Panzer IV Thoma shields (screen schurzen)

[lost_wolf]

Loving this build capt.midnight , looks good in the pics and even better in person

[capt midnight]

Made some more headway today. Got the latches and hangers mounted to the screens.

Here's a side shot showing the pieces installed. I soldered the hangers onto the top frame, and used super glue to hold the latches in place until I could get the rivets installed.

latches mounted on shields

Here's a couple of shots of the latches on the inside.

Inside view of latch

Inside view, different angle

Full side view with them all in place.

Latches and hangers installed

And with all the holes drilled and pins soldered in place for the rivets. The top holes on the hangers will have pins installed to hold them onto the frame. I'll put these in after all is painted and ready to go.

Rivets installed

Still have to do the mounts for the solid pieces at the front end. I'm not planning on attaching the solid plates to the mounts but leaving them soldered to the front of the screens. I think it's a bit more solid this way. After I get those done, it'll be on to the plate schurzen around the turret.

Thanks for looking!

Bill

[capt midnight]

Many thanks to Rad_Schuhart for his downloadable schurzen patterns. They made this project so much easier.


After taking a look at the mounts for the front plates, I decided to just leave them off. They were going to be fairly fragile and looked like they would snag on everything. After a bit of clean up, the plates were pretty much done. Just in need of a good wash and painting.

So, on to the turret schurzen...

Here are the turret mounts installed. I cut a hole for the lower end, and the upper is held in place with pins. These parts will be removable to make it easier to paint. When they are permanently installed, I'll secure them with CA.

Turret mounts

Another view of the mounts

Here's the first plate installed. I made up a holder for the turret, then used a block of the correct height to hold the plate while I soldered it to the mounts.

First plate installed

After installing the rear plates, I soldered both rear doors in place after some trimming and adjusting.

first door added

Here's everything in place. Just needs some minor adjusting.

All installed

Head on view

A couple of overall shots. Rivets not installed yet.

ready for rivets

Another view. Still needs rivets.

After I took these, I drilled and soldered all the rivets in place. Everything is now soaking in soapy water for cleaning. Hope to be able to paint them tomorrow.

Thanks!

Bill

[c.rainford73]

Bill this looks fantastic! On an earlier project Panzer IV with turret schurzen I was going to CA glue the brackets to the turret and decided to install small pins and carefully drilled the turret with a very fine drill bit to secure the schurzen mounts with the addition of CA glue. Basically I "bolted them down" to secure them

[Arnie_DK]

Love it!!!
Really nice job!

[woolenspark]

that is nice work. Never seen the screen ones before always the wall. So cool.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Alfa Three Five]

Just one word: Impressive, your work on it is just impressive. Very well done

[capt midnight]

Bill this looks fantastic! On an earlier project Panzer IV with turret schurzen I was going to CA glue the brackets to the turret and decided to install small pins and carefully drilled the turret with a very fine drill bit to secure the schurzen mounts with the addition of CA glue. Basically I "bolted them down" to secure them

That's basically what I've done on these. All the pins except for the ones on the plates at the front of the screens are acting as rivets. The top ends of the turret brackets are pinned, and the bottom ends will be glued in place from the inside. I might put a pin on the inside just to kind of help hold them in place.

Thanks to all for the kind comments. I can"t remember seeing any of the screen schurzen done before, but surely someone has. Just have to finish the clean up and on to the paint. Hopefully I can get them finished up today.

Bill

[c.rainford73]

Well done

[HERMAN BIX]

Magnificent