Pz.Kpfw.IV.F2(G) from Dragon WIP New Shoes!

[deafpanzer]

Nice PE work! Nice safe on the mounts too! Sometimes PE pieces are not the best... keep it coming!

[reserve]

I recall upper/lower hull fitting being problematic on these, somehow I managed to fumble it together without gaps. I can't recall how. With the small spot on yours I'd not get over concerned, there will be the spare roadwheels and bin with other parts that will hide quite a bit of it.

If there's spots showing post fender stuff installation which you can't live with you may try putting a good size blob of thick cyanoacralyte glue on a piece of cardboard and applying it to the gap with a length of stretched sprue. This may require repeated applications but will fill up the hole, always works for me.

Nice work so far

Regards,
Mark

[sfcmikej]

Andy: Thamks. Turret soon.

Mark: Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try.

Mike

[bbd468]

Hey Mike, Nice fix with the brass tow cable mounts. I tell ya Mike me and PE are not friends and id rather scratch build a piece if possible. Some of the PE parts on the Marder III im building are just CRAP!!! Keep it comin' fella!

Gary

[sfcmikej]

Thanks Gary. Been a strange work week. Tomorrow almost seems to feel like the start of the week end so maybe some bench time.

Mike

[Deleted]

Nice tools ,nice build , nice pics , nice post ...............Nice !

[bullardino]

I quote Carl, what a nice build

[sfcmikej]

Carl, Luigi: Thanks guys. Glad to have you along. the build seems to be taking FOREVER. I think I can get the turret complete tonight and then it will be paint time. I am a little concerned about the paint stage because of some of the difficulties I already encountered but what the heck it's only plastic.... hmmm and time, and money, and, and, and ...aaaaah!

Oh snap! The darn tracks too! Never touched anything but bandies in my previous modeling life.

Mike

[bullardino]

Magic tracks? LOL, enjoy yourself in the process

[Deleted]

jolly good work !

[sfcmikej]

Luigi: THat does not sound encouraging!

SniperSmudge: Thanks

[bullardino]

Jan 17, 2013 15:48:44 GMT -5 sfcmikej said:

Luigi: THat does not sound encouraging!

SniperSmudge: Thanks

I'm not a big fan of dragon tracks, yet they can be very nice and realistic

[wbill76]

Mike,

Congrats on tackling the PE! Always a hurdle to clear in the course of building-evolution...and as you've discovered, not all PE is necessarily better vs. the kit parts. You're right about the tow cables...the length that DML points out is the total length including the styrene eyes...so you have to 'guess' at the length needed for the wire including the amount that goes inside BOTH eyes to get the cables to the right length. You also discovered how incredibly weak the mounts are on the kit hooks...the brass rod replacements are a much better solution. Don't worry too much about getting the cables 'right' in terms of the pattern DML shows in the instructions, crews rarely mounted both cables or did so exactly as DML shows it...reference pics abound of them being mounted in all sorts of ways...just as long as they stayed put, that's all the crews cared about!

[sfcmikej]

Thanks Bill! At this point I may opt for "Gee sarge, I don't know what happened to the tow cables. Maybe they fell off in that dash through the brush. Can't we just call it a combat loss?"

Mike

[Hinksy]

Great stuff!

I've got a Dragon Pz IV Ausf. G (Kharkhov '43) to build pretty soon.

It will be my first Pz. IV so I'll enjoy watching this build come on.

Looking clean and excellent so far - keep the photos coming!

Ben

[hasenpfeffer]

Hey, it's coming along nicely. I'm sure you have plenty of company with the hull fit issues. I have this ~75% built (CH PzIV Vorpanzer), which looks very similar, and I remember having fits with the hull. I recall wondering why Dragon would want you to put together the three parts for the front end at odd angles with no positive locating whatsoever in free space... ... see, now I'm reliving that. LOL

Nice work on the cable hooks. Looks exactly like the extra bits provided in the Vorpanzer kit. You've done quite well with the PE too. Once you get the hang of it, the usual stuff isn't too bad. I say that, but I'm still not very proficient... ;D

[sfcmikej]

Ben: Thanks for the look. I will do the best I can to give you something to work with.

Dave: Thanks for the comments. I was a bit happy with myself on the cable hooks. Still a bit wary of the PE.

Nemo: Tis satisfying. Still making progress but I am having fun with a second dead computer this week. I am an IT guy dammit! Guess it's like the cobblers shoes...

Mike

[sfcmikej]

Update time. After having a joyous time with, not one, but two different computer crashes this week here what I got done on the build.

I built the breech end of the gun for practice and to give me a canvas to practice some washes and weathering techniques on. No significant construction problems were encountered here. Here are some pics of the gun before paint:









Even though the turret will be buttoned up I decided to build, paint and weather the breech end for practice. In an earlier thread I showed some of this because the coverage of the brushed on Panzer Interior Buff was terrible. The advice I received there was use primer. I have taken that advice going forward. Here are the pics of the breech painted and weathered.:







After the multiple coats of Buff to get acceptable coverage I painted the interior of the breech block silver. I used black oil paint thinned with mineral spirits to apply the pin wash. I have read in so many places about putting a barrier coat between the paint and the weathering especially since I am using enamels to paint and weather with. Lesson learned. Here is a pic of the breech left side were the washes started eroded the base color:



I didn't think the barrier was needed but now I know. There was also some dry brushing with steel and gun metal. I did a little stippling on the right side of the breech to simulate paint wear from the loader hitting the breech during loading.

After that I built the turret. No real issues here except care must be taken to make sure the pins on the gun remain glue free in order to be able to elevate the main gun.

Here are pics of the completed turret construction:









I finished up the rest of the details on the hull. At least I think I have. After leaving the instruction sequence I had to go back several times to find parts I missed. Here are the pic of the turret and hull together. It almost looks like a tank!













Well at this point I think it is ready for primer and then paint. I have yet to formulate a plan for the magic tracks but I will have to soon .

Mike

[wbill76]

Looks like you've got this one ready to go for some time in the paint booth Mike! Nice work so far.

[sfcmikej]

Yep Bill paint is next. I am looking forward to that with some trepidation.

Mike

[wing_nut]

Mike, real sweet what you've done so far.

Here are the MGs on my 1/32 Albatros Dv.a done that way.



This is the SBS i used to lean indy tracks aka MAgic tracks. been doing them that way ever since.

www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=features&file=view&artid=1737&page=1

[sfcmikej]

Wing_nut Those are some pretty nice looking Spandau MG's You did that with the Flat Black and Graphite? Thanks for te link looking at it now.

Mike

[bbd468]

Makin' great progress Mike! You liking the build so far? Any thing i should take notes on and slip into the box for when i build it?

Gary

[fightnjoe]

mike she looks good.



joe

[sfcmikej]

Joe: Thanks for looking in.

Gary: I am liking the build so far. After being away from the hobby for so long this has been a lot of fun. The two areas I would give warning to are the turret front and the upper/lower hull fit. The instructions do not call out where to avoid gluing to permit the main gun to elevate and the front plate fit is a bit fiddly. I thought I had it done well but the coat of primer revealed some flaws that I now need to work on. The upper and lower hull fit is a little off or else I built the upper hull a bit off resulting in the very small gap I pointed out earlier. However tiny that gap is, maybe the width of the sharp point of a #11 blade, it effected the fit of the crew ladder. I don't think a casual observer will notice but I know it is there!

Mike

[modelfreak72]

Coming alone nicely Mike!

[bbd468]

Hey Mike,

Thanks so much for the heads up on those issues. I have copied and pasted into my notepad i created just for this kit. I hope all goes smooth from here buddy.

Gary

[sfcmikej]

Ready for paint I think. Hopefully later today. I am going with Panzer Gray from the 15th Panzer Regiment in 1942. Going to be using Model Master panzer swarzgrau '39 - '43. I have painted the wheels and man is that a dark color. I want to do some color modulation on the monocolor scheme. Any suggestions on what color to use to lighten the panzer gray?

Mike

[sfcmikej]

THanks for the tip Steve. I will keep that in mind.

Mike

[reserve]

I generally use MM Lichtgrau, it seems to stay grey and not turn that annoying blue tinge. Being old school I drybrush it on but one has to be very careful doing this as it's easy to overdo. Tried a couple of times to use it as a filter with unhappy results, perhaps you may have better luck if you decide to go this way.

Got it stuck together I see congrats being able to do this to a Dragon Pz IV is something of an accomplishment in itself

Regards,
Mark