vaoinas Posted May 2, 2021 Author Share Posted May 2, 2021 Hi! It's been a while. I've been mostly busy with the tool clamps and holders. There are a lot of these and the progress has been slow. Most of the clamps and holders are from the Armorscale fenders kit I'm using. I intend to replace the plastic antenna mount as well, but the kit I plan to use hasn't yet arrived. One thing I noticed when checking different photos is that Dragon got the upper conical bolt head row too high on the upper hull additional armor plates and these need to be cut off and glued 1,5mm lower. Smoke candle rack on the rear is E.T. Models little set. This one went together quite nicely. All the bolt heads are replaced with Master Club bolts however. On the front I decided to use a spare track attached to the towing pintles. This kind of configuration can be sometimes seen on DAK Panzers. To the rear of the engine deck I added spare wheel holders each side - these can be seen quite often in different photos. The stainless wire pre-bent holders were provided in the kit and I only added weld seams when gluing these in place. And finally, here's what happens when driving not careful enough. Kristjan 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted May 2, 2021 Author Share Posted May 2, 2021 And as the build phase has been mostly finished, here's how it looks before painting. 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stef N. Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 Brilliant Kristjan. Really top quality model making. As mentioned on another thread I am not that keen on using etched metal but I can appreciate how good it looks when used by more competent hands. Nice one, look forward to the paint.👍👏 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 Beautiful construction work Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewolf Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 On 03/04/2021 at 00:48, vaoinas said: Thank you for your kind words. I was a bit impatient to get the turret together so I tried to get all the insides to be painted as quick as possible. Didn't bother too much with the details there, just enough that all that can be seen trough the hatches would be convincible. And that's how it sits in the hull: Then I hurried to glue two halves of the turret together to get over with it. And in the next day I realized it wasn't maybe the best idea, because the gap between the lower edge of the turret and the hull was pretty obvious. Didn't measure it but I guess it was almost a half a mill or so. And that really was a bummer. I tried to shave off plastic wherever I could and it made some difference but nothing to cheer about. So I glued 0.25mm thick styrene strip under the turret and it made the trick. Dragon has made it that way that the turret is held in the hull by the turret floor and after all mentined above I realized it may not be the best way to do it, because after all the trying an fitting the turret in, rear legs of the floor started to break up and down and the plastic went really weak. Lot's of cyanacrylate did help that much that the thing didn't fell apart but it made also the legs look like crap. So I decided to reinforce the plastic legs with some brass angle that I glued there. As you can see, it doesn't look much after painted, but I'm okay with this as it's not really visible. After all that it seemed great again and I added the missing weld seams to the turret shell and front plate. Among other things I painted the insides of hatches as well. I decided to make these elfenbein because I've seen a few photos that show Afrikakorps Pz IV hatches that way. That's all for now. Don't get bitten by Covid, Kristjan That looks really great! Are the weld seams included in the kit? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 Very nice work Kristjan, the PE looks fabulous and lovely construction work on the tank, looks great...👍 Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vytautas Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 You really have a lot of patience to work with PE. The tank looks fantastic! Vytautas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 Painting is not necessary. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted May 3, 2021 Author Share Posted May 3, 2021 20 hours ago, Whitewolf said: That looks really great! Are the weld seams included in the kit? Thanks, mate. The yellowish weld seams you see on the photos were missing in the kit. I made these myself using Tamiya Epoxy Putty and a blunt exacto knife blade that have the tip rounded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewolf Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 3 hours ago, vaoinas said: Thanks, mate. The yellowish weld seams you see on the photos were missing in the kit. I made these myself using Tamiya Epoxy Putty and a blunt exacto knife blade that have the tip rounded. Its a really nice job! The weld seams are so prominent on the real thing, but in most cases completely ignored by kit manufacturers..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaastav Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 Lovely work Kristjan. Sorry to hear about turret issues. IMHO, Tamiya have the best way, which is 2 slots cut in with 2 tabs. Holds it well and isn't prone to breakage. Looking forward to seeing the finished item 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcoat2966 Posted May 16, 2021 Share Posted May 16, 2021 Nice detailed build Vaoinas, nice and clean. Looking forward to the colour going on. Regards Simon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted July 26, 2021 Author Share Posted July 26, 2021 Thanks, guys! While the Panther is on another little pause I'm going on with this one. Last time I left off just before the painting stage. Prepping took a little while as many of the things needed to be masked. Then went on the primer. Preshading is really not necessary this time, but as I tend to be not very good at this, I decided it's a good place to practice it a little. Then goes on Panzer Gray. I used Tamiya XF-63 German Gray straight out of the jar this time. After a coat of semi-gloss clear on the gray I had most of the decals on and then some more masking. Also all the tools were temporarily added on fenders for the next stage of painting. On the photos it has a bit more sheen as there is hairspray also sprayed on at this time. And then a coat of desert yellow. I desired a pale light desert yellow on this one and used a mix of Lifecolor UA084 German Desert Yellow with UA090 Sand. It's gonna be a very early DAK vehicle when they didn't have designated desert colors assigned to DAK panzers yet. Cheers! Kristjan 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model Mate Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 beautiful works as ever - excellent! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Juliet Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 Fantastic PE work - outstanding build and fascinating to watch! Well done Vaoinas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted August 8, 2021 Author Share Posted August 8, 2021 Hey, Thanks! After the last one I started to brush the dark grey out of the yellow. It was the first time for me to do the hairspray technique at this extent. I'm not too satisfied with the end result but learned a lot from it. Also the turret decals were added at this point - these are 15 years old ones from another Dragon Pz.IV E kit and went quite nicely when soaked with Mikro Sol. After that some oil- and pin washes went on and at that point the front ends of the fenders started to bother me a lot because of the significantly too large rivet heads Armorscale fender kit had on these. So after much hesitation I decided to replace these parts with new ones. The plates on the fenders were made of scratch, but mud flaps I had double in the Lionroar kit to use for this. At this point I consider it done with oils and washes and prepare to move on with some pigments. Cheers! Kristjan 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vytautas Posted August 8, 2021 Share Posted August 8, 2021 You really succeeded, it looks fantastically good. I really liked the unpainted places left by Dunkelgelb, it looks really natural. Vytautas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longbow Posted August 8, 2021 Share Posted August 8, 2021 Well it looks pretty good to me !! Very nice job so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Superb paint job, nicely weathered looks spot-on to me! Stay safe Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Just been catching up on this build and I have to say that it's a work of art. Excellent work with the etched brass, and the finish is first class. It's just a shame that all that interior detail won't be seen. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Great work Kristjan, it really looks fantastic, all your hard work with the PE has really made a difference and the painting is really excellent mate... Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nenad Ilijic Posted August 9, 2021 Share Posted August 9, 2021 Impressive work Kristjan. True masterpiece. I have no idea why you are not too happy with the hairspray technique result? It looks perfect to me. Cheers, Nenad 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaoinas Posted September 11, 2021 Author Share Posted September 11, 2021 Hi, Thank you everyone for following this build. It is finally finished and can be seen here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235099068-panzer-iv-ausfe-afrikakorps/ Sorry that there wasn't many updates on the final stage of this build. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper dog Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 Remarkable! Just had a quick catch up on the thread and the workmanship is excellent! Really like the the worn finsh you've achieved on the Dak Panzer IV, great work. The figure with the lizard on his arm is great too! Brilliant work Darryl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vytautas Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 2 hours ago, Jasper dog said: Remarkable! Just had a quick catch up on the thread and the workmanship is excellent! Really like the the worn finsh you've achieved on the Dak Panzer IV, great work. The figure with the lizard on his arm is great too! Brilliant work Darryl I second to Darryl! The idea with a lizard is just great! A small but very important detail. Vytautas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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