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Airfix HO/OO Panzer IV Tank


John

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I don't think there's a thread for this kit in the GB, and that's a shame. I picked this one up a few days ago:

 

46985310491_931c8ba0ce_c.jpgPanzer1 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

This was far and away my favourite Airfix tank kit from my young days. Easy to build, you didn't need to paint it because the colour of the plastic already matched the boxtop and most importantly it didn't have zillions of interleaved road wheels.

 

This is an early Humbrol era example. The colour of the plastic is like nothing I've ever seen in an Airfix box:

 

46985310101_64133d44b7_c.jpgPanzer2 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

It looks more like something Matchbox would have put out. I have seen a green one though, which I think may have come from one of the Battlefront boxes.

 

Instructions and a diminutive decal sheet complete the contents:

 

46985311101_1686e4c9c8_c.jpgPanzer3 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

I'll put it together alongside the Mobelwagen. It'll make a nice contrast.

 

John

 

 

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Nice one John, 

 

i remember building one of these, I think your the first Airfix kit. There are a few other manufacturers in the Gentleman's scale.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I managed to set aside a couple of hours for some recreational kitbashing this afternoon and moved the Airfix Panzer on a bit. I've got the main structure pretty much complete:

 

47128264511_b2c068ab49_c.jpgPanzer4 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

Mostly it fits fine but there are a few minor gaps that need a bit of pressure to close and a few others that will need a bit of remedial work but for a kit rapidly approaching its 50th birthday there's nothing unexpected. There are moulding pips between the bogies that need to be carefully removed - or maybe not as they would be hard to see when the wheels are added. I took them off.

 

I've started to drill out the muzzle of the long 75mm gun for a bit of extra realism:

 

47128264681_9e3f2388be_c.jpgPanzer6 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

Needs to be centred up a bit.

 

Finally an aerial view:

 

47128264191_d3b54a89ed_c.jpgPanzer5 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

Good fun. I think we'll be going for an out of the box build using the supplied Afrika Korps markings.

 

At the moment it looks like it has been carved out of a lump of Werther's Original...

 

John

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Hi John. Great to see you have made some progress and that you are enjoyng the build. And I can see what you mean about the colour of the plastic! :hypnotised:

Kind regards,

Stix

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Das Wertherpanzer is finally progressing, if a bit slowly. Main construction is completed and the model has had a couple of thin coats of Humbrol 26 Khaki enamel to kill the lurid plastic and as a reasonable match for the RAL 8000 of early Afrika Korps vehicles:

 

46606781385_e222f5a89b_c.jpgPanzer8 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

40556210723_dec33f6796_c.jpgPanzer9 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

47469531802_a8a9657fe8_c.jpgPanzer7 by John Walker, on Flickr

 

There area couple of touches of Games Workshop Green Stuff filler, but nothing major.

 

The plastic is not only a horrible colour, it isn't nice to work with. It's quite soft, almost half way between normal polystyrene and the polythene they use for their figure sets. Even my good Xuron clippers are struggling to give a clean cut.

 

John

 

 

 

 

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