Global Scale Modeller

To be completely original, I'll be doing the exact same kit as 4 other people, but I'll be doing the Ausf. F Version (without the turret basket) without the figures.

I'll be adding on a resin early Panzer IV-type 75mm L/24 "snub gun" as the main armament, as per a reference photo I found. Unfortunately this photo is a 1-year old screenshot on my Ipod, so I cannot show you guys it. The photo shows this tank, modified with the howitzer in the field, somewhere in Normandy-France in late 1944.

I'll be doing some interesting camo pattern for this tank, as the photo is really grainy and black-and-white and thus unclear. This tank was probably yellow with some green and brown, so I'll do something along those lines.

Interesting, looking forward to seeing it progress

Glad you joined! looking forward to this as well!

Nice one, I'm interested to see the gun mod on this

It seemed like a cool thing to do. It was also completely unique, and I like my models that way, hence why I never do the camo patterns offered in the kit!

Here are some pics of the kit:
The sprues for the tank...

...and the figures

Panzermeister36 wrote:Here are some pics of the kit

Nope....lol

Lee wrote:

Panzermeister36 wrote:Here are some pics of the kit

Nope....lol

Yeah, LoL, the pictures were like 3 GB not 300 KB, I had to resize them!

Nice decals, I've done this kit before and they work well!

Nice instructions, the norm from Tamiya!

And a great painting guide, if you can read hyrogliphics...

It's a tiny tank!

I started the kit by thinning the fenders to a prototypical thickness, as they were quite thick, and on the prototype they are thin sheet metal. I used a sanding stick to bring them down to about 1/3rd of their original size, as you can see on the right.

Then I started on the suspension.

Making good progress there

spruecutter wrote:Making good progress there

I'm 15, its a Saturday, my essay can wait till tomorrow...
Finished the suspension and the rear plate, but there was quite a lot of flash on some parts, like the exhaust:

nice work there, but essays ar important

UKscalemodeller wrote:nice work there, but essays ar important

A 200 word practice intro paragraph of one ain't that hard though...

Awesome!!

Great start. Looking good

The picture seemed to show some appliqué armour bolted to the front of the hull (may have just been mud in a VERY strange and symmetrical pattern), so I replicated that with some sheet styrene:

Many late-war german panzers were beefed up with 20-30mm of extra armour, and as the panzer II's got only 30 on the bow plate I guessed 20mm would be reasonable. I used 0.5mm sheet styrene to add an approx. 20 scale mm of extra armour (19 for those rivet-counters who are reaching for their calculators).

I placed some bolts in the configuration shown on the photo.

For the camo, I'll be doing something along the lines of this:
Or maybe this:
What do you guys think?

Coming along well. Nice job.

Did a bit of work on the turret; I posed some of the view ports open as seen in many reference photos:

Nice work

I carved out the rear view port so I could pose it open 90 degrees
It seems reasonable that the 75mm spent cartridges would have been dumped out the back of the turret as with the howitzer in there, there's not all that much free space! I added some 75mm cartridges, a 75mm ammo box, a fire extinguisher and a better shovel from various Dragon kits. The shells and the fire extinguisher are not shown in the photo though (the turret is sorta in the way), but I used my 'artistic license' and some reasonable thinking on this field-modded Panzer. SUE ME...

The photo shows tracks as additional armor on the upper front plate. The Panzer III/IV tracks are obvious but its unclear what type of tracks the others were. Panther and Tiger tracks would both fit the bill, but I chose Panther's as they fit perfectly.

Here is the Panzer IV 75mm L/24 howitzer I shall be using for the gun conversion. I was planning on buying a resin/metal one but this one was kindly donated to me by a club member! Big thanks to that guy!

This one is from a Dragon Panzer IV Ausf. E. There were many different versions of this gun (Panzer IV Ausf. A/B/C/Neubaufahrzeug, Panzer IV Ausf. D/E/F.1, Panzer III Ausf. N, StuG III Ausf A/B/C/D) but the picture is unclear and they are all practically the same.

nice going with this and i like the tracks they used what they could were they could to up armour there tanks.look forward to seeing more

Tiger131 wrote:nice going with this and i like the tracks they used what they could were they could to up armour there tanks.look forward to seeing more

Yeah, you see that a lot on German Panzers, a little bit more armor is better than nothing!

Gun added to turret. Its a near-perfect fit, just needed a bit of sanding! The gaps on either side of the mantlet are shown in the reference photo, so no filler there!

Looks pretty funny though
Almost finished, just needs the headlights!

I cover the build a bit in this vid' (2:50 - 5:30):

[youtube]R4Fup6XOaIk[/youtube]

Sorry about no progress for a while, I've been on Vaca down in the U.S. Got some paint for this panzer though, I'll be spraying ASAP

I discuss the build in this vid', and the paints I've bought:

[youtube]qr9Nh7wGAEU[/youtube]

excellent video, I posted the video on the SIG chat section because I thought it might be helpful to that particular thread. Hope you don't mind.

coladito1 wrote:excellent video, I posted the video on the SIG chat section because I thought it might be helpful to that particular thread. Hope you don't mind.

No problem Luis!

To be honest I was doubtful that the gun would fit into the turret. You've pulled it off for sure, well done, it looks like a beast now.

There's still a scale 3 feet of space from the back of the breach to the rear turret wall. If it fit in the field, it should fit in the model (with a bit of sanding you can see in my pic of the gun). It's a classic example of "germaneering"

At first it would seem like an over the top gun for such small tank, but when considering the Marder II and Wespe built on the same chassis, it obviously coped well with the extra demands.

I think you've created a little gem here, well done - and thanks for the education.

spruecutter wrote:At first it would seem like an over the top gun for such small tank, but when considering the Marder II and Wespe built on the same chassis, it obviously coped well with the extra demands.

I think you've created a little gem here, well done - and thanks for the education.

Thanks spuecutter! It's my first major mod to a kit and it turned out great! I'm just painting the yellow base now, but school keeps getting in the way of updates

Hopefully this weekend...

Panzermeister36 wrote:....but school keeps getting in the way of updates Hopefully this weekend...

It's probably no consolation, but it's the same for us older folks too - work always gets in the way of modelling time.

The best things are worth waiting for.

The tank is looking good, especially with all the extra work you are doing on it.

Rob wrote:The tank is looking good, especially with all the extra work you are doing on it.

Thanks Rob! It's a prime example of "germaneering"!

Did the base coat with a mix of Tamiya paints to make a nice dark grey. Then, I applied three coats of AK Interactive Heavy Chipping Fluid onto the model. He hazy look to the paint is the AK, not my crap airbrushing skills (well, most of it... )

Then I sprayed Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow for the dunkelgelb base color. Unfortuently, there seemed to be no point to doing this as the model appears to be molded with XF-60 paint
Here you can see the affect achieved by leaving the dark grey base show through in deeply shadowed areas. In reality, you can see this effect all through the suspension but the camera doesn't pick it up to well

Painted upper hull with XF-60, letting the dark base show through more in recessed areas, along the sides, etc. Crap lighting makes it look darker than it is.


Since then, I have done some highlights with XF-57. However, the result was far to brown for my liking, so I did some light sprays with some Tri-art Mustard Yellow thinned down a lot to airbrushing thickness. Then I did one final tint with the XF-60 again, to smooth it out. I'll have some photos of this up soon hopefully. Onwards to the camo pattern!

Here you can see the highlight-effet achieved with XF-60 as the base and XF-57 as a lighter tone.

On the top box and the jack block.
On the edge of the front, the top of the gun, turret, and the spare wheel.
Along the tops of the roadwheels and the bottom of the idler and drive sprocket.

However, the colour was far too beige for my liking, so I added some mustard yellow acrylic paint.
Then I applied the camo pattern with a very fine airbrush nozzle and 15 psi, using Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red and XF-67 Nato Green.
Some touch-ups need on the back of the turret and on the engine deck.

Tracks painted black, given a burnt sienna rust wash and coated with Vallejo dark mud pigments. The MiG Pigments where used on the tank later for a dusty look.

Excellent paint job (the camo scheme looks awesome) and great weathering on the tracks mate !

Thank Mr. Guderian23! Nice to see my work is approved by a general who saw 'em in action

Camo touched up and the same Vallejo dark earth pigments applied over matte medium (really strong and expensive white glue). Later I'll work the loose stuff off with a large camel-hair brush, leaving some mud and mud dust/dirt on the wheel but still letting the camo show through.
It's lookin' real good!

Panzermeister36 wrote:Thank Mr. Guderian23! Nice to see my work is approved by a general who saw 'em in action

that's true!
My pleasure mate

Since you guys respond so fast I'll reward you with s'more pics!

The camo is finished, along with the mud.
And BTW the wheels were painted with the new Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black

Looks superb so far, i really like the look of the camo!

HamilkarBarkas wrote:Looks superb so far, i really like the look of the camo!

Thanks, I just did the normal straight-stripe camo with Normandy colours, but it's my first real attempt at a camo pattern, so I think it's pretty good!

AK dark brown wash "For Modern US Vehicles" applied over the model, with AK's "Track Wash" used in certain areas for a darker effect.
I like the effect of these AK washes, I just got a hold of 'em and now I wash ever single vehicle I make! (its still wet so it looks shiny and weird)