PANZER IV BUILD no 012

[Mike Kasputis]

NIce to see some PZ IV's being built.
Your PZ is coming along nicely, but the sprocket cap should be flat not domed for a J model.
Here is what I did to mine.

[Ray Brown]

dont mean to be horrible but can you post mre pics mike? you seem to be progressing well and i think it would benefit the others if you could share your build mike. only a suggestion.

[John Fitzsimons]

Nice one Mike. Is that one of the earlier releases?

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi Mike
you could have said earlier is their any way that i could still use the domed hub cap, is their a picture out their somewhere that somebody knows about that shows a domed hub on a model j . It wouldnt be a problem to change or make a new flat plate but i do like the domed one , anybody help please ) The H and the J models seem so alike and were built along side each other do you think there could be some out their with both hubs i have noticed that some H models had flat plates as well as the domed type . WADYA THINK GUYS any one know . Thanks mike for pointing it out i hadnt noticed it before , i have looked to see if i can find one but i guess im just cluching at straws ah well i do like the domed one
all the best nick

[John Fitzsimons]

Just looking over the photos I took of the H version and they are flat. Drive were changed with the H model. Topdrawings by Krzysztof Mucha shows J model with with domed caps on new type wheels but I would'nt consider that totally accurate. Just illustrations. All the photos show flat as far as I can see. Your tank though. It is possible to get carried away with details.

Well spotted Mike.

[Mike Kasputis]

Nick, you could leave the domed one's on and say it was repaired and they had to use the domed caps to fix it.

John, yes this is one of the first production Pz IV's.

Ray, I don't want to put pictures here on Nicks thread, but here is one of what mine looks like now.
Sadly it is still not finished.

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi Mike
thats a great looking pziv you got their hope mine comes out half as good , i would be happy. I realy like that camo patern you got on the side skirts its nice to see it thanks for posting it .As to my hub caps i will keep looking it should be easy enough to change them over later.
best wishes nick

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi John
i have got the same book ,i did see the artist impresions of type Js as well but didnt think they might not be accurate i realy need a picture to be sure (hens teeth comes to mind) Never mind thanks for looking .
allthe best nick

[Robert Allsop]

Hi all,

I want to thank Nick for the clear pictures and desciption of his build which has inspired me to copy his ideas particularly the fake bolts in wheels and hubs. In fact it is turning me into a fanatic for detail! In the "Speilberger - Panzer IV und seine Abarten" book, writen In German, all the pictures of G's have domed drive wheel caps and all H and J's are flat. The fake bolts around the spocket should be heads out. Of course none of it really matters so I will fit the domed caps and be damned!
I am keen for Nick to tackle the gun as I am having all sorts of problems with it - have already got Mark to send me longer pivot bolts and I had to buy a die and holder to chase the muzzle brake thread to size which I will never need again.

Bob

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi Bob
Be careful following my build it could take you places you might not want to go .But thanks anyway glad you like the pics, i am doing the return rollers and road wheels now and the road wheels need more work than i thought they would , lots of machineing marks to remove and cover on those wheels pics will follow a.s.a.p its just taking longer than i thought.
best wishes to you. nick

[John Fitzsimons]

As Robert said, Thanks for posting. My Panzer IV no. 004 is in the UPS depot. I will collect it tomorrow. Poor mini has to collect another Armortek tank. At least this time it's not a Tiger and I don't have to deal with multiple car ferry crossings. Robert, the hub cap fasteners should also be castellated nuts. This tank has quite a lot of those holding it together. Steve Winstone has nice ones.

Nick, Enjoy the build. You are flying.

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi to all
Just finished the retern rollers no problems went together perfect all bolted on, job done .
Next are the road wheels ,these will need a bit more work before i will be happy with them their are a lot of machiening marks to remove, or in my case cover over .the plan was to spray them with etch primer and then with a filler primer ,then genly sand down to level out the marks this is working but taking up more paint than i expected ,having to do this three times for each wheel ,but i am getting their . I am thinking perhapes i should have used a dremel to grind down the marks first or used car filler to hide them both would have taken time ,but their you go. Here are two pics of what i am talking about This first one is with no paint and the second one is with one coat of etch primer you can clearly see the marks on both it will take another three coates of filler primer and sanding between each coat to elimminate the marks In case anybody is thinking of going down this road i used the end of a broom handle cut to 30mm legths to plug the hole where the threds and bering is to stop the paint from cloging them up . I could only get six of these pieces of broom handle of my mates brush in his welding bay ,without him knowing he is only a small bloke anyway so he shouldnt notice.AM I A BAD PERSON OR WHAT . i then used the foamy packaging from armortek to plug the othjer end ready for spraying ,well thats it for now more pic soon .allthe best nick

[Nick Farrugia]

Hi john
glad you will have yours soon will watch your post avidly having seen your tiger posts ,i was a bit late on discovering them mind, yours will definatley be one to see and learn from .
allthe best nick

[John Fitzsimons]

Thanks for the kind comments about the tiger. I used U.K. 2p coins with bluetac on the back to plug up the bearing holes for painting. See what you mean about the machine marks on the wheels. I will go with Mr Dremel although I think I need a new one after the Tiger. It has developed a wobble. I picked a very useful tool by blac & decker on advice from Paul Morris. It's a power file. Belt file. I have burnt out four of them and they just keep replacing them each time. Takes a lot of effort out of it.

[Nick Farrugia]

Hello to all
I have finished the road wheels and painted them their final coat for the moment ,i have started to put the tyres on here,s a pic of one As i was doing this i thought about the hub caps ,while i have been painting the wheels i noticed the some of the top threds were slightly curled over (this has probably happend when they went through the cleaning proses after being machined) so i tried one of the hub caps ,it didnt fit.Here,s some pics of what i talking about if you look on the right hand side at one o clock the very top of the threds you should be able to see a dip in the thred,it is very thin at this point and quit soft,here,s another wheel this one has to showing at eleven and one o clock.The caps were proving very difficult to fit ,so i taped two of the holes in the hub cap with m3 thred and put two cap heads in for the moment see pics
this helped me screw them in mutch better and help straighten the damaged part of the thred,not all the wheels but i would say agood percentage sufferd from this . Im glad to say that they are all ok now so i can get on with the tyres. I havent decided what to bolts to put in the hub caps (cap heads /dome heads or hex heads will have a think and see what ive got . Hope this will be useful to some of you.
best wishes to all nick