1/16 Panzer IV

[kevin]

I'm ready to start on the upper hull, so I thought it's a good time to post the latest progress.......
The rest of the ammo storage racks in, fenders on with the front bits replaced with some ones made from brass sheet. I unsuccessfully tried to make the rears out of brass as well, ran out of brass so I ended up using a candle flame to create some damage. That was a little nerve racking. fry

 

[Steve Ski]

Great detailed interior, excellent!

 

[wjbrandel]

Love the build so far. It looks great!

 

[Jakko]

That looks like a very extensive kit, and you seem to be making the most of it.

 

[kevin]

Yes, the box says "2000+" pieces

 

[scottie]

Kevin, great work so far.

 

[Jakko]

Yes, the box says "2000+" pieces

That makes it sound like a jigsaw puzzle

 

[OldManModeler]

I'm only on my third 1/16 kit, but I'm enjoying modeling so much more I don't think I'll go back to 1/35. There's so much 1/16 out there these days.

Yep. And the older we get the better we can see and build bigger kits. As long as we have the room to shelf them. I love 1/16, 1/9, and 1/6 scale kirs.

 

[kevin]

As long as we have the room to shelf

Yes, another reason why I like the 1/16 full interior armour kits......it takes me alot longer to complete them so the shelf space lasts longer. I've spent the last two + years building just three kits. King tiger, Stug III, and now this panzer IV.
I've been thinking of a 1/200 USS IOWA or MISSOURI battleship kit to do after this tank just for a change of pace. Its about 5 feet long ,so I've been looking around the house to see where I can add a shelf to the wall for it........ even though I'll its probably years down the road until completion

 

[kevin]

I haven't alot of time to work on this lately, but I got the upper hull mounted. A couple gaps that wouldn't go away, but a little putty took card of that.




I also got the exhaust mounted, I not 100 % sure I'll leave it as is, might play around with the weathering some more down the road.
I'm working on the interior of the engine deck hatches now.Once thats done then onto the interior of the turret.

 

[mark2]

Great stuff, looking forward to seeing the end result.

 

[wjbrandel]

Great stuff, looking forward to seeing the end result.

I agree

 

[kevin]

The turret basket is just about finished. A little tricky to get it all to come together
At first it wouldn't rotate completely, the commander's seat hit sone of the ammo pouches I added to the back wall. I removed a couple and added a couple hooks to hang a MP40.

After seeing these pics, I think I'll add some more white to tone down the weathering. It's so easy to get carried away with it.

 

[Jakko]

I was about to say: it looks good, but a bit too well-used

 

[Down Time]

Used this before on this thread, but I like it.

 

[Aya]

Hi Kevin,
You have sure been busy since last i looked it. Absolutely stunning work so far, things do appear a bit over weathered in the pictures, but i think close up photographs can be a bit misleading when you only see a part of the whole thing. My guess would be standing over the completed hull looking down, it would look fine. Anyway it is looking great, looking forward to more .

 

[kevin]

Moving along here, got the gun completed and mounted to the turret basket. I had two small gaps up front exterior, but some putty took care of that.




I just need to paint the turret interior and I can get the turret buttoned up.
Thanks for looking and thanks for all the comments everybody.

 

[mark2]

Coming along very nicely

 

[tbro387]

I've read much the same, they also have, to this day, a dislike for large crews. Both large in number (T-34 and the super-heavy JS-1 had 3 crewmen) but also large as in physical stature.

Max height for a Russian tank crew is officially 5ft 9in, although many say 5ft 6in is a practical limit. Explains why the T55/60/72/80/90 are so short compared to Leopard/Challenger/Abrams.

They did experiment with 4-man crews in the early part of the cold-war, but have used autoloaders and 3-man crews since the T-72.

At no point since the 1918 revolution was crew comfort a thing for the designers. But modern analytics are proving that a comfortable crew performs better. Air conditioning in addition to filtering and circulation alone is huge, the Brits even have tea pots inside theirs!

The tea pot thing doesn't surprise me, when I was still active duty our ODS version Bradley's had a water heater thing so we could have hot water to shave or make coffee or whatever with.

Your model is absolutely amazing, I'm just getting back into modeling and hope one day I can make something even half as good as what you are doing with this!!

 

[OldManModeler]

A build with serious skill. Keep it up... it is museum quality. Wow.