Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf. H Vomag. Miniart 35302 ***FINISHED ***

[edjbartos]

 

Hello everyone, hope everyone is well. Onto a new project, for this one I have decided to build a Panzer IV Ausf H Vomag, early production June 1943 from Miniart. I bought two different versions of this model in a sale last year, for once I'm not doing an interior build, so this will make a nice change. The last Panzer iv I built was a Dragon one about 10 years ago, so it will be interesting to see how this one turns out. As normal the kit is full of parts and the detail looks very impressive.
 

There are five different colour schemes to choose from and the one that I will be building will be the same as the box art which is the Pz.Rgt. 35, 4.Pz Div. Ukraine, Kovel District. Spring 1944. I shall be building this straight out the box, the only additions will be figures and some tow ropes that I will need to make.

Here are some art photo's...
 

 

 

 

 

So the first part of the assembly is constructing the hull. No one piece hulls here, these are the bits that make up the hull...

 

 

 

 

This is the hull after assembly, all the parts fit beautifully together, I hope this is the trend for the future of this build....
 

 

 

 

I've never made a snow scene before, so this is one of the reasons why I picked this colour scheme and a chance to do something different. I started to look for suitable figures to put into this tank and there are quite a few really good one's. I've been looking at "Alpine" and "Valkyrie" figures which are really nice, but the ones that I have chosen are from "Panzer Art" with winter clothing....
 

 

 

 

   These are the figures, very nicely detailed....

 

 

 

 

It's nice to have a spare set of heads, I noticed on the photo that the Commanders head, which is the third from the left has a couple of pin holes above his left eyebrow which will need filling.  Also you get a pistol holster and a set of binoculars and there are headbands for the headphones. Those will interesting to trim from all of those gates, I'll have endless fun with those.🤣   I think they have been taking lessons from Miniart to see how many gates they can put in as short a space as possible. The figures themselves look really nice, so I'm looking forward to doing those when the time comes...

Next up is to continue with the hull, the glacis plate has several components to be built into it like the hatches etc,  then the instructions get you to start building up the tracks. I think I'll do a few short sets at a time in between building the rest of the tank, It's less onerous doing it that way...

 

That's all for now, I'll be back when I have more to show...

 

All the best

 

Ed
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[echen]

1 hour ago, edjbartos said:

That's all for now, I'll be back when I have more to show...

Looking forward to it.

[Stef N.]

Me too. Nice one Ed, this looks to be a good 'un.👍

[Watto]

Great project to get stuck into, winter camo is something I hope to have a go at, I'll be watching with interest. 

 

 

[Model Mate]

The figures look really nice, but I wonder about the headbands too -  might actually be easier to scratchbuild them I think. Looking forward to see what you do with this, if it’s up to your usual standard it’ll be a belter I’m sure!

[FrancisGL]

Hi Ed,

A very interesting project, with a very complete kit, I'd love to see what you do with one of my favorite tanks.

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

[edjbartos]

14 hours ago, echen said:

Looking forward to it.

 

14 hours ago, Stef N. said:

Me too. Nice one Ed, this looks to be a good 'un.👍

 

13 hours ago, Watto said:

Great project to get stuck into, winter camo is something I hope to have a go at, I'll be watching with interest. 

 

 

 

many thanks chaps, It's a really interesting kit, lets see what happens...

 

thanks for commenting

 

Ed

[edjbartos]

11 hours ago, Model Mate said:

The figures look really nice, but I wonder about the headbands too -  might actually be easier to scratchbuild them I think. Looking forward to see what you do with this, if it’s up to your usual standard it’ll be a belter I’m sure!

 

 

thanks Model Mate, I know what you mean, when I first looked at them I had the same feeling. At least I have one spare to try just in case...

 

Ed

[edjbartos]

6 minutes ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi Ed,

A very interesting project, with a very complete kit, I'd love to see what you do with one of my favorite tanks.

Cheers and TC

Francis.👍

 

Thanks Francis, I've always liked this tank too along with the Stug, which I have the interior version and will probably do next after this. I'm glad Miniart have made a few versions of this as their kits are pretty much complete...

 

thanks for commenting, much appreciated

 

Ed

[PlaStix]

Great idea for a project Ed. Looking forward to following your progress.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Muchmirth]

This looks like it’s going to be a cracker!!!

[Bullbasket]

Not a fan of German tanks (apart from the lll's), but I am a fan of your builds, so I'll be following along.

 

John.

[edjbartos]

4 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Great idea for a project Ed. Looking forward to following your progress.

Kind regards,

Stix

 

3 hours ago, Muchmirth said:

This looks like it’s going to be a cracker!!!

 

 

Many thanks both of you, your comments are much appreciated...

 

Ed

[edjbartos]

1 hour ago, Bullbasket said:

Not a fan of German tanks (apart from the lll's), but I am a fan of your builds, so I'll be following along.

 

John.

 

 

Thank you John, I haven't done any German armour for a very long time and Miniart seem to have produced quite a lot of new Panzer iv's and Stugs, I thought it might be a nice change to do something different. Glad to have you along, It's very much appreciated...

 

Ed

[Maddoxx77]

This looks interesting..... will grab a chair and a couple of beers. I think i will enjoy this one 👍😀

[Hamden]

 

I'll grab a chair and follow along as well if I may?

This looks to be a very interesting project please carry on in your own time

 

       Stay safe         Roger

[edjbartos]

9 hours ago, Maddoxx77 said:

This looks interesting..... will grab a chair and a couple of beers. I think i will enjoy this one 👍😀

 

3 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

I'll grab a chair and follow along as well if I may?

This looks to be a very interesting project please carry on in your own time

 

       Stay safe         Roger

 

 

Many thanks both of you for your comments, glad to have you both along. As for the beer's I think I'll join you, but don't know what will happen to the model afterwards !

 

all the best

 

Ed

[LankyPanky]

I've got a Miniart Panzer iv interior kit that i want to start soon so will see how the 'simpler' version of this slots together, looking forward to it

 

JC

[edjbartos]

1 hour ago, LankyPanky said:

I've got a Miniart Panzer iv interior kit that i want to start soon so will see how the 'simpler' version of this slots together, looking forward to it

 

JC

 

Yes that looks like a really nice kit, I've done quite a few Miniart interior kits of late and I just wanted to do something a bit simpler plus I wanted to add figures and a diorama. I will make a note to look out for your build when you start it though...

 

all the best

 

Ed

[vaoinas]

Panzer IV is one of my favorite ones and I'll follow this build with a great interest.
I have  built Dragon and Tristar ones, so to see how Miniart goes together will be interesting.

 

 

Kristjan

[f matthews]

There are some construction frustrations that I had with this kit.  The superstructure is not fun-particularly the curious design splitting off the hatch area as a separate piece.  The locating tabs make the fit impossible (or did on mine), so I removed them and still had to fill the resulting seam.  I love Miniart kits, but frustrations with this one have left it sitting partially completed for two years next month.  

I will eventually get back to this one-hopefully sooner than later because the detail is exceptional in many places.

Edited February 27, 2023 by f matthews

[LankyPanky]

4 hours ago, edjbartos said:

 

Yes that looks like a really nice kit, I've done quite a few Miniart interior kits of late and I just wanted to do something a bit simpler plus I wanted to add figures and a diorama. I will make a note to look out for your build when you start it though...

 

all the best

 

Ed

it's the "Big Set" for their Repairing of Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. H so will likely be a long time renter of some desk space/

 

JC

[edjbartos]

5 hours ago, vaoinas said:

Panzer IV is one of my favorite ones and I'll follow this build with a great interest.
I have  built Dragon and Tristar ones, so to see how Miniart goes together will be interesting.

 

 

Kristjan

 

 

Thanks Kristjan, hopefully it will be a nice build...

 

 

1 hour ago, LankyPanky said:

it's the "Big Set" for their Repairing of Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. H so will likely be a long time renter of some desk space/

 

JC

 

 

Blimey, that is a bit of a monster build, see you in a years time then...

 

thanks both

 

Ed

[edjbartos]

1 hour ago, f matthews said:

There are some construction frustrations that I had with this kit.  The superstructure is not fun-particularly the curious design splitting off the hatch area as a separate piece.  The locating tabs make the fit impossible (or did on mine), so I removed them and still had to fill the resulting seam.  I love Miniart kits, but frustrations with this one have left it sitting partially completed for two years next month.  I will eventually get back to this one-hopefully sooner than later because the detail is exceptional in many places.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up, I'll make sure to keep that in mind when I get to that section. Lets see how it goes...

 

thanks again

 

Ed

[edjbartos]

 

Hello folks, a new update. I've done quite a bit more since the last update, not only did I get carried away, there wasn't a good time to show the issues that I had going forward until now. Anyway when I left the last update I had to complete the glacis plate assembly and add the plate below it...

 

 

 

 

I added the arms for the return rollers and also the rubber bump pads at the bottom...

 

 

 

 

 

I then started on the track assembly, I thought these were originally for the main tracks, but I found that It was only for the ones that went onto the glacis plate and the plate below it....

 

So I started cutting these off the sprue and cleaning them up, Miniart give you a nice little jig for the tracks to sit into and sets of pins...

 

 

 

 

This photo is how Miniart would like you to assemble the tracks together. It took me about 5 minutes to get to this point. The pins are extremely fragile, in that they bend easily. In fact the bottom right one on the photo shows one out of position, this happens all the time when you try to assemble, you are forever straightening them up again. I found that as soon as you get three or four pins in position then the others wouldn't and when finally you did get those in place, then the first ones would pop out. It felt as though I was handling a set of bag pipes. 
 

 

 

 

I decided to do four tracks at a time and use three pins too secure them and just before pushing the pins home I added a touch of Tamiya extra thin  and waited a few seconds then pushed them home. Without cement the pins drop out very easily.

 

Here they are assembled, the lower track is for the glacis plate and I added 0.4mm copper as these are to be used on the mounts on the glacis plate to hold them into place. They are a bit long now but I will trim later when I get to fitting them in....
 

 

 

 

So next up was to glue on the fenders. The left hand side one was no real issue as you had a couple of location points, so I used Tamiya extra thin quick set as I wanted this to set as quickly as possible...

 

 

 

 

The right hand fender was a problem though, I couldn't get this to fit,  you get a very thin area in which to locate the fender, The photo below is at least 2-3 times the size and it still looks thin...

 

 

 

 

So I decided to assemble the super structure instead. I know that @f matthews  had issues with this in the previous post so I knew I had to look at this carefully.

I began by getting all the parts ready, here they are, again no one piece assemblies here...

 

 

 

 

 You have to be really careful gluing this lot together, if you are a bit out of line then the errors propagate. I decided to start by using dots of CA to glue the grille shaped items to the top of the structure then added the backplate with CA and test fitted onto the main hull. Once happy I then  applied extra thin quick set to all the edges and waited for them to set. The idea with the CA was that If something was out, all I had to do was to twist the item to get them off and try again. I then did the same for the two side pieces, then dropped in the plate with the hatches and once happy with the fit, I glued that with the front plate with extra thin. Here's the result,  just a few very slight gaps that need to be filled in later...

 

 

 

 

Now I decided to test fit the super structure to the hull assembly and found that it would not fit properly. At the bottom of the super structure there are three tabs which locate into corresponding slots on the fender. The problem being that the tabs are the same width as the slots so won't fit in. You need to sand them down a bit to get them to fit. At this point I also tried the CA route with the other fender and found that when the super structure went on top  it just didn't line up. I just couldn't get this to fit so I twisted this off and I decided to glue the super structure to the hull without the other fender ...

 

 

 

All I had to do now was to position the fender at a slight angle and push, it literally snapped into place, Amazing!. I couldn't believe it. All I had to do then was to apply cement and this is the result....

 

 

 

 

 

I'll have remember this method for when I eventually get to do the other Panzer IV that I have, hence that's why I've added this for reference later on....Anyone doing one of these please feel free to do the same...

I'm very happy with the way this has turned out so far, being that the assembly was quite complicated to do...

 

Next up are little bits and pieces to add around the body structure, I'll be back when I have more to show...

 

all the best
 

Ed