PzKpfw IV Austf. F1

[Mackem]

Hi All,

What better way to start the New Year than with a new project.
This is my HL PzIV F1 which came with an RX-18, metal tracks, sprockets, idlers, suspension & gear boxes.
I'm leaving it as a DAK F1, but with a bit of luck, swearing, a few tinnies and some time I hope to make it a
lot more realistic.

I've ordered metal engine deck hatches, crew access hatches and gear box access hatches from tankzone
so if what I've read here is right I should have plenty of time to work on the detailing before they arrive. 

The first job was to open up the driver and radio operators hatches and straight away I had a problem. They
looked as though they were glued in



but nothing would budge them so out came the key-hole saw. Taking care not to damage the splash plate detail.



Next job was the gear box access hatches which were removed roughly with the dremel then sanded.



I've left the engine deck hatches for now, and removed the front and rear sections of the fenders for
replacement with my own hinged brass items. Which I hope to make some progress with today.





I saw an F1 build over on panzerketten where weld seams had been added to the upper hull and
the turret so I decided to give it a go. It's my first attempt at this and the pics aren't that good,
but I'm quite pleased with the end result.










Does anyone want to have guess what I used to do the weld seams?

More soon
Cheers
John

[mickyb]

Hi, having just finished zimmerit on a tiger I know you have spent some time on this.....my guess is left over marzipan from the Christmas cake!!!

It really looks good and I would like to add this to the tiger before the paint goes on..... go on then...what is it cos its great

Mike

[Mackem]

The great thing about it is you can pull off the bits you're not happy with and re-do them.
Which is what I'm doing now  >:(

It's Blu-Tac!!!!

Cheers
John

[philipat]

Looking good, but try using the Macro function on your camera for the better shots.

2 questions:
  What's a key-hole saw?  Same thing as a jeweler's saw?
  What's Blu-Tac?

[Mackem]

Hi Philipat,

My camera is on loan at the moment so I'm using my mobile phones camera, which I admit is pretty poor.

A key-hole saw is a small, quite flexible, toothed blade attachment for a craft knife. Most hobby shops stock them.
There's a pic below.

Blu-Tac is a soft & sticky temporary adhesive normally used for putting up posters or anything where you dont want to damage the wall.
It's also useful for holding your tanks stowage in place until you are happy with the way it looks and attach it more permanently.
Similar products from other manufacturers include "Buddies" (coloured pink), "Pritt-Tack", "Poster Putty", "Tac 'N Stick" and "Sticky Tack". "White Tack", made by the German company UHU, is similar but, as the name suggests, is white, so coloured so that it doesn't show through easily on posters as Blu-Tack does.

Cheers
John

[philipat]

cool...thanks.

I've seen the stuff...buy it at office supply stores.  Clever idea.

http://www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/s ... id=4420270

[Mackem]

The jury is still out on the Blu-Tac for weld seams idea. I only used it cos I had ran out of miliput and I dont think it
will be a permanent fixture. I'll finish the job and take it along to our club to get the opinion of the lads. At the end of the
day it's easily removed.

Cheers
John

[Mackem]

Hi All,

Time for a quick update.
The idea of using blu-tac for weld seams has been shelved, next time I get a daft idea like that i'm going to post it here first for opinions. Hopefully someone will tell me how daft it is. 

I'm still waiting for the hatches to arrive so I decided to do some painting. I mixed up a batch of dunkel-grau:-

Tamiya dark grey - XF24, 40%
Tamiya flat black - XF-!, 20%
Water, 40%

This looked very dark but most of my pics and research suggest that dunkel-grau wasn't very far away from matt-black.
The whole tank was given a quick coat of this dark grey and left to dry for 24 hours. I must admit I was very impressed with the outcome. So impressed that I almost decided to leave the tank that colour. I didn't take any pics of the tank at this stage as this base coat will be seen later.

Next up was to make a batch of dunkel-gelb :-

Tamiya dark yellow - XF60, 50%
Tamiya flat black - XF1, 20%
Water, 30%

Again, the whole tank was given a coat of this colour and left to dry thoroughly. I've noticed that tamiya paints do tend to 'darken-off' quite a bit while drying so don't be put off if your paint colour looks too light at first, as it will change as it dries.

I want to give this tank the appearance of a proper old desert campaigner so it was time to start removing some of the dunkel-gelb to reveal the dunkel-grau beneath. To do this I used very fine grit wet and dry sanding paper with plenty of clean water.

I started on the turret and worked down.











Luckily I made plenty of both paint mixes so I'll be able to make the hatches blend in when they do eventually arrive.
When I was happy with the result I gave it a quick coat of humbrol matt varnish.
The next stage will be to create area's where the paint has been worn or chipped off completely. I'll do that when everything has dried for a good couple of days.

Cheers
John

[DOG]

Looking good

[oz]

i want a P IV so i,m gonna follow this with interest, i like the weathering effect on the turret roof it looks great......