JAGDPANZER IV, SS PzJ ABTEILUNG 9, OOSTERBEEK, 17TH DEC, 1944

[HERMAN BIX]

And one third is done......still wet so let’s see how the stuff goes over night.

[Ecam]

Never heard if Air Drying Modeling clay. I'll guess that once the package is opened the clock is running. I'm watching eagerly of how this works out and how stiff, workable, paintable and durable it is when cured. I do note the damage to the concrete prior to curing. Would think that any field damage in the future would look like paint taken off real concrete.

[HERMAN BIX]

Yes Sir, any damage would expose the bare concrete under any paint for sure.
If the stuff stays put and dries like they say then I can mask off the patches & exposed zimmerit and paint accordingly.
No point in me getting too excited until I see how is goes drying out.

[Ad Lav]

You’ve covered up all that lovely zimmerit!

Great job so far Herman.

I have a chance to buy a Tamiya JP4, need to decide where my head sits at the moment.

[HERMAN BIX]

You’ve covered up all that lovely zimmerit!

Great job so far Herman.

I have a chance to buy a Tamiya JP4, need to decide where my head sits at the moment.

GET IT

My head was not screwed on correctly when I let Kens old one go, but in all honesty, I could never have bought myself to do this to that model.
Get it Mr Lav, they are the coolest of any PzIV...........almost a version of the famous "StuG Life "

[Panzermechaniker]

Ad Lav another vote for getting the Tamiya JPIV/70. For everything to move properly you really have to be careful routing the wiring in the casemate but it builds up to a beautiful model. Since it's a 4 roller the Atak zimmerit kit is totally appropriate and really makes the model. It can be a bit delicate, at a show a young kid grabbed the barrel hard and totally screwed up the recoil and the top periscope that moves with the gun. Needed to buy a new recoil unit but it works perfect now. Plus it looks great with or without the Shurzen but I tend to run it with the Shurzen on outside as the massive hooks can get torn off pretty easily so the opposite of most tank models

[HERMAN BIX]

The clay worked good enough as a base. It did suffer a bit of cracking, but nothing that a mix of Mr Surfacer 500 and Tamiya putty couldn't fix on the sections I got done.
Hell of a mess though ..............certainly dont know how the hell that movie Ghost managed to stay clean
It takes a bit of time to dry but hey, at $3 a packet, it works good enough for this kid.
I used 250 grams to do it, thats half a packet, so technically $1;50 AUD to get the effect I wanted.

Of course there is a long way to go until this one is completed, but its really taking shape now resembling the concrete covered oddities that got me interested in the first place.

[Panzermechaniker]

I remember when I was doing my JPIV looking at the images of the concreted ones and one had taken a hit and it looked like there was a rebar in the concrete. This might have been a rod for storage that had been concreted over now I think about it but it did look oddly amusing

[tankme]

I'm sure the real ones had issue with cracking also. I just stay away from crack personally...

[HERMAN BIX]

Well I’m all about crack avoidance (mostly)

The last of the concrete is on and dry.
I will go back over it all and check the look is right before paint though.
Then it’s on with tool mounting and the rear armour that needs Zimmerit befor fixing in place.