My styrene materials arrived. So, now I can move forward on some of the other details. This shipment included ½" styrene tube, hex rods (1.5-2.5 mm), and diamond tread plate.
Tread plate: I installed the tread plate, O-scale (1:48) diamond plate from JTT Scenery Products (
http://www.sceneryproducts.com). The trick here was that in the photos I’ve seen the tread lines run parallel and perpendicular to the long axis of the tank, essentially in a square pattern rather than a diamond pattern. The styrene sheet is set up in a diamond pattern. So, all of the sections had to be cut at an angle in the sheet. The cutting templates that I have were a huge help in making the 90o angles, since I don’t have a hobby square. Tip: remember to measure twice so that you only cut once and don’t assume that each side is the same, just mirrored, as the other.
Brake air vent cover: I used the ½" styrene tube for this beefed up with some .5-mm and .3-mm styrene sheets. The goal was to make it about 1.5-mm thick. Do this in layers sandwiching them together. In retrospect, it would have been easier to use 3x .3-mm sheet layers because they are more pliable. Use a plastic weld to blend them into a continuous styrene tube. The overall height of the brake cover appears to be about 48% (in other words, just shy of half) of half the height of the sidewall (from fender to top). The bottom edge appears to sit mid-way up from the fenders to the top of the hull.
Jack block platform: installed that.
Headlights: SMDs installed in the Bosch headlights. The headlights are from
http://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/. These are the Tiger I Early set in white metal. The same set I got for the PzIII a few years ago was a nickel brass. I don’t know if they changed the metal they use or if I inadvertently ordered the white metal version, but that’s what I got. I like the nickel ones a little better, but these will work. The headlights are positioned in this photo. In the next couple of days, I’ll add the power cable (brass wire) and epoxy them into place.
Rear plate: I used 2-mm hex rod to make bolt heads that were approximately 1-mm thick. I glued these at the holes that were previously made as markers. I also installed 2-mm conical rivets from
http://www.scalehardware.com. The tow cable brackets are from the PzIV J kit from
http://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/. These are a nickel brass and very nicely done. It comes with an excellent two cable that I’ll finish up later.
Tread plate, brake cover and jack block platform were all secured using plastic weld. The large surface area of the tread plate require fast work with a lot of coverage. But, it seems pretty solid. The holes that HL made in the fenders for tools and whatnot are a great marker for holes in the tread plate later.
