adjust the outside lower covers evenly.

Insert the covers as open as you want them.

Place the Hatch ring on top the upper armored ring (No Glue)

Place the armored covers in the ring as open as you want them.

Place the vision block mounts in the lower ring.

Test fit the 2 rings together.

The vision blocks ready for clean-up and painting.


There's a ring with 5 Pe. parts that goes over and between the vision block mounts, you will have to bend the Pe. slightly to get them to fit the ring.

I made the hatches operable .




Now to take it all apart paint it and re-assemble it.

Finished for now.
Donald

Turret is mostly finished except for some minor detailing and weathering.




Working on some small parts and tools for the Hull next.
Regards.
Donald

A little bit more.

I wanted to add a chain and retaining pin, the kit parts are too short about 8mm. I cut the pins off and made new ones 10 mm. long.
The instructions have them as # P33 they are actually # K43

Right Front

Left Front

Rear Tow Point


Finished Now
Donald

a little more.
The Mufflers are installed.


This might be screwed-up a bit, the instructions have the wrong numbers going together for the pioneer tool clamps.
This is how it should go together.



These are very delecate.
6 more to build
done for now.
Donald

I've found that you can't build the clamps off of the tools like above.
It's easier to build them a piece at a time on the tool.
Start with gluing the bottom of the clamp to the pin on the bottom of the tool.

Then bend the top part to fit lining up the pins and gluing the pins together on the end where the real one would open.

Finally if you have everything lined up right it should go together like this.

Don't forget to super glue it all together.

These brass parts stink, I would say worse but I don't think the site guys would like it.
If I ever do the remaining Panzer IV I have I thing I'll use the Voyager Pe. set it looks a lot more sturdy .
Done for now.
Donald