Dragon Pzkpfw IV Ausf. C (2012)

[Bill Plunk]

Today was one of those model building sessions where you get on a roll and time just flies by...before I knew it, 4 hours had gone by but a lot of progress happened in that period, so on with the update!

Step 13 deals with details for the turret floor/bottom and is a pretty straightforward step. The only thing I did different was to attach the floor support arms to the turret bottom first and then attached the circular tread plate to them vs the other way around...the attachment points to the tread plate aren't very large and it's very easy to install them slightly crooked if you do it this way. The turret bottom had several large semi-circular pour stubs present with matching holes that had to be dealt with...so some Squadron White putty and sanding did the trick. All of this will get painted and detailed prior to assembling the turret later on.



Steps 14 and 15 deal with the assembly of the main gun and the mantlet/recoil housing. The option is provided to use either a turned aluminum one-piece barrel or a two-piece styrene barrel. I opted for the styrene barrel since it a) had rifling molded in while the aluminum did not, b) the two halves were molded in such a way that the seam was hidden away inside the whole assembly and c) I had some slight concerns about added weight (later proved to be non-issue) and the ability of the gun to elevate/position.

Step 14 assembles the barrel and breech with the breech in two halves so some slight sanding is needed to eliminate that join seam. The breech block is a separate part and was left off to make it easier to paint later on.

Step 15 is where there's a major mine field waiting for the unwary and I do not recommend assembling things as the diagram indicates. This is particularly true of the external mantlet, part Y3, as there's really nowhere to attach it to at this stage, so it should be left separate. There's enough clearance for it to slip over the antenna rail under the barrel, so no worries there. The internal mantlet and recoil housing should be assembled (parts F22-F12-F37) using the gun barrel to insure they are all lined up properly but don't glue the gun barrel into position at this stage or you may have major trouble in Step 16 when it comes to installing the recoil guards.

The step also has one of the elevation pin supports (W7) backward in the instructions...they should both face the same way and should not be glued to the pins. They are a tight friction fit and will support the weight of the full gun assembly with no problem. The coaxial MG sleeve (Y1) is supposed to install into the molded opening on F22 but the opening is significantly too small...so I had to carefully enlarge it with a round needle file to get the fit needed. Last but not least, you can ignore part F30, it serves no usable purpose and its detail is completely hidden away inside the recoil housing once the full assembly is done.



That brings us to Step 16, which deals with installing the gun and mantlet into the turret front plate. The space tolerances here are very tight so it is necessary to first install the gun by very carefully placing glue only above and below the openings that the curved side of the elevation pin covers fit into...that way you don't get glue on the pins but still secure the mount into position. After letting that dry thoroughly, then the external mantlet is added along with the armored vision port covers on either side. I also used a drill bit and pin vise an opened up the molded-close port for the gunner's scope. The option is there to pose the ports in the open position using PE parts for the hinges but they don't actually fit due to the presence of molded detail on the inside...so my momentary temptation to pose one open was eliminated due to the effort required to make it work.
The main gun is dry-fit only at this point, still haven't glued it in place yet.



With the outside done and set up, I set to work on the interior details for the gun and plate. The recoil housing has to attach to the front turret plate AND points on the gun breech...so if you didn't get the gun breech aligned properly earlier and glued it into position, it would be very tough to fix at this stage. The recoil guards were added, starting with the left side and working my way around and once everything was set, the gun breech was finally glued into position. I also drilled out the eyepiece on the gunner's scope, installed the coaxial MG, and added the spent shell basket to round things out.



Next up is the turret top!

[Bill Plunk]

Progress to report, I've been working on the details for the interior. After careful thought and test fits, I've decided to display both turret side hatches open along with the commander's cupola hatches so that meant I needed to "fill" some of the blank spaces visible around the turret ring. I could have just blanked off the areas with sheet styrene but after digging around in the spares bin, I found some suitable parts that will fill in the space and give a semblance of the various bins/containers that were present in those areas even if not 100% accurate...they aren't highly visible once everything is in place but fill the bill nicely. In reality the sponsons and floor area were occupied by MG ammo and main gun ammo bins and other holders but given how little will actually be visible, I didn't go that far in the recreation.





The turret bottom itself also received some additional details...after looking at photos in Spielberger's Pz IV and Variants, I decided to re-work the commander's jump seat and opened up the molded-solid mount frames to look more accurate. I added a grab rail that runs vertically next to the commander's seat and up into the cupola using left-over PE parts from an old fret and some styrene rod. A small bracket was added to the bottom of the cupola to accept the top of the rail when it comes time to install it. Spares bin contributed a small box to serve as the flare pistol ammo holder and I added the missing headrest for the gunner courtesy of spare parts from the Wirbelwind kit I completed a little while back. Spare PE also provided a bracket for the commander's gas mask container, actual container to be added later after painting also from spares bin.



Then it was on to Steps 18 and 19 which deal with the turret top. The turret interior received some additional detail not present in the kit. I added a headrest pad for the commander from the spares bin along with a flare pistol and holster. The kit doesn't include the pistol port levers but that was corrected using parts E38 which I didn't use earlier on the hull crew hatches. Visible ejector parts were puttied and sanded down in preparation for painting. I also installed the turret side view ports with the clear parts...this is a little tricky as the ports themselves fit loose in their openings, so it made sense to secure them first and then add the interior details after.



The turret exterior details were added next. The turret side hatches include excellent molded pin detail but that makes the hinges too wide to fit into the actual hinges...so those had to be removed to get the hatches in place. I used poster blue-tack putty to mask the clear glass portion of the view ports and the hinges were glued in place in the open position. Kit-supplied pre-formed steel grab handles were installed with CA gel along with the PE rain gutter edges. The commander's bore-sight indicator was added as a single PE piece after removing the molded-on base even though the kit, bizarrely, calls for you to snip off the PE base and use only the PE needle along with the molded on mount.



Next up will be painting all the various turret/hull interior spaces before assembling the turret.

[Bill Plunk]

I've been working away on the turret interior and got the details and weathering done. I applied a base coat of MM enamel Panzer Interior Buff by airbrush and let that cure for a couple of days. This particular paint has a nasty habit of needing a long time to cure for some reason but once you know that, it's not difficult to work with. I stippled some Burnt Umber to show scuffs and wear and applied an overall wash of Raw Umber for general dirt/grunge effect. Then to blend everything together, I dry brushed the Interior Buff over it to create the final layer. The rest of the details were painted by hand with the appropriate colors. For the leather bits I used MM enamel Leather and then dry brushed enamel Gunmetal and my 50/50 Light Gray/Dunkelgelb mix to create tonal variations and usage/wear. I sprayed a coat of Lusterless Flat to remove shine and dull things down as well and seal everything together.



Test fit with the gun in place and its details taken care of.





And of course the turret top received its share of attention as well. The roof was made dirtier than the rest of the interior deliberately...these variants of the Pz IV didn't have a fume extractor fan and relied instead on the large rectangular hatch in the turret for ventilation...a small thing but at least I know it's different.

[Bill Plunk]

More progress to report...Step 19 is now done with the turret fully assembled. The fit is a bit tricky due to the angles that have to line up between the turret top, bottom, and front plates at the "cheek" areas. Some putty was necessary to fill small gaps there and get a solid join but otherwise no major issues. I also installed the cupola parts after conducting a test to be sure I could still add the armored glass blocks into position from the top without problems.





Turret also plays very nice with the hull.



Next up will be the large scale paint work.

[Bill Plunk]

Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks since I was able to post an update but that's what a full-time MBA program has done to my available bench time!

I was all set today to get started on the paint work and had everything prepped and ready to go...



...and my airbrush died before I could even spray a drop! I have a replacement on order and should get it in about a week, so maybe I will be able to paint over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and get this one back on track then.

Speaking of tracks...I have been making progress on the MK workable replacement tracks. This set is taking longer to assemble than normal due to the fact that there's more flash than usual with MK links present, so clean-up of the links is prolonging the assembly time.



I have one full track of 98 links done (will add the 2-3 more that I will need for the full run once I can test fit on the suspension after painting) and have started on the second one. Any progress is good progress at this point and the build is still very much alive, just not having good luck on the timing for the short term.

[Bill Plunk]

My replacement airbrush arrived earlier in the week and I was able to get some time in yesterday in order to get this one back on track. Primer coat has been applied using Testors Model Master enamel Italian Dark Brown.



Weather has been cold, rainy, and humid, so I'm letting the primer coat cure a bit before I move on to the base coat and camo. More to come in the next few days...the new AB works flawlessly so I don't anticipate any problems keeping this one moving forward.

[Bill Plunk]

More paint progress to report. I applied the base coat of MM enamel Panzer Schwarzgrau over the primer and will be adding the 1/3 camo disruptive pattern of dark brown to complete the two-tone scheme for France 1940.



I also took care of the road wheels and return rollers. The rubber portions were airbrushed with MM enamel Gunmetal while in position on the wheels to avoid getting paint on their inner surfaces. This is due to the extremely tight fit tolerance between the rubber parts and the wheels I have to emphasize the need to avoid getting paint on either the hub or the rubber rim contact surfaces or problems will ensue! Once the paint dried, the rubber rims were carefully removed and a circle template used to spray the inner hub with the same Schwarzgrau used on the vehicle. Rims were added back once the hubs were dry and voila! The return rollers had their hubs painted with a circle template as well to round things out.



Next up is the camo pattern and detail paint work on the vehicle itself.

[Bill Plunk]

Another good day of progress in the paint department. I used a lightened shade of the base coat (added about 20% Light Gray) to add some color variation and shading to the panzer gray finish. I did this before the camo so that I could view the gray as a whole rather than dance around a camo pattern and create artificial boundaries in the process.



Next came the camo pattern. I used MM enamel Panzer Schokoladenbraun for the 1/3 dark brown disruptive pattern and applied it freehand with the airbrush.



Once that had dried, I removed the protective masking tape from the turret and commander's cupola and installed the road wheels and return rollers.



Next up will be spending time with the devil in the details department.

[Bill Plunk]

Spending time with the devil is certainly a long and involved process! I've gotten the details for the fenders and rear hull completed and all of the various tools installed. I used MM non-buffing Metalizer for the metal portions followed with a light dry-brushing of MM enamel Steel. Wood portions were done using a base coat of 50/50 Light Gray/Panzer Dunkelgelb with a thinned wash of MM enamel Leather followed by a dusting of Burnt Umber artist pastels. The wire cutters had their Bakelite handles done using MM enamel Italian Dark Brown and the rubber end caps with MM enamel Gunmetal. I also detailed the head pads on the commander's hatches using the same Italian Dark Brown. Everything was clamped down using the kit-supplied PE parts where necessary. The gun cleaning rods were detailed and installed as well, I used a pin vise to drill out the connecting "female" end of the top rod for a little more accurate detail.





The rear hull also received some detailing attention, the exhausts for the main engine and turret traverse motor were treated with a base coat of MM non-buffing metalizer Gunmetal followed by very careful applications of an enamel Rust wash to create their finish. I say careful as the metalizer will lift easily so time between applications of the wash is essential. The smoke grenades were detailed using a custom mix of "field gray" consisting of Russian Armor Green combined with Panzer Schwarzgrau to produce the desired shade. The pull chains on the grenades were added courtesy of the kit-supplied PE fret and painted with MM non-buffing metalizer Gunmetal. I used Tamiya Clear Red for the brake light lenses and the rear fender deflector.



Next up will be getting it ready for the markings and moving on to the weathering stages.

[Bill Plunk]

I've been enjoying the holiday break and unfortunately that meant not much time at the bench...but I did get some time in today and made some additional progress. I used small amounts of poster blue tack putty to position the drive sprockets and also test mounted the idler wheels and their mounts in preparation for determining the required length on the MK tracks assembled earlier. The idlers are tension-able so after some careful adjustments, the length came to 100 links on both sides. I also detailed the sprockets and idlers with some MM metalizer Steel for their bare metal wear contact surfaces followed by dry-brushing MM enamel Burnt Umber. Small strips of masking tape hold the links together until they are installed later on.





The hull and turret also received a coat of Future in preparation for applying the decals and sealing in the base coat. That will dry overnight and then the markings will get added so the weathering stages are inching ever closer!