This is my first armor build. It's a little over weathered. It's pretty much out of the box, with the exception of the scratch built skirts and tow cables. Cheers.

Branden

That turned out nice,i would not say it was over weathered.
cheers

Karl,

Thanks for you kind words.

Branden

that looks nice blouie... i like how you did the 'battle damage' on the fenders and skirts, and also the equipment/tracks you put on the tank..... the rust colour on the tracks looks good too.

... now all you need is to put it on a dio!

Branden,

Quite a battered Panzer IV H you got there in these sharp pictures. I think the weathering is OK, you may like to give it another layer of washes to blend in your weathering. Just a couple of suggestions here If you wish to improve it further:

1. Looks like it has suffered from some sort of serious damage on the right. Naturally, some zimmerit may come off as what you have done. You could put some base colour, such as red oxide on where the zimmerit was.

2. Turn around the right track, it is back to front.

3. The shuren (I probably spell it wrong) around the turret looks a bit too high in relation to the turret. It may be the angle the photo only but there is no harm to check it once again.

4. You may also use a silver pencil to depict the high points on theoutside of the tracks where contacts are made with the ground. The same trick but with a darker pencil can be used on the teeth of the front wheel to simulate wear against the track. On the inside of the track, you could mark the track either side of the horn black. This is where the rubber tyre rub against the track.

This is not a Tamiya IV H, is it?

Branden,

That's a nice Pzr IV you've built, and not badly weathered at all. Rather consistent with the state of damage.
A few observations,
The spare tracklinks draped over the edge of the forward superstructure don't look right to me, possibely because the plastic tracks are a bit to crude. The links on the glacis should either be placed in the middle of the glacis where there where mounting brackets provided, or tyed down with some rope or wire. The right hand track is indeed the wrong way round, but if you can't turn it around, they where sometimes mounted the wrong way around so it's not the end of the world. You added two handles to the engine cover on the back. The Ausf. H ( as you have here) had only one grabhandle, the forward one. The rear one was added on the Ausf. J. They also need to be painted.
I see you relocated the jack to the rear mudguard, which would make sense with the damage to the mudguard, but you have left the airfilter off.

For your first Armour build this is very nice. It looks like the Academy Pzr IV, which is they old (oooold) Tamiya kit. If so you did very well. You seem to have a good way of creating damaged mudguards etc. which is a good start. Weathering is up to the builder, your's looks good from this end. If you put it on a dio/base, make sure to blend it in with the ground work. Your scratchbuild skirts look good aswel.
And don't take the type related comments to serious if all you want to built is a good looking tank.

Cheers
Henk

Thanks a lot for all of you kind words and suggestions. I will definately turn around the right track and put some sort of tie down for the tracks on the front glacis plate. I had a question about the air filter though? I read that they were not always equipped so I figured that not putting it on was okay. If you think that they would have retrofitted it on, I need to know how it was hooked up. The Academy kit didn't have very much detail on the airfilter, so once the fender was gone, I didn't know how to hook the airfilter back up.

Thanks again

Cheers

Branden

Great job for your 1st armor kit! Kudos to you for posting it to ask for constructive feedback. I've learned a lot over the last few years by reading others' feedback on mine and others' kits. It's allowed me to develop an "eye" for what should/shouldn't be there.

May I offer just a few suggestions?

1) Stowage: Have you ever gone off-roading? Notice how all the junk bounces around on the floor? Same thing with a tank going up and down hills/ditches. Things need to be logically stowed and strapped down, generally. (of course exceptions exist and I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll see somereal picture of some item on some tank deck that doesn't make sense). Specifically, the draped tracks across the glacis seem like they'll slide right off (maybe damage the hull MG in the process?). Also vision for the crew meant life or death. The three helmets on the turret roof would limit the line of sight for the commander (the most important eyes in the crew). The same with the spare track on the turret roof.

2) Soot at gun tube muzzle: conventional wisdom is that WW2 era ammo didn't produce dark powder stains. What staining did appear was more likely from the drips of continually swabbing out the gun tube. Yes, many modellers do it. Forget about what you see other modellers do, look at photos.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Continue the good work!

Roy,

Thank you for your comments. All feedback is appreciated. I have taken the tracks draped over the front off. I thought they would look cool, but the impracticality of this finally outweighed "cool" and I had to take them off. As for the tracks on the turret top, I based these on some pics I have. It does seem like they would block the commanders view though. I will mull it over. Thanks for getting the gears turning.

Cheers

Branden

I like the rust you used on the exhaust system.and turret area. The rest kinda looks like the mud effects especially the bullet holes in you attachable plates. I also would go back and touch up tracks with a little metal especially around the edges where they would rub going through the sprocket, the center guides, and some of the high spots on the bottom of the track where it would meet the road. Real nice job though

Thanks to your suggestions, here is the updated model.



Cheers

Branden

The tracks look 10x better. I'm sure she will make a fine start to your collection of German AFV. Now go get one of those super Tigers from Dragon and have a go at one of those jewels

The tracks look better in the final photo, but the area between the raised portion still looks like unpainted black vinyl. Could just be the photo though.

Overall it looks like a very nice build.

Thank so much. I just ordered a Dragon Tiger I late version that I plan on putting in a dio with this one. The color between the raised parts on the track is actually steel grey but the flash makes it look like the vinyl.

Thanks again for the comments, it's great to get constructive critism.

Cheers

Branden

The final product looks great. The rust stands out alot i must say. Love the damage you placed on it too.

Great job!

Thanks Jeremy,

After posting that picture, I decided to tone down the rust a little. It was kinda bright. As for the rust streaks on the skirts, I don't know how to tone it down or hide it, so I will have to live with my mistake (a good lesson learned)

Cheers

Branden

That's the spirit!

Those are only minor mistakes. I would rather invest the time in making a better Tiger I late than going over the bullet holes again. I have been peeping into the box, believe me you need to spend much more time in this kit.

Just hope yours arrive soon.