Metal Replacement Cupola for Pz III/Pz IV

[sassgrunt]

I am building a captured KV-1 Beutepanzer, (based on the one photograph of the one that was re-armed with the 75mm gun). I needed to add a Panzer III/IV cupola to it, and decided to buy the metal Asiatam cupola from Welsh Dragons. I mean, as long as I'm going through all this effort, I might as well upgrade the cupola too, right?

The castings looked very good, and when I finally got the parts assembled today, I discovered that the forward-aft line of the hatches is offset to the vision ports, EXACTLY like the early Heng Long Panzer III cupolas were! (Heng Long fixed this on their Panzer IV, and I think on the Panzer III Tauchpanzer as well). In other words, Asiatam copied the early Panzer III cupola - mistakes and all! I am very disappointed, and will now probably now use a plasitc - correct - one on this build instead.

Just a word of warning to anyone else who is thinking about buying one of these cupolas as an "upgrade." -Mike

[Wizzard033]

Is there no way to mod the metal cupola to be correct? It seems a shame to have to compromise.

[sassgrunt]

The hinge points for the two hatch pieces fit into rectangular holes in the upper cupola half. I suppose you could file the rectangular openings on the anti-clockwise sides of the holes somewhat, and that might "turn" the hatch axis a little. But looking at it, I think you'd have to file each hole so much to "move" the hatches to the right orientation; that you'd probably have to fill the original openings entirely.

[Johnf]

Sorry for my ignorance. I'm not a rivet counter. Got the metal upgrade as while painting the plastic one I dropped it and broke the hinges. Do'nt even know if I have it fitted right way round.

[Saxondog]

Their is another choice,Steve@Welshdragon is a great guy. But for some of these exact duplicate assemblies Tamiya is the way to go. Their are several vender's that sell Tamiya sprue individually. You can check the assembly manuals first at Wackey's site,the purchase the sprue from several vender's.I would suggest Karen Gassser http://www.aaftankmuseum.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or Jason http://stores.ebay.com/Jasons-Store" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; This is possibly a solution,but I'm not familiar with the PZIV details. cheers Sax


http://members.iinet.net.au/~wackywheelz/manuals/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Saxondog]

Well as I said I know little about the Tamiya PZ IV, Seems their is not a manual on wack'ys site,but the AUST.J version is listed on the Tamiya SITE.