Panzer IV track installation

At this point at long last

I only had a few things to be done with the tracks anymore. The front's track armour was about 40% of what I needed, as the earlier one was a link too long. So I sat down and assembled what was missing, and was left with two links and some A/B pins.

The new part got primed black and I used the airbrush to dry the paint. Next I applied a general, imperfect and varied layer of brown (VMA 71077 Wood) on all three tracks from different angles and distanves. I most definitely didn't want a uniform paint coverage, but the opposite.

In addition to the tracks needing a bit more paint from the flat side angle, I ought to have used the graphite pen on the wearable surfaces, before the installation. I just wanted to avoid making a mess with the graphite, so I purposefully left it for later.

Before installing the tracks I glued the roadwheels on, and detached the drive sprockets and idler wheels to make my work easier. Had I thought of this well in advance, I'd left the return roller installation until the tracks were in. But as I've admitted before, I haven't often been praised for smarts.

The right track

One of the tracks had to go in first, and as I had grabbed the tank this way, it was the right track that got installed. For some reason I decided it was a great idea to connect the ends now and then put the track around the running gear. I guess I thought that the loop connection was easiest this way, especially if it had broken bits like the frontmost link of the track armour.

The biggest thing in this approach was to get the guiding teeth of the track past the outer return roller without breaking the teeth or the fender. The plastic was forgiving so with only a bit of stress the track was hanging by the return rollers and hugging the outermost roadwheels. Then I positioned the drive sprocket into one loop-end of the track and put the wheel in place. The toothless idler was left last and pulling it into place was easy, and the tracks settled into place very, very nicely. My track was pretty tight and there wasn't much drooping. In a standalone model like this that was all good, but a diorama tank might have benefited from a bit more of drooping on the upper loop.

Ah, it looked marvellous!

The left track

In the name of science I decided to try the other approach of track completion for the left track. I'd connect them after looping them in place. I expected this to be quicker and easier to pull the track in along its natural route along the return rollers.

Nope, I was wrong. The gap between the rollers and the fender was tight, but I knew that since the first time I tried the track behaviour weeks ago. Using my tweezers to pull, poke and push I managed to get the in millimeter by millimeter through the upper loop and to join under the roadwheels. Attaching the two ends together was a tiny bit more complicated now with the whole tank on the way, as opposed to freely floating tracks, but it didn't take much time. With the track unified I put the drive sprocket and the idler wheel in the exact same way I did before.

Nice, nice, I was very excited! In all of the side profile photos, and in the photos below, the unpainted A/B pin ends were pretty clearly visible in both tracks. Those had to be covered up, of course.

Graphite

With my tracks in place I poked the drive sprocket teeth with the graphite pen, and then proceeded to touch up the guiding teeth of the links, and the parts that the roadwheels kept clean. This was much more fun than ever before, as the articulated tracks moved gently out of the way and I got the covered up bits poked instead of suffering the glued-tight tracks.

After the tracks I did a bit of the same metal highlighting on some chosen edges of the steel tools. The key was keeping this in few pieces only so not everything would shine.

The track armour I left graphiteless, as it was just hanging there and wasn't worn in use like the driving tracks.

Panzer IV weathering

Washing with oils!

It was the time for the enjoyable but gently stress-inducing messing phase. I made up my oil wash from Abteilung's Sepia (ABT002) and had at it. The gloss coat did pretty much what was promised: my oil wash traveled very nicely in the crevices. Of course my wash wasn't consistent but I didn't panic because I could clean anything up even days after.

First evening - messmaking

Messmaking started in the turret and I truly enjoyed it. This time I left the barrel's tip alone, so I could grab a safe hold of the turret.

After the turret was nasty enough I proceeded to the hull and for some reason I started with the deck and not the lower sides. I went around the hull from top to bottom for shadows, and making a real mess on gaps, crevices and seams.

That's what I had time for on a single eveing, I didn't get to go through the whole tank yet. From below the fenders I barely touched the drive sprocket, idler wheels and the hubs of the return rollers. Everything else had to wait for the next time.

Second evening - cleaning up

The next day (evening) I cleaned up and blended the overflows, and made the fake shadows less strong. Not everything caught my eye, like you could tell from the shadow that was left above the top left front corner's hook. Also, I took the shadows down a notch or two too many from the right upper edge's weld seam.

These next two photos showed clearly the difference between the washed upper and unwashed lower half was. Of course I had started from the most visible parts instead of the more easily hidden lower half, in case I made some massive mistakes.

Some of the bits were a bit too strong here still, but the overall look was much better than two days earlier, as the details stood out from the sand yellow basepaint.

Panzerwanne washing

In addition to me working on things not mentioned in the different-level titles I started from the previously untouched muzzle break area and only then continued to the lower hull that had been the assigned holding area for the previous stages. When my washes had dried for a good while I cleaned the excesses off, and I also cleaned up the biggest half-ignored messes from the upper hull and the turret.

Being a huge fan of dry-fitting I again plopped the roadwheels on and admired the look of my tank.

Btw, the reflector in the left rear corner was still missing its red highlight and the later gloss varnish.

Textured surface overview

A colleague of mine asked for some closeups of the Night Shift method / steel texture, so I took a few photos from around the tank. These again revealed some ill-cleaned corners, or they just stood out more from these closeups than from the usual admiration distance.

What caught my eye in these photos was that the areas where my glue-putty mix had dried more while still using it (despite re-thinning it in the middle) the result was more like an orange than rolled steel. The worst culprits were the front and lower rear edge.

Detailing

With my first pin washing done I struck my greedy fingers to other detailing work. I had a couple of basic tricks in my mind and I liked to approach weathering just with my gut feeling.

Graphite

I started poking the metallified pieces that could be treated reasonably at this point, using my graphite pen. The things that made sense now were the drive sprockets and idler wheels, and I took a comparison photo halfway through: the left ones were treated, the right ones were not. I tried not to make this go overboard, but I also felt that the teeth especially would've benefited from more wear and tear.

And a dry-fit photo a moment later, what else did you expect?

Roadwheels

That photo above already spoiled what I had done with the roadwheels. I didn't catch the raised details in the photos (or with my bare, awful eyes) well enough so I mixed a drop of dark grey (RLM66) into a small puddle of tire black and drybrushed that over the out-facing surfaces. Now even I could see the Continentals in there!

A brown lower hull wash

Now I mixed up some brown (ABT093 Earth) wash and spread it around the lower hull and on the bogies as well. After a bit of curing time I blended it gently, even if it might not have been necessary.

Washing the wood

As some of you might remember, the T-34's wooden boxes got greatly improved with the brown wash, so I hoped that it would save something from these horrors. I used the wash (ABT080 Brown Wash) on all wooden parts, and they did calm down somewhat.

Apparently I overapplied some, I just needed to clean it up before it kicked permanently.

Overall the tools made me happy. Of course these photos showed a bit too well how bad I was with the most detailed brushwork (the tool clamps on the axe, for example). I tried to soothe myself by thinking that no one would see that from a normal viewing distance. But what did that help if they were clearly visible in closeup photos?

Sun-toasted steel surfaces in North Africa

Since I started with the oils I've done this same trick a bunch of times: I poked some dots of Buff (ABT035) from the modulation set and blended them with a circular motion around the upper surfaces and edges. The effect was exactly what I was going for, and I was content.

Before getting to my sepia fixing round I had to complete other procedures, now the tank just had to sit alone drying without me poking it every evening. On one hand chipping was calling me but on the other hand I didn't want this to be a worn out tank, and it already looked used to me without being sandblasted.

So I remained pondering if I did any chipping at all this time or not. The jack was also still unbuilt and not installed on the right fender, and at this rate it might never make it on the journey.