RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Well lads, its time to return to my roots & build another German tank !

I've had this IV F2 for a while now and been looking for a suitable subject to get after.
There are a few high quality IV conversions on the go now which offer so much great how-to info, so it would be silly to cover the same ground.
Lots of research and learning on the many variants that the IV went through leads me to dub it "The German Sherman"
Ongoing improvements, up-armouring, upgunning, reliable, and versatile the Pz IV is everything the Sherman was.
Workhorses and grafters................no show pony's here.

Along the meanderings through the well populated pictures of these machines, a few facts surfaced.
- the F2 was a very low production model before a few changes made them into 'G's.
- F2's were the first transition into the L43 75 main gun to counter the T34 threat.
- F2's went through various upgrades on the fly to enhance their combat effectiveness, and to standardise them with production G and H models.
- F2's were tagged for the aborted invasion of Malta (operation Herkules) with a strong possibility that they were camo painted over a base of desert yellow when landed in Russia.
Its these machines that ended up in the 29th rgt, 12 Pz Div, in Russia 1942-43.

I intend to try to reproduce one of these Malta Invasion machines, B11, and its colour scheme in Russia, retaining it as a base F2 rather than a G.
Turret Schurzen might be in order as at this time the added armour fit out was well under way.

Perhaps the only strictly non-F2 thing I would like to add is a 'G' muzzle brake...............The globular one is awful

Anyway, here goes............

Got to say, this one aint endearing itself to me at all
The suspension is a pain in the proverbial to get removed, tough if I wanted to re-use the plastic suspension arms because one I broke in half completely getting the roadwheels off.
The ole HL glue masochist strikes again !!
I have a bad feeling about the state of play once I set about removing the final drive mouldings, and the return rollers.
Can just see the carnage unfolding because of that damn glue...........

Love the F2 - first of the long barrelled 75mm

Nice project for spring!

We're heading into autumn in Australia, and by the looks of things, the springs have already sprung. Right in half.

They sure have mr Raminator, its a small issue, but really rips my nightie
In fact this has started out a bit on the back foot.
I discovered just now that the steel gearbox set I have is a long shaft not a short shaft, so wont fit.
The standard electronics have been gutted & will be replaced by a 2.4 G set , once they come back into stock.

Am trying to avoid importing stuff, just cant be bothered waiting. Trying to shop local is really a case of playing whats ahead of me.
The jokers up north really have an advantage being so close to the good stuff eh

Eastern Front wrote:Herman,

Maybe you could het a lower like this: http://www.asiatam.com/product_info.php ... -1-16.html

Although that one is a Panzer III, I know there are ones for a Panzer IV, just not sure who has them... Cheers!

Thanks Mr Eastern, but my record with Asiatam is awful
I will admit that this model H/L has been the poorest of all of them.
More like a toy than any of the others I have got out of the box.
Again, not wanting to drag stuff myself from overseas is going to be a limiting factor, but one that has to be overcome another way.

Just a note Herman...on the suspension...if you are going to change them out for the metal versions...make sure you save those stock springs...I think you will find the stock plastic HL units work much better than the metal...Ask Arnie ...I mentioned the same mod to do on his Taigen when he modded his...he had a devil of a time finding the HL springs which actually work better than those on the metal cousins

I just got another PIV during the Holidays....Hell if I'm going to change the plastic out again


ALPHA

OH...I forgot...Another note is the rotor shield...all the RC P IVs are wrong...except for Tamiya ...On all the RTRs...it's the same mount as the P III...it should be shortened

ALPHA

Yep, I have the standard single leaf springs, but three of the arm assemblies are busted.
The roadwheel retaining screws were retained by the HL glue inside the wheels bacause of the inner hubs, so I had to cut the wheels with side cutters to access the retaining screws.
Then to get them out of the suspension caused the breaks.

Not the end of the world, just annoying.

The standard leafsprings will go back into the metal assemblies as recommended, on the way from

http://www.ozarmour.com.au/store/rc-tan ... e-kit.html

I have wheels and other bits coming from Tankarmy.com in Melbourne. This lot includes a gen III 2.4G set for $50AUD

ALPHA wrote:OH...I forgot...Another note is the rotor shield...all the RC P IVs are wrong...except for Tamiya ...On all the RTRs...it's the same mount as the P III...it should be shortened

ALPHA

The list of basic necessary mods is pretty long. Im looking at the current PzIV builds to pick out which I need to do.
I almost canned the turret & ordered a Jukenburg Vierling assembly, but again, trying to avoid importing .