I would like to know if the tank crews of the panzer IV H/J had their turret numbers stenciled on or did they paint them on by hand?

they did either or.. stenciling was also done in the field, and there are also accounts of numbers being painted by hand. It all depends on which unit they belonged to

If these are the HJ pictures I'm thinking of, they are not strictly typical of general marking practice, in fact they are amongst the worst I've seen! If you can beg borrow or steal a copy of "Panzer Colours", there is a series of pictures showing how it was normally done - admittedly these are on captured Russian vehicles, but they give the general idea. The guys in these shots are using templates to mark out the numbers & crosses, then painting them in, carefully!

Jody, as James quite rightly said it had everthing to do with what unit the vehicle came from.

There have been 2 exellent reference books mentioned, Squadron/Signals "PzKfw IV in Action" and "Panzer Colours",which comes in 3 parts, also by Squadron/Signal. I would recommend both and also "Actung Panzers" PzKfw IV.

Happy Modelling

Stavka:
Steve was referring to the sloppy HJ Pz IV turret numbers -- not the Squadron Panzer Colors. HTH

Stavka, Roy is right, I wasn't criticising the Panzer Colours books at all, in fact I still use them myself! But it's quite easy to fall into the trap of using roughly painted numbers, as it is to follow odd camo patterns. Yes there is photographic evidence of both, but the impression I've formed looking at an awful lot of photos over the years, is that most crews took a pride in their vehicles appearance given the chance & attempted to mark them neatly. Moreover, it would seem that most units attempted some sort of uniformity, particularly elite ones. This goes for camo painting as well as numbering.

Isn't that nice those guys spared a thought for us to make our life easier some 60 years later, so that we can mark the tanks neatly with stencil and still being historically correct?

I don't think I stand a chance of a decent freehand paint job.

Yes, Stavka, I know which ones you're thinking of, they are quite a well know series of shots. When I said they were the worst I'd seen, they are noticeably more scruffy than turret numbers in most wartime pictures. Damned kids! They were too busy putting their girlfriends names on to get the numbers right!