Panzer IV upper hull

A slightly quicker building post

Like you may have noticed the bottom hull was a large assembly and came with a long post, so I thought I'd compensate by writing a tiny bit simpler post of the rest of the hull, and leave the turret as its own episode.

Previously missing armour plates

To keep the driver and the radio operator safe, I glued on the hatches with their little subhatches on. I could almost see how the rain water or slush gathered into these crevices. Brrrr.

Oddly enough the deck didnt' get absolutely anything else on it at this point, so I got to glue it onto the hull. Learning from the past I did this in stages to avoid gaps.

 

Then I glued on the upper front glacis plate that hopefully kept the incoming shells from the lap (or face) of the driver. A couple of hatches for break maintenance got glued on, and these little cupolas were protecting the air vents of the brakes. Funny things you learned while playing with plastic.

Into this gaping hole I needed a vertical armour plate with driver's periscope and the radio operator's scythe. This ball-joint MG was cool and to my great surprise I managed to build it so that it was still movable.

The armour plate went in place nicely and without arguments. Thanks for the cooperation!

Bottom decoration

Even though no one was going to look – apart from some photos – what happened underneath the tank, I did add the bogies' bolts. This was an interesting approach: in the upper edge of a double sprue there were some bolts that were to be sliced off and then glued in place. Had I been smart, I'd taken a fresh blade in use.

These from here...

...onto these attachment points

One at a time

10% complete

50% complete

It was some accurate stuff. A couple of these bolts got lost or broke due to miscutting, but luckily there were a few spares. I think I was left with two unused.

Side pieces

Maybe these were safer to install after the deck was glued on, on the other hand I didn't see a reason to hoard some of the tools over a couple of steps. On the right side of the tank I installed a shovel, a thingy for the antenna to rest on, and the antenna itself. That one could've been installed standing proudly but I felt like pulling it down this time.

On the left side I added some more sticks that also blocked the installation of some of the optional tools like the shelf for spare roadwheels. This was exactly what I would've liked marked much more clearly: what prevented which bit and what could you freely choose while building?

The hull got assembled pretty nicely so my hopes for the turret were pretty high.

Panzer IV lower hull

Model four

My calendar was in such a state that had I shared this project into a post per modeling session like I've done a few times, the content might be split into single sentences at worst. Instead this project is going to be written about in some sort of larger entities, made up on the go.

Following the instructions

Even though this was my fourth Panzer IV frame (an unpainted Hummel, Sturmpanzer IV, Jagdpanzer IV), I was going to be nice and follow the instructions as I didn't really know where to take shortcuts and which made more sense in which stage. That was assuming there were such things where I would strongly deviate from the modelmaker's suggested approach.

Photoetch bits first

The first thing to notice was that the Panzerwanne, straight out of the box, was in a state that in earlier models had taken a good bunch of steps to get to. Now I got to start from these PE hatches to the engine's vents. Somehow the instructions were a bit strange to me here and I could've easily done them a bit wrong. The superglue I had at this point was stupid to use (what it had was not a fine nozzle) so I had to twist some wire to make an applicator that allowed me to use tiny dots of superglue instead of massive globs on, over and around the pieces.

At the same time I also assembled some roadwheels, and two of the jerry cans. Of course I hadn't seen a live jerry can in 23 years so I didn't remember how the lids were to be.

Hatches, tools and return rollers

The heavier work on the lower hull started showing when the front edges of the combat department got hatches, the jack block, a couple of hooks and I wasn't entirely sure what the half-cylinder was for but I guessed it was related to airflow based on the position. Of the barrel cleaner options I just randomly chose one and glued it on.

 

Now the mechanism started turning out: first I installed the things by the drive sprockets and the bogies' stoppers (the little disks along the bottom edge) and built the return rollers that even had maker markings on the rubber parts.

After this I built the bogies with their leaf springs, four per side. Something struck me funny about these and their instructions, but that didn't stick to my memory as I built everything via dry-fitting anyway..

During that same evening I had the time to assemble the roadwheels that each indeed had a more or less readable Continental text, unlike in my earlier builds. I remembered reading ages ago of a higher-pricepoint model that had an extra line on the embossed letters to avoid being sued.

From the wheelsets I moved forward to the rear of the tank and its rear armour plate, where the first piece was the exhaust pipe / barrel and the track tension adjusters. In these first photos the armour plate was upside down.

While attaching it I managed to lose the other L-shaped bit from the middle of the plate. No idea when or when this happened.

Now I encountered the first larger change to be done based on which variant I had chosen. Of course I hadn't thought of it that much so my randomizer song ended on F2 with its ball-shaped muzzle brake. To make that version, I had to violently undo some extra bolt-on features.

Fenders and more tools

Now the instructions told me to start installing various and numerous tools onto the fenders and this made me believe that the lower hull was more or less done. While working on the tools I frog-jumped back and forth to give the freshly glued bits a bit of time to cure while I started on others, the instructions were pretty weird here. What was optional and which were optionals together and which didn't align with each other? It was clear that not everything could go on as instructed.

Because the instructions were odd, I just chose what I fel tlike and then added the front and rear flaps. With those cured I glued the fenders onto the hull. These bits had a pretty neat anti-slipping texture and even the flipsides had textures, even if they were not going to be seen in this build.

My model four felt like it was progressing with leaps and bounds now, but much of that came from the incredibly far-prepared Panzerwanne that I started with. All of this so far had taken a handful of real world hours, much of that time went into cleaning up the pieces.

Early thoughts about the assembly

First of all I had to praise the details here. The bits have been fantastic.

The only complain-like thing I had about the model itself so far was the amount of cleanup required, below's a photo of the deck piece with pretty hefty channel residue. They weren't bothersome where they were located in this case, the worst ones were inside the track tension adjusters where nothing would've fit if these chunks remained. Each of these has gone away without swearing and they've only consumed some time, not nerves.

After the cleanup the pieces have fit together very nicely and there haven't been any problems. All the bits have also found their places well and without guessing or much fiddling. Like I said, great stuff so far.

Project IV/24

Border model Panzer IV F2 || G

During the skiing vacation week (mid-February) I visited Tieto-Nikkari, a model shop in Helsinki, after my workday. After having a good nice chat with the owners I walked home with a Panzer IV box from Border model,  a new-to-me manufacturer. I had never heard of this Chinese company before but I wasn't one to keep track of that space.

By accident the Panzer IV ended up being the fourth project of the year. I never planned these in advance, I just started on what felt the most interesting or pressing at the moment.

Pieces

A good amount of sprues were hidden in the box, the only thing I could say out right was that the Panzerwanne was unusually tall and curiously the turret's main part was built out of a number of bits, and that the tracks were a link & length setup.

The tracks made me think if I should order some 3d-printed articulated tracks to try that stuff out. Of course I could get some metallic ones, which was a thing I had long wanted to retry. But but but.

In addition to the decals and a couple of PE details the kit also included a metallic tow cable and a fancy barrel for the KwK. The metal barrel was something I truly didn't expect to find in a 40€ kit.

Instructions

Like always I just took a cursory glance at the instructions this time. They seemed clear and the differences between versions looked neatly marked. Of course this was based on a bit of skimming, I may end up complaining later on when I actually follow them step by step.

For the paint schemes there were a nice handful of suggestions, even if I have never really tried to replicate any of them myself. My models have always been generic units, instead of historically accurate and documented individuals.

Right now I hadn't got a clue which variant I'd go for. The decision could be done based on a tiny detail like the shape of the muzzle brake (the G looked normal but the F2's ball-shaped muzzle brake was so odd that it'd stand out for years).

Finished: Project III/24

Mongrel, later Grendel A

This 45 ton Medium OmniMech originated from the Clan Diamond Shark, then later with trade and Trials spread effectively to the other Clans as well under its new name. This individual represented the alternative configuration A where armoured doors on the shoulders hid LRM-15 launchers, both with two tons of missiles, and a Medium Pulse Laser and an Extended Range Small Laser in the Right Arm. The Left Arm was just an arm with the hand, good enough to punch others or for picking up tree trunks as clubs. For example.

Photos

A few photos of the completed mini:

As I showed a couple of quick comparison photos of this Grendel with the other two Points in its Star, I took a couple of supposedly better photos:

To wrap the photos up, my two Mongrel/Grendel variants Prime and A side by side for comparison:

Phew, the amount of energy weapon lenses I now had to repaint to achieve some sort of a unified approach to life.

Time usage

This mini didn't take more than a couple of silly hours. About twenty minutes to remove the Prime variant's weapons and some sort of cleanup. When adding on the new weapons, most of the time went in making the armour plates for the LRM launchers small enough. The conversion took something like half an hour all in all.

Painting was pretty quick, the black primer was on in minutes, just like the overbrushed cold grey and the lighter grey shape-breakers. Most time got spent on the various markings because I was so awfully bad at it. With the jewelings, oil washings and cleanups this took maybe three quarters of an hour.

My base was done in five minutes so that was almost a rounding error. Then whatever doublecheckings and such took a bit more, but the total didn't exceed two hours. Of course all the pondering, checking, rummaging in the bits box and all the not-visible tasks took their own time but not sillily much. I was going to claim this was all done in ~3h.