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Panzer IV Ausf.B


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Some of you may have already noticed a Pz.IV hull lurking at background on the Matilda photos.

Well, here it is. 

 

The kit is Tristar's Panzer IV Ausf.B. some of the things to add are the PE fenders and the basic set by Aber. 

I also have Modelkasten early 38cm tracks to use and an aluminum barrel is on its way as well.

 

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Assembling the hull is tricky to say the least. large thin details are somewhat warped and there 

are no exact location points to be guided of. I started slow gluing it together segment by segment, on a glass sheet under the gentle weight to ensure the hull 

to be as straight as possible. the rear wall was the least collaborate and needed some filling at the bottom edge.

 

Hull assembled, the next thing to deal with was to correct the brackets that support the idler's tensioning system. Tristar has depicted these the later type beginning of Ausf.D.

Ausf A/B/C had these different however. I didn't have any clear photo of the bracket though, so the rivets there are pretty much the way as Dragon has these on their early Pz.IV hull. 

 

Front tow eyelets were replaced by details left over from some Dragon kit - Seemed a bit more accurate to me and I had these on hand anyway.

 

One of the things that bothers me about this kit is the loose fit of the wheels. Haven't touched the roadwheels yet,

but both the sprocket and the Idler sit quite loosely, return rollers being the worst with a half mill larger diameter hole to fit in.

Otherwise the kit seems to go together quite nicely so far.

 

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Cheers!

Kristjan

 

 

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Looks like a successful build so far despite the difficulties. Might some thin cement round the axles thicken them a little? It could be sanded later if too much thickening?

Or fill/re-drill the holes in the road-wheels, sprockets and idlers?

Edited by echen
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I built this one last year.  I actually started off building the Ausf. C kit, but the lower hull plate was warped a little and it became nearly impossible to assemble the hull properly, so I shelved it and since my Ausf. B kit hull looked straighter, I started in on that one.  

This kit had been so well-received when it was released that I picked up the B, C, D and the Tauch D.  The suspension is well-done, but fit of major panels gave me fits. The superstructure was similarly frustrating.

The concept of the upper hull, like that of the hull tub, appears quite sound and logical. Unfortunately, like the lower hull, the panels that get attached to the skeleton frame of the superstructure simply do not fit correctly. I had to shave off the locating ridges to make the side panels fit and even then had to shave more off of some parts to get everything into place. Some filler was still necessary to cover some gaps or joints that didn’t line up. Finally, while one of the rear air intake grilles went into place perfectly, the left side one did not.

In the end, the kit builds up very nicely, but it has some areas where there are unnecessary struggles.

Yeah-not sure what they were thinking with the rear hull plate!

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In the end, you will be fine-just be prepared for some extra work.

Looking forward to seeing yours!!

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  • 3 months later...

Thank you everyone.
F matthews, thank you a lot. And I feel you assembling this kit, I followed your build at a great interest and learned of it at a lot

Well, another update on this one too.

 

The lower hull was somewhat warped, about a half a mil but noticeably so. I thought that the suspension would

hide it, but assembling the upper hull, it was even more warped.

Well, as these two were warped in different directions, I guessed they would compensate each other out, 

and gluing these together, so they did. The hull is almost perfect now.

 

I also managed to get some MasterClub tracks on the thing as the Modelkasten ones had too few links, even though it 

was meant for the Panzer IV. Oh well, I'll get some very early Panzer III for these someday. 

 

Here it is:

 

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Cheers!

Kristjan

 

Edited by vaoinas
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This may be fighting you all the way but you're certainly showing it who's the boss!

Looks great so far, looking forward to the next update now

 

           Stay safe           Roger

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Thank you, guys.

Little update on this one.

Here are the fenders. The fit was good as the set has been designed for this kit by Aber. The set didn't contain the 

two angles on the hull rear so I did these myself. 

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The exhaust needed some more work as the fit of the etched parts weren't particularly good.

 I replaced the smaller muffler with the Dragon one - it's a bit shorter, so feels more like the one

on the photos, but it's a bit better defined detailwise also.
Smoke discharger box went together quite alright. 

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The antenna is by Orange Hobby, the same I used on my previous Pz.IV build. 

Wooden channel holders were made from scratch - Aber set didn't have any details (except the rear bracket) for this one.

The shovel holder needed some persuasion with my trusty sanding stick. Seems that they had some kind of narrower shovel on Pz.IV - there's no way

the standard german shovel would fit there under the antenna channel. 

 

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I did my best to try and drill out the hinges on the crew hatches, but it didn't turn out too well.

Hatches are somewhat movable at the moment, but I guess I'll glue these at the end in either position.

 

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And that's how she looks at the moment.

 

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Cheers!
Kristjan

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  • 1 month later...

Time to update this one a bit.

 

I've mostly worked with the tool holders and brackets meanwhileand it is a tedious job 

on these german panzers. There are a few more to go but most of it is done by now.

Even though most of the tool holders are metal ones, I opted for the plastick with the spare track holders.

Aber got these way too oversized there and luckily Tristar got these pretty alright. 

 

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The headlight holders were made of 0,7mm brass tube as Tristar plastic there was oversized and not usable.

Rear light was altered a bit too according to the photos.

 

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And that's how she looks at the moment:

 

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Cheers!

Kristjan

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  • 1 month later...

Hey, thanks, guys!

The gun breech is somewhat underwhelming in the Tristar kit. But it will hardly be seen when finished,

so I let it be. Barrel is the same Aber one that I used in my previous Pz.IV build and it is as good as you can get.

 

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Gun mantlet is another detail in the kit that needs some attention. The sides should be grooved but are flush in the kit,

so I cut these out and used some thin styrene strips glued together to make the new sides. They turned out to be not as even as I would like

But I guess after the paint goes on, it doesn't show that much. I was really surprised though, there's no aftermarket option for this kit to correct the mantlet

 

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The turret has its basic basket floor. The motor is from a Dragon box and so is the MG with an Aber barrel.

 

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I had some Dragon early commanders cupola left over in my spares, so I used this instead of the kit one. Tristar cupola 

has no interior in it and the details aren't as sharp. The bolted strip at the rear of the turret is another story however.

Tristar provides you a straight strip for this and it is meant to be bent carefully to the curved shape. Well I can't say I didn't try but it turned out to

be the lost cause. So I used the Ausf.D part that was also in the kit - cut off the bolt heads and glued it on, but it turned out to be 

a tad too thin, so I added a thin strip of styrene on it and finally the correct number of bolt heads. There are also two bolt heads missing lower on the turret wall

so I added these as well. 

 

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The turret hatches have some great detail straight out of the box, but the vision ports are opaque unfortunately. Luckily the center portion

can easily be cut out and I made some transparent vision blocks to fill these. The metal parts used here are from 

Aber set and add some additional detail.

 

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The jack has been added to the fender as well.

 

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And finally a watering can that I made the other day just for fun and plan to use on this tank.

 

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Here's how she looks at the moment.

 

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Cheers!

Kristjan

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The work that you've done with the etched brass is superb, but that watering can!!!!!!!! Simply brilliant. Is it a kit, or did you just cut the parts out yourself?

 

John.

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15 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

The work that you've done with the etched brass is superb, but that watering can!!!!!!!! Simply brilliant. Is it a kit, or did you just cut the parts out yourself?

 

John.

Thanks, John.

 

The watering can is done all by myself. 
This photo was the inspiration for that.

 

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Cheers!

Kristjan

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Your work is spectacular here.  Having recently built this kit, we shared some of the frustrations.  I forgot about the struggles with the cupola, but they are certainly there.  In the end, I was very pleased with the result and yours is leagues above mine!  

I think the Voyager detail set has the mantlet side pieces (hard to see in this photo). They are PE, but look ok.  What you did looks great and it is very impressive to watch your progress!!

…and I cannot begin to comment on the watering can-that’s next-level stuff!!

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Edited by f matthews
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