Dragon Pz.Kpfw IV Ausf H

[thug626]

With the Wildcat completed, I decided to go from PTO to Eastern Front. I purchased this when it came out, and at the time I had picked up an Atak zimmerit set for it. When I opened the box, it was kinda like christmas.

[thug626]

The kit glacis plate is replaced by the Atak part with Zim molded onto it. I had noticed that it had a couple of warps to it. A quick soak in hot water and it straightened right out.The hatches are molded separately.


The Atak Zim fits with very little fuss.


The real hull plate with its Zim.


The bogies and travel stops.

[Leon]

Nice start Dave! The zim looks really good.

[wing_nut]

Good start. Great kit,

[panzerjager2]

Cool choice..... although you must already know about the "legendary"  Pz IV wheels......... the single biggest pain in the neck since the info-mercial LOL LOL LOL LOL

Very cool choice 

PJ2

[Tojo72]

Your zimm looks real good

[406 Silverado]

Off to a good start. Love their Zimm. Need to get some for my Sturmtiger one of these days lol.

[thug626]

Leon Thank you kindly my good man. The zim is pretty straight forward to work with.
Marc It is a fun kit, and I am have a great time building it.
PJ2 It beats the 48 road wheels of the early Tiger.
Anthony Thank you very much my good man.
Rob It certainly is rolling right along. They really do make a nice product. I checked my Sturmtiger in the stash. Nope! No Zim in the box. Not sure if I'll scratch it or get some more Atak zim.

This is what I got done the other day. The upper hull is now mounted.


After checking my reference book......I'll be getting a lot of mileage out of this one. There's a fair number of Pz IV's in the stash.

I had realized the fenders often had zim on them. But, there was not enough zim to take care of them. So I scrounge the supply drawers and came up with some Tamiya putty, and some Lion Roar Zim rollers I've had for some time. I finally got to play with them


The kit jack clamps had nondescript bumps molded for the single wing nuts. I shaved them off and used some Bronco ones instead.

[Leon]

Nice progress Dave!

[dupes]

I love that book...use it all the time.

Pz IV roadwheels aren't that bad if you've got a circle template. Twenty minutes, tops!

[wing_nut]

SWEET! I have to check if I need zim for my Tiger on the mud flaps. If so I am gonna try pressing some of the Atak zim into silly putty and adding a thin layer of casting resin.

[TRM]

Nicely done so far Dave! Love me the Mark IV's! LOL Looking good with the Zimm too! More power to you buddy, not my favorite thing to do...LOL

[thug626]

Leon Thank you my good man.
Dupes It's fantastic. Every once in a while, I'll peruse through it over a morning cup of java. I've been using circle templates for many years now. The exception being the RMF Tiger I just built. Neither standard or metric would fit the road wheels. So, I ended up painting the 48 tires by hand.
Marc That is a great idea! Let me know if it works, and how you did it.
TRM Thank you kindly my good man. I am going to have to figure something else out for the zim on the schürzen. I did find a couple of pics of the zim on the schürzen. The Tamiya putty goes off too fast for that big of an area. I have some two part Tamiya putty I could play with tomorrow.

A lot of parts have been placed on the Pz IV. The only parts that remain to get zim are the rear fenders and the schürzen.


I will need to seal up the seam line between the zim and the turret schürzen.





The requisite bouquet of road wheels.


I'll be using Mission Model paints for this build. This is the "primer" coat, as there will be some chipping to be done.

[TRM]

Again...beautiful stuff Dave! You're moving right along! I have never been a fan of the application of the stuff, but the end result of Zimm gives too many options for weathering! As for the larger pieces for the skirts, you could try smoothing some out on some glass, like from and old frame or something. Once made up and dried, some putty you can cut to shape and peel off. I know the Vallejo stuff is a little stretchier and works excellent like this. Great for making any chips in it as well.

[thug626]

Good evening T, That is a great idea. I'll have to try it on another project. I ended up rolling out some Milliput and hitting it with a zim roller. I tried the Vallejo putty, but lost patience with it/myself. I'll give it another go another time. Maybe i'll try a bit of feng shui at the bench before I try it next time.

Here's what I got done today. As you can see, I used Bondo for one on the panels. It was OK, but it had a small window in which to work with it. Jim at the LHS mentioned trying Milliput fine grain epoxy putty. It seemed to fill the bill. Unfortunately I got scope locked and forgot that the panels overlap each other a bit. I'll take care of that when the putty cures. One thing at a time.



You get the idea here. Just a mock up that reminded me of the overlap. Ooops.

[thug626]

The first few pics are of last weeks progress. For the barrel, I painted it Mission Models Panzer Grey, and used Vallejo Chipping Medium for effect.


There are two more colors for the camo, but this is a start.




I built up both runs of MK track. I had noticed on the first run that some of the pins pulled up short. I remedied this with 0.019" Brass wire. I built up the second run entirely with the brass wire instead of the pins provided. That way I know it won't come apart during handling (ie for painting, weathering, mounting....)


My go to color for painting tracks is Vallejo Track Primer


The directions did not call out for the wheels to be painted a multi color camo. I have seem pics where this was done, so I opted to paint them as such. The sheen is from the Chipping Medium. I'll hit this with a flat coat when everything has dried.

[Leon]

Making really good progress Dave! Everything is looking good.

[thug626]

Thank you kindly Leon

I was able to have a marathon session at the bench yesterday, and got the camo base coats laid down.

[thug626]

Here is yesterdays, and todays progress.
It treated the green and brown with some oil paint, to vary the effect of the camo. I also painted the T-34 tracks that will rest on the glacis.



This is the inside aspect of the left side schürzen. The rust effects are Abteilung oils.



The jack received its final touches today.



Schürzen on the left side is now permanently mounted. The plan has been to paint the camo, once the schürzen was mounted.


An "inside" view of the schürzen. I applied some Mig pigments prior to mounting.

[panzerjager2]

Dave,  She's really looking good..... I especially like the camo colors. 

PJ2

[thug626]

PJ2 Thank you very much buddy. The base camo colors are Mission Models line.

[Leon]

Nice progress Dave! Camo and schurzen look good.

[Tojo72]

Very nice,will have to try some Mission paint,heard many good things.

[thug626]

Leon Thank you as always my good man for your support.
Tojo72 It is nice to work with. It shoots just fine through my Iwata CM-C+


Today was far busier than I had thought it was going to be, so bench time was at a premium. Nonetheless, I got a fair bit done. The schürzen are permanently mounted. Also, painted and the beginnings of weathering.




The rear end has started to receive its fair share of schmutz.


This pic looks off, as the schürzen has yet to get dirty like the road wheels and drive sprocket.

[thug626]

I got a bit of weathering done yesterday. Not as much as I had hoped. It was too nice a day to stay inside, so instead I went and played at the archery range instead.
At least the schürzen look like they belong on this panzer. The schmutz along the bottom edge has yet to dry in this pic



The tow cables are painted and mounted. Also the finishing touches on the muffler were done.

[thug626]

I got a bit of weathering done yesterday. Not as much as I had hoped. It was too nice a day to stay inside, so instead I went and played at the archery range instead.
At least the schürzen look like they belong on this panzer. The schmutz along the bottom edge has yet to dry in this pic



The tow cables are painted and mounted. Also the finishing touches on the muffler were done.

[Leon]

Nice bit of progress Dave!

[dupes]

May 9, 2018 2:13:41 GMT -5 thug626 said:

Dupes It's fantastic. Every once in a while, I'll peruse through it over a morning cup of java. I've been using circle templates for many years now. The exception being the RMF Tiger I just built. Neither standard or metric would fit the road wheels. So, I ended up painting the 48 tires by hand.

OUCH! That would drive me nuts!

Really digging the camo - and applying the mud effects to the inside of the schurtzen is a great idea. Like, as in, how have I never tried that before?

[thug626]

Leon Thank you kindly my good man.
Dupes It was a necessary evil. Thank you kindly for the compliment.

I finished up the Pz IV last week. At least this time I was able to get some proper finished pics of it before moving on to the next build.



















What is currently on the bench now....

[pt109]

Really nice Pz IV

Cheers, Paul