A Tale of Two...Panzers

(Littlebro) I recently got two 1/56 scale Pzkw IV kits from a friend. One was a resin kit of a Pzkw IV D and the second was a Warlord Pzkw IV F/G/H.

As my ETO armies for Bolt Action are ~ late war, and I already had one -H model, I thought why not just make them from the same zug? My brother was about to finish HMS Dreadnought and would be looking for his next build, maybe we could each do one?

...............

I thought I'd tackle the resin kit as it would take some modifying to turn a D into an H, whereas the other kit would be straightforward. 

First I'd have to square off the hull and relocate the hatch and other details. A fresh exacto blade removed the Hull MG detail and the bullet splash rails around the hatch. Set aside for later! The hull was built up with sheet styrene, and blended in with Squadron Putty.

Some sanding and touch upstairs after overnight curing and I could relocate the opening for the crew hatch.

Some exacto work, cut and fill was required. Fortunately the hatches are cast separately in white metal.

To upgrade to an H model also meant changing to the entirely different 7.5cm KwK 40 L/48 gun. The mantlet would be usable (also in white metal) but the gun would need replacing and the front of the mantlet reshaped. 

(new barrel from the parts box!)

The end of the short gun was removed, the stub drilled out, the new barrel end tapered, and the two joined with ACC.

Squadron Putty was again used to build up the mantlet to closer-to-prototype dimensions. 

Go heavy, trim when firm, sand when dry. A few applications were required due to shrinkage.

The end result is satisfactory. Shown here with the relocated MG port and hatch.

Yes, I know the MG should have a hemispheric mount, and my crew hatches were backward. The first was a conscious decision,  the second only noticed after the ACC had set. Que Sera.....

A coat of Army Painter primer and it's not looking bad.

But we're going to need schurzen...

Fortunately for me, my brother had a set of side skirts in his spares box.

These were quickly added and were not a bad fit considering they weren't designed for this kit. Only modest clamping to get them aligned and secured.

The bigger challenge was the turret schurzen. This was all scratch using my existing Warlord pzkw iv as a pattern.

Down to the drafting table where a paper pattern is made, transferring measurements with a dividers.

The paper patter was transferred to sheet styrene, cut and bent.

Each of the turret braces were similarly measured and cut from thicker styrene. 

Despite my best efforts, about half took some trimming as they were installed. Additionally,  the turret schurzen was too long, so I cut a section out of the middle and installed it in two halves.

Not perfect, but it'll do. Some hinges on the "doors" and some primer...

OK. Time for camo. Generally using the same colors and pattern as the lead #121.

Close.

Now for some panel lines / shadows.

And decals.

Now for some flat spray and an overnight dry time.

My weathering materials

First, dots of the oils applied then brushed aggressively with a clean brush and thinner to get some grime and streaking.

Then we mix the light pigment and some thinner and splash liberally,  heavy on the wheels/tracks are, less as we move up. This is dried grime. 

Repeat with the dark pigment,  more sparingly; this is the wet mud.

Here are 121 and the "new" 122 after some time in the field. For 123, here's Willi...

-----------------------End Part One-----------------

Well, my brother performed his usual excellent DIY on the resin Pz IV!  He gave me the easy job of building the Warlord kit. One I was already familiar with.  Bob now has the first two of in our ZUG, and I was tasked with creating No. 3

This is how I operate.  My "tool box" is somewhat limited to not only what I have but what I am comfortable with.  I am a hand painter that is primarily an enamel user (as long as I can get it).  Many times I am mixing custom colors as I need them.  This build being no exception.  Since the kit is a straight forward assembly I am only tasked with making this Pz IV-H look like it is part of gang!

A Testors Man, but note the relatively new tool addition - The Gundam Marker!  A very fine point for use in panel lines and depressions!

First I mixed up a color to try and match Bob's base.  Two coats was sufficient and I did most of the painting on the sprue.

Even the treads were painted on the sprue (another custom mix) before detaching and attaching to the wheels.  Then assembly began and was straight forward.

As I add pieces to the hull I try and mark out panel lines etc. as I go, either with a wash and dry brushing plus the Gundam marker.

My single DIY was to drill out the antenna lug and insert 0.50mm brass rod instead of using the kit plastic, which would inevitably get broken off😁

With the panel line marking and other details the camo can begin.

The Testors Green is too dark, so I had to mix in a bit of white and gray to get close to Bob's color.

After correcting the green I add the red which is a color I had already in my stash mixed for Hull Red!  I tried my best to copy the established zug pattern by Bob.  

Decals are next and I am 123.  The 3 lies over the schurzen hinges so some extra MicroSol is required for melt down and proper adhesion.

Same goes for the "1" on the starboard side, but the real purpose here is to show that I made the decision for open hatch and commander.  The dark gray and flesh had to be mixed!

Now for grime time.  Brother Bob's tool box is fuller that mine, but my faithful Tamiya Weathering Master provided me the means to "splatter" my tank.  A little water and mixing in the different colors (Snow, Soot, Rust) on a wide brush which I flicked with my finger sent out a sufficient amount of mud and grit.

I think the result is pretty good and blends in with Bob's two Panzers.

Time for a little head to head with some Sherman's???

‐-----------------------End Part Two----------------

HMS Dreadnought - Trumpeter 1/350 scale

 I was very fortunate to find this kit on the GOODWILL Finds website, of all places.  It was donated from an estate and was offered at $14.99.  How could I pass it up??? Even with Shipping it was less than $20! I had my fingers crossed that the kit would be complete - and it was - sprues still in sealed bags😁.

😂

As I present this build effort you will see that I continually mention that I found no other build examples of this kit.  There are many posts about the 1906, 1907 even 1915 versions and it is surprising to me the many differences that I had to deal with. I am aware of the many refits that capital ships endure throughout their service life, but I had to make many decisions on how to proceed based on common sense and general engineering knowledge.  I may be judged, but so be it.  I will not bore the viewer with multiple photos of the common construction elements, but rather problems, techniques and DIY.

Assembly of stacks is straight forward. The reason for the photo is to show the delicate PE - four pieces for each stack.  The delicacy of PE will be a continuing theme in the kit!!!

The ArtWox wood deck after market purchase.

The inclusion of background and lettering for the base was a welcome feature as you will later see.

Super Deck.

After sticking down the wood on the super deck I took care of the anchor chains - glued and painted with Testors gun metal.

I often custom mix paint. For the hull red I used Testors rust and a little gloss red to match the painting chart.  I do not use primer with Testors enamel.

Two coats with a wide brush does the trick for me.  I did first mask and paint the thin black Plimsoll line.  The paint mix turns out a nice satin finish.

The painting chart calls for gold props.  I mix in some yellow and it gives me a more bronze color.

Now for some DIY.  I drilled a hole in the cable spool, double knotted my monofilament, glued it in...

......and wound it around the spool.

This historical photo is used now to explain parts and some rationalizations'.  Note the small armatures along the deck edge.  These were for lowering and raising the anti-torpedo netting initially used on the dreadnoughts.  This practice was quickly disposed of and by the battle of Jutland few, if any, capital ships used the netting; however, the arms remained and are used in the kit instructions.  They are incredibly delicate and annoyingly fiddly to install.  This also shows my rationale for not buying extra railing for this build.  There is some included in the kit and I used every bit in places that I thought made sense.

And here are those teeny and delicate PE arms. Fortunately there were enough of these that losses could occur and still fill the need.

Speaking of railing here is a piece that, per instructions, completely surrounds this platform (note wood deck).  It has to be formed from a single straight piece which I find always to be a challenge. 

The completed assembly.  If it appears that the top platform bends down at the front, you are not wrong.  Fortunately this molding imperfection does not look so bad when all is completed.

There are five 12 inch gun turrets.  I chose to use some of the provided railing on the platforms for the 3 pounders.  Seemed to make sense and other kit builds showed it even though the instructions for this kit did not.  Let me say something here about the instructions that I think other Trumpeter kit ship builders will agree with.  They are schematic and at times difficult to interpret unless ones looks ahead to see the outcome of the construction.  There is no description of parts - what do I call this doohicky- so some knowledge of ships or research is helpful.

A completed and painted turret.  As with most all ship builds painting is done as assemblies are completed.  The haze gray for the Dreadnought is a mix of Testors Gray and white - The single gray was too dark.

I chose this photo to try and show the layers of the super deck and that there are many small columns that have to be in place and even at angles!  I thought that bi-plane wing struts were tricky, but this borders on silly. I glued some to the lower deck and some to the underside of the upper deck and did my best to line up receiving holes.  Fortunately there was enough clearance to get my tweezers in there for alignment adjusting.

You have to plan the order of construction and not blindly follow the instructions.  The stairs you see leading up to the observation deck were easy to install now and not after that hole is filled with the stack that is to be inserted.  The trick is to make sure the stairs are in the correct position so that the stack slides in without incident - success!!!

I'm jumping ahead a bit, but this shows the stack inserted.  The stairs already in place! This also shows small assemblies and the railings - these per the instructions - which were a little tricky.  The railings, like the stairs, were installed before the stack was slid into place.

Now for a tip picked up by a previous builder who took extra anchor chain, sniped links in half and glued them down to the deck for rigging tie offs.

Here is what I mean.  Very fiddly but now I can thread monofilament and "tie off" on these little lugs.

I am now threading, tying and gluing.  I will have monofilament all over the place (annoying but necessary) until the mast is up and ready for the rigging.

Recall my spool cable DIY.  Here is one in place for the "boat lift stave" attached to the mast, which is coming up.

Mast building.  Brass rod (0.5mm) replaces  the kit plastic. The base yardarm has been glued in place (most of this work is fixed using cyano gel - "Loctite").  The remainder of the mast and yards are taped down, lined up with the kit mast and glued together.  I did use a file to create slight depressions in the brass to provide extra surface area for a better glue joint.

Glued in place and upright to dry.

This is one of the two mast, tripod legs with platforms attached.  Once again it made sense to me that the searchlight platform would have handrail.  I used some of the rail on hand.  This is not shown in the instructions.  Only four short pieces of railing in the PE railing sheet are called out in the instructions so it allows freedom of use for the rest.

With the mast and tripod legs installed, which went fairly smooth, rigging ties to the yards can begin.  Working my way from inside to outside the monofilament is wound around the yard, glued and carried up to the next yard.  After glue dries the remaining monofil. (tails) are snipped off.

I keep the rigging somewhat simple.  This is the ship in 1918.  Various photos show the ship in different stages of maintenance and refit and the rigging always changes.

After painting all the lifeboats and whalers (most of it done while still on the sprue)  they are put in place.  Note the previously mentioned lift stave attached to the mast with the spool cable attached😃

The boat resting on the main deck is not in the instructions but is shown on the painting guide.  Since I had the boats on the sprue I used them.  All I had to DIY was the boat rests made from left over wood deck.  Notice the verticals on the stack.  These are pieces of hand rail for 3D relief, like the PE ladders instead of simply molded lines.

This is the same view except the Starboard accommodation stairs have been fabricated and are glued in place.  The DIY here is the added retracting cable.  These stairs are made from 4 separate pieces of PE. Note the use of some of the PE railing with the stairs!  It is always interesting to take a flat development and twist and bend into a 3D shape. Oh, and there is another little skiff placed inside the the cutter😁

The Port side stairs are more aft of the starboard stairs..

Just as I had the boats on the main deck I hooked up boats to the davits with rope falls (DIY).  The instructions have the davits empty - go figure.  I use as many parts as I can that are supplied!

I repeat this photo for the singular purpose of the handrail leading from the ladder on the turret face up to the top (without obstruction of the view out of the center view hood.  I had enough spare PE to experiment with this as follows,,,

It turned out ok, I think.  Too bad I only had enough to do this once!

You can see the little armatures that line the main deck. The position of these are are laser cut into the wood deck, but I drilled depressions at those positions to help hold the arms upright. I put a drop of glue into the depressions and placed the arm as upright as I could with the tweezers.  It was very difficult and tedious, primarily due to my clunky tweezers.  They are not modeling tweezers - I must get some.  As I stated previously there were more arms on the PE sprue than needed, but I managed to use enough to get the job done despite the losses to the carpet monster.👹

The last things were the jack staffs, bow and stern, and their flags (decals).  As with the mast/yardarms, I replaced plastic with brass.  As it was, I kept knocking into them and bending up the very thin PE supports.  You will see the rigging lines leading from the bow staff up to the topmast and back down to the stern.  I simply took a long piece of monofil. and tied it to the bow staff, ran both sides to the topmast and back down to the stern tie off points.  I did use railing from the jack staff and along the anchor chains.  I did not want crew falling off the bow.

As I stated at the outset, I wanted to show DIY, technique and modeling decisions.  I hope I did that.

Now for the base.  At the very beginning I showed the ArtWox deck having background and letters for display.  I set the wood inlay, applied the letters and thought that a copper look might be nice instead of the gray plastic - sort of like the old sailing ships  that used copper plating on the hull. 

Testors copper was applied in rather thick daubs to try and simulate a hammered effect.  My Wife thought that the letters should also be copper - you got it dear!

We are done (for now)!