How I am building the PZIV kit from Panzerjuan
Although nowhere near as organized as Mike (Inxone) who
is also doing a pictoral log of the Panzer IV kit he is
building i will take and post some pics on how i am
doing mine. I work more in the line of "mad scientist
in his laboratory" so it can get pretty messy! LOL!
I am VERY happy with this kit. It does have a few
problems but they are minor and with a little work
are easily fixed (plenty of superglue and tape
helps! LOL!). I am delighted to have one and have
not had to use one bandaid yet!!!
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Lower hull assembly
I have assembled the sides, front and rear pieces using
superglue gel. I reinforced the inside connections with thin strips of styrene superglued in place. I have
also cut down the lower hull by 5/8 of an inch like
Mike (Inxone) suggested but left small tabs sticking
up at 2in intervals. Unlike Mike i did not narrow my
superstructure but widened the fenders. In fact i have
discarded the kit fenders and made an entire plate that
fits over the tabs i left on the lower hull side tops
that will hold the entire upper body together with alot
of strength. I have also lined the lower hull interior
with 1 x 2 wood strips to attach inverted L brackets to
run 1/4in bolts thru to hold on the roadwheels. This
will not be visible to the viewer and will take all the
weight of the resin running gear and tracks off the
plastic hull and onto the wood frame that is screwed
into the bottom hull plate.
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New upper hull/fender plate
This is my new upper hull/fender plate. 480mm wide by
30 1/2 inches long. I dremeled slots to fit over the
tabs i left on the hull side tops. It is only dry
fitted now but when i have the running gear installed
i will glue this piece on at attach the upper hull and
superstructure. The fenders are now 85mm wide and the
end of the fenders to the hull sides are 36mm.
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Superstructure and turret
There is a minor error in the turret in that the slope
of the turret top was not taken into account for the
parts. This and the rear rounded pieces will not
work either. I trimmed them off and discarde the
front side pieces. These will be replaced by styrene
cut to fit. I also extended the bottom of the turret
out by 1/8 of an inch and the rear bottom by 3/4 of
an inch to give it the proper look (perhaps not 100%
accurate but if it LOOKS right i am happy!). The
superstructure is glued together and so are the turret
parts. the glacis plate is just dry fitted with tape
and the large new plate the superstruture rests on is
also just dry fitted at this time.
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Progress as of 1/15/06
This pic shows the progress so far on the turret. I
have made a turret vent and side hatches and rebuilt
the cargo box (will be attached with brass strips to
the turret). Still have to do the hinges for the
side hatches (non-functional as i am going to do the
turret and hull spaced armor). Now that the holiday
season is over I hope to make more progress on this.
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My "mad scientist laboratory"!
This a my indoor patio shop. I get 1/3 of the patio to
work in (thanks to my wife!) and to display my stuff in
when the weather is too poor for me to work out in the
garage. You can see the PZIV and Semovente masters that are under construction
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My patio workshop
Up against the windows i have a number of shelving units with my vehicles displayed. The place is really
kinda clean compaired to how i usually have it! LOL!
I gotta clean up more and vaccum the place! You can
see my German, British, and US figure collection up
against the far wall.
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This is one of my favorite images
This is my good friend Hal. I took this picture on his birthday. I think he likes to be in pictures. |
