Panzer Mk.IV Special Derelict El-Alamein Egypt, 1942

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

While I wrap-up the paint work on my Panzer III (I’ll post it in the finished builds area once it’s done) I figured I’d begin this project, which I’ve been mentally circling and planning and bandying about for a while.

I actually started a log for this build over at SPAM, but I figured it would be okay to log this build here, too. If that’s against the rules though I apologize.

What I want to do with this project is- build it and finish it faithfully to the reference photo, and then expand it into la fictional alternate timeline.

This particular Panzer IV was abandoned and captured by the British. I wanted to make up a fictional backstory about how the tank came to be abandoned, and thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if they were on maneuvers in the desert, stumbled upon Pazuzu like Father Merrin did in the Exorcist when he was in the desert, and one of the crew became possessed and killed everybody?”

So I’m going to do a vignette with that plot.

I am going to try and stay as faithful as I can to the reference photo. This’ll be the first time I tried to actually capture a subject like that:

[406 Silverado]

I'm in!!!! 

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 14, 2024 7:06:03 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

I'm in!!!! 

Thill also be my first experience with figure painting!!

If you look close at the reference, the top hatch on the turret and a hatch up front is open, so after the “true to reference” pics are taken, I can add the figures and go completely off the deep end from there.

[406 Silverado]

Jul 14, 2024 7:09:26 GMT -5 “Dallas” Kenny X said:

Jul 14, 2024 7:06:03 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

I'm in!!!! 

Thill also be my first experience with figure painting!!

If you look close at the reference, the top hatch on the turret and a hatch up front is open, so after the “true to reference” pics are taken, I can add the figures and go completely off the deep end from there.

 I'm SO looking forward to this. 

[Tojo72]

Great project !!

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 14, 2024 7:52:28 GMT -5 Tojo72 said:

Great project !!

Thank you, Tojo!

I am going to do my best to pull this off. I have a lot of crazy ideas, and for a long time I’ve thought about how I might actually bring them to life. This one in particular should be relatively straightforward. It won’t be easy-
Figure painting in and of itself is a challenge I’ve never tried, and I’ve never built a base or diorama, either. So I guess one could say that it’ll at the very least, be an interesting, engaging, and fun way to learn some new skills.

What’s more, I’ve found myself leaning more toward accuracy and verisimilitude in my modeling. I realize that sounds counterintuitive in the context of this project, but I’m thinking that in this case I can accomplish both at the same time- a faithful re-creation of a real subject *and* take it out of the real world and put it into a micro universe of my own creation.

Or it could daily spectacularly, as many of my projects and ideas sometimes do HAHAHAHAAAA


Whatever happens, I’ll make sure that it is a fun thing to watch.

[moramartht]

This particular Panzer IV was abandoned and captured by the British. I wanted to make up a fictional backstory about how the tank came to be abandoned, and thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if they were on maneuvers in the desert, stumbled upon Pazuzu like Father Merrin did in the Exorcist when he was in the desert, and one of the crew became possessed and killed everybody?”

O.K., I'll jump in on this one.  We've got a tank that in real life was captured and the build will reflect this actuality.  But - skip the captured bit and just stick with the abandonment. There's still a lot of stuff out there in the desert, abandoned, and there are new discoveries from all historic periods still bring made.  From WW2 there was the RAF P40 found in 2012 in exactly the same condition as when it force- landed in 1942 (this "time capsule" has been since vandalised in a so-called "restoration" by the Egyptians): the remains of the pilot have never been found.  Also in the same year the P40 was discovered archaeologists excavating the Temple of Osiris at Taposiris Magna found not only mummies but the bodies of New Zealander and Italian casualties where they had fallen during the 2nd Battle of El Alamein (also 1942: the P40 is now in a "museum" at the battle site) along with a lot of UXO.  So your tank could still be out there today, haunted, looking just like in the photo and much as when it was abandoned...
Much has been made of associations between the Nazis and the occult: Wewelsburg Castle, the Ahnenerbe, and so on.  This has provided much fodder for the makers of (mostly cheap) horror movies featuring Nazi Zombies; these (and Nazi werewolves and even Nazi Vampires) are plentifully available in 28mm wargaming scale...  Unusually, demonically-possessed Sherman tanks in the service of the Allies appear in the novel "The Devils of D-Day".
So there's a lot of options to give your build a supernatural aspect, a zombiefied or spectral (cast in clear resin?) crew, the vehicle itself possessed by demons or ancient Egyptian deities (tentacles appearing out of partly-open hatches, nasty slime dribbling out of odd orifices, eyeballs on stalks instead of periscopes, and so on...).

Regards,

M-

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 14, 2024 11:07:47 GMT -5 moramartht said:

This particular Panzer IV was abandoned and captured by the British. I wanted to make up a fictional backstory about how the tank came to be abandoned, and thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if they were on maneuvers in the desert, stumbled upon Pazuzu like Father Merrin did in the Exorcist when he was in the desert, and one of the crew became possessed and killed everybody?”

O.K., I'll jump in on this one.  We've got a tank that in real life was captured and the build will reflect this actuality.  But - skip the captured bit and just stick with the abandonment. There's still a lot of stuff out there in the desert, abandoned, and there are new discoveries from all historic periods still bring made.  From WW2 there was the RAF P40 found in 2012 in exactly the same condition as when it force- landed in 1942 (this "time capsule" has been since vandalised in a so-called "restoration" by the Egyptians): the remains of the pilot have never been found.  Also in the same year the P40 was discovered archaeologists excavating the Temple of Osiris at Taposiris Magna found not only mummies but the bodies of New Zealander and Italian casualties where they had fallen during the 2nd Battle of El Alamein (also 1942: the P40 is now in a "museum" at the battle site) along with a lot of UXO.  So your tank could still be out there today, haunted, looking just like in the photo and much as when it was abandoned...
Much has been made of associations between the Nazis and the occult: Wewelsburg Castle, the Ahnenerbe, and so on.  This has provided much fodder for the makers of (mostly cheap) horror movies featuring Nazi Zombies; these (and Nazi werewolves and even Nazi Vampires) are plentifully available in 28mm wargaming scale...  Unusually, demonically-possessed Sherman tanks in the service of the Allies appear in the novel "The Devils of D-Day".
So there's a lot of options to give your build a supernatural aspect, a zombiefied or spectral (cast in clear resin?) crew, the vehicle itself possessed by demons or ancient Egyptian deities (tentacles appearing out of partly-open hatches, nasty slime dribbling out of odd orifices, eyeballs on stalks instead of periscopes, and so on...).

Regards,

M-

I can tell already that I am going to LOVE it here

THANK YOU!!!! And nice meeting you as well :-D

[kyledehart5]

Super cool and fun. Definitely going to watch this!

[Steve Zuleski]

You've got an excellent reference pic to work from. If you load all that gear, it will work realistically as you're thinking. These guys loaded anything and everything they could to survive in the boonies. This is gonna be good, no matter how the story line plays out.

Ruck On, Bby! And welcome to MSC! Cheers, Ski.

[deafpanzer]

It looks like it will be a fun build to follow... count me in too but I will be holding my bible and Jesus cross to fend off those demonic spirits in case they can travel they the internet.

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Thank you guys very much for your support of my crazy idea, it’s a great welcome to the forum for me, and I appreciate it!

 Construction began this afternoon, and moved along fairly quickly the way Tamiya kits can. The upper hull is just dry for to the lower hull run for now. I’ll need to get in there and spray the fighting compartment here soon.

You have to build the upper hull out of several pieces, and no matter how hard I try, I always end up having to fill a seam here or there with such subassemblies as those. Even though they all line up with each other HAHA

ANYWAY, I’m calling it a day, I’m tired. And this is a good stopping point for now. Back to it tomorrow!

[handiabled]

Bookmarked this!

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Good day friends. Back with another update. Of note, I did some more work on the upper hull. The hatches that will remain closed are installed, I got some handles on there, and my precision fills have been cleaned up. Take note of it, gentlemen- I am the only jackass on the planet who’s ever needed to do fills on a Tamiya kit HAHA

ALSO- I built up the mantlet and the rearward gunworks. I think there’s supposed to be a basket affixed to it but they probably left that off to accommodate the figures that go in the turret. Supposed to be three, but I’ll only be using two of them.

After all that, I sprayed the white inside the fighting compartment. Not just any white though. MRP white. I’ll be using that for the gunworks as well as for the turret’s interior color.

Why MRP white in-particular?

Some time ago, while spraying the inside of a 1:72 F-16’s air intake I discovered that if you spray MRP white over a smooth, black surface, you end up with a white that dazzles like platinum and almost glows when lit directly, and in low lights it’ll turn a lovely shade of grey and almost indigo, depending on that’s happening with the shadows. And for a project with supernatural overtones, I felt it was appropriate when taking the whole “artistic license” thing into account. Normally I’d just use Tamiya flat white 5:1 with deck tan. For this, I figured I’d want that indigo. It’ll look cool for what little white you actually end up seeing, if any.

At any rate, here we are! Thanks for looking






a href="https://postimg.cc/Dm0TJJG4"][/a]

[kyledehart5]

Off to a quick start on this one!! I’m looking forward to seeing where you take it. I like the sound of your ideas!!

[buddho]

Looks like a fun adventure ahead. Will be watching.

[406 Silverado]

The whole idea behind this build is just too cool and I like what you're doing with the build Kenny. I had to read carefully to get the benefit of learning what this build is about but it was so worth it. Will be watching this build FO SHO!!!

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

I had ideas about assembling and painting the turret today, but hadn’t considered that perhaps the interior would me littered with ejector pin marks HAHAHAHAA.

SO I filled them with sprue goo and will give them until tomorrow to dry and harden, then I’ll begin work on sanding the sprue goo down and smoothing it all out.

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 16, 2024 4:17:00 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:
The whole idea behind this build is just too cool and I like what you're doing with the build Kenny. I had to read carefully to get the benefit of learning what this build is about but it was so worth it. Will be watching this build FO SHO!!!


Thank you!! I certainly appreciate your following the build, and any advice or feedback you might have about it as I go along here. It’s most involved than builds I’ve done before, I’ll say that. But I’m trying not to sweat that too much.

[406 Silverado]

Jul 16, 2024 12:40:16 GMT -5 “Dallas” Kenny X said:

Jul 16, 2024 4:17:00 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:
The whole idea behind this build is just too cool and I like what you're doing with the build Kenny. I had to read carefully to get the benefit of learning what this build is about but it was so worth it. Will be watching this build FO SHO!!!


Thank you!! I certainly appreciate your following the build, and any advice or feedback you might have about it as I go along here. It’s most involved than builds I’ve done before, I’ll say that. But I’m trying not to sweat that too much.

Got 'er bookmarked Kenny. 

[handiabled]

Great looking progress Kenny!

[Leon]

Off to a good start Kenny! I'll be your progress.

[brandonk]

Looking good. Bookmarked this one.

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Thanks folks! I appreciate the kind words, thank you!!

Well, the build is coming along really really well. Got all those ejector pin marks removed, got the turret interior primed and painted along with the gun, and assembled the turret together. I ended up giving painting the gun a go, and now that I see how very little of it is visible through the hatch aperture -even less will be visible than that when the figure is sitting there, it kind of makes me think I could’ve saved myself some time and effort HAHA But that’s alright, I was able at least to get some good brush painting practice in. Here’s the turret shots:








I also did a bit more work on the hull.

Would you like to have a laugh at my expense?

I was getting ready to attach the little box that mounts on the rear, when I noticed that the rear part had no holes for the little mounting pegs on the back of the box. So I checked the instructions and discovered that I’d mounted a part from the wrong tank variant HAHA, check it out:





I looked very closely at the parts, and figured the only real difference besides the lack of holes for the mounting pegs was the omission of the bolt heads on the part I’d accidentally used. Well, there were plenty of bolt heads on the unused part, so I shaved a few off with my scalpel and affixed them to the mounting brackets, and then attached the little box:









So there we are!!

Work will continue, and I’m happy with how this one’s doing so far.

Have a good day, and thanks as always for looking :-)

[tcoat]

Jul 18, 2024 12:10:55 GMT -5 “Dallas” Kenny X said:

Thanks folks! I appreciate the kind words, thank you!!






I looked very closely at the parts, and figured the only real difference besides the lack of holes for the mounting pegs was the omission of the bolt heads on the part I’d accidentally used. Well, there were plenty of bolt heads on the unused part, so I shaved a few off with my scalpel and affixed them to the mounting brackets, and then attached the little box:


So there we are!!

Work will continue, and I’m happy with how this one’s doing so far.

Have a good day, and thanks as always for looking :-)

We modelers are a weird crew. Where else would you find somebody planning a project based around possession by a Mesopotamian winged demon king but be worried that they were missing 6 bolt heads?

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 18, 2024 12:19:42 GMT -5 tcoat said:

We modelers are a weird crew. Where else would you find somebody planning a project based around possession by a Mesopotamian winged demon king but be worried that they were missing 6 bolt heads?

HAHAHA We sure are, aren’t we? I know I’d sure be hard pressed to come up with an explanation for why I sweat such trivial things but at the end of the day I don’t want to think about it too much because I’m secretly afraid it might very well me the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of neurosis just below the icy waters of my subconscious.

[brandonk]

OMG !! I've done that exact same thing. I wanted to whip myself when I saw what I did. I went and fixed it like you are doing and I'm all good now. The twitching has stopped, mostly...

[tcoat]

Jul 18, 2024 12:53:26 GMT -5 “Dallas” Kenny X said:

Jul 18, 2024 12:19:42 GMT -5 tcoat said:

We modelers are a weird crew. Where else would you find somebody planning a project based around possession by a Mesopotamian winged demon king but be worried that they were missing 6 bolt heads?

HAHAHA We sure are, aren’t we? I know I’d sure be hard pressed to come up with an explanation for why I sweat such trivial things but at the end of the day I don’t want to think about it too much because I’m secretly afraid it might very well me the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of neurosis just below the icy waters of my subconscious.

Yep! I just spent an hour researching the type and growth rate of barnacles found in Scapa Flow because I am modeling a capsized ship and wanted to get it right. The twist is that it is 1/700 scale which makes the barnacles microscopic. Still want to get it right though.

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 18, 2024 13:05:03 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Yep! I just spent an hour researching the type and growth rate of barnacles found in Scapa Flow because I am modeling a capsized ship and wanted to get it right. The twist is that it is 1/700 scale which makes the barnacles microscopic. Still want to get it right though.

I get that. Details like that turn into a real big deal when we’re shooting for getting them “in-scale” and if we miss the mark they stick out like a sore thumb. I could obsess over that for hours, and have.

[“Dallas” Kenny X]

Jul 18, 2024 13:00:21 GMT -5 brandonk said:

OMG !! I've done that exact same thing. I wanted to whip myself when I saw what I did. I went and fixed it like you are doing and I'm all good now. The twitching has stopped, mostly...

I was paying close attention but still, somehow it got by me. It’s like we get highway blind sometimes HAHAAA