John's Panzer IV no. 004

[John Fitzsimons]

Some more pictures.





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[John Fitzsimons]

I was planing on making a new turret box in brass but for now I have just upgraded the kit aluminium block. Added new tops, hinges, rivets and claspAlso added the bullet ring for the cupola.

[Iacopo Di Giampietro]

In my opinion, you've really done a great job and the result is excellent.
Congratulations!

[John Fitzsimons]

The Panzer IV turret is a 1 piece item milled out from a block of aluminium. Not scale thickness armour plates as I would prefer. This makes fitting the next little part difficult to fit. This is a mock up of the gunners viewport which I intend to make in metal. The cover will be capable of movement and could possibly connected to a servo.

[John Fitzsimons]

I have made the gunners port in white metal. Still to add clear resin block. Fits in easily and works well once you get over cutting the opening in the cast aluminium turret.













I'm not sure if the cover was supposed to come with the kit. There were two holes in this location bot no cover.

[John Fitzsimons]

Some more photos,

[Robert E Morey]

John,
Your Panzer is truly a work of art. The added detail parts you have made really make it pop. Can you e-mail or PM me a list of your PZ4 parts and prices? Brilliant work!
Best regards,
Bob

[John Fitzsimons]

Hi Bob,

Good to hear from you. Taking a break from the Panzer IV as I wanted to complete the exterior of my second Tiger 1. Less work getting that finished. Then got stuck into the Sdkfz 222. Looking forward to getting back to it soon. PM your email address and I will send the list of parts.

Happy Christmas

[Robert E Morey]

John,
PM sent. Kind regards,
Bob

[John Fitzsimons]

I have finally got back to doing something with my Panzer IV. Still quite a lot of detailing to finish before painting but I have now started to fit some electronics. I have the latest motion pack from Armortek. Brushless. I have put together a video on how I assemble the pack and also how I set up batteries.
I have put the video up in the Motion pack section of the forum. Here is a link, viewtopic.php?t=10588

In the next video I will show how I fit components into the Panzer IV including making various mounts and brackets. I do not have sound at this point. It might be a while before finances will allow this addition but it will be great to at least get motion. Then onto adding some additional detail and paint.

[John Fitzsimons]

Some pictures of motion pack components.

Motors assembled. Need to tension the belts

Spacers required to lower the gear ring

Bench test

Removal of Sprocket,gear case and old mount to fit the new system.

Battery compartment

Motion pack installed

Turret rotation motor

Elevation motor.

[John Fitzsimons]

My motion pack included a 2mm spacer to stop the drive gear from contacting the gear case. Unfortunately the 2mm spacer provided is not enough. The gear protrudes about 18mm through the hull side. The dept of the case is only about 12mm so cannot fit the gear case with current set up. Need either larger spacer or shorter gear shaft.

Then there is the problem of spacers bringing the motors too close together inside the hull. Plus I think the pullies will touch the front armour.

Sent a mail to Armortek team.. Hopefully the will have a solution.

[John Fitzsimons]

Here is a video on how I install brushless motion pack in Panzer IV.

[Armortek]

John, it looks like you have the motor mount (xmp150) the wrong way around and the 2mm spacer in the wrong place.
In addition, the pulley should clear the front hatch surrounds.
See cross sectional view below:

[John Fitzsimons]

Thanks for the reply Armortek team. I think spacer is right but looks like I have xmp150 wrong way round. I will try again. Looking forward to getting it running.