Pete's Panzer IV Ausf.D

[Guest]

The return rollers have quite a lot of taper on them, which was taking a while to clean up, but then I remembered this:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1087439[/ATTACH]
cordless dremel-thingy, bought from Lidl. My mains-powered Dremel is too fast to use on plastic, even on the lowest speed, but this is quite slow. The rollers are on a fairly long axle, which fitted nicely into one of the collets:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1087442[/ATTACH]
Holding a sanding stick against them soon brought them down to parallel, which as well as looking better should give a little less tension on the tracks.
Added some more to the upper hull:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1087445[/ATTACH]
Now it's decision time again - if I leave the driver's hatch open, then I'll have to add the driver, since there's nothing under the hatch except a 'shelf' for his bum to perch on. However, I hate painting figures! The trouble is, they have to be done well, or they look awful. Maybe I'll see if I have some flesh colour, and if I have, try to paint the figures before deciding if hatches will be open or closed.
Thanks for watching,
Pete

Sorry no! this build has got to stop, no electrical tools allowed where John Race is concerned, even the duck in his bath is wind operated......
On a more serious note - it makes all the difference instead of slaving away with wet'n'dry.
Mike.

[scottie3158]

Steve. Looking good. I believe the cupola pads are leather pads around the inside to prevent the head hitting bare metal.

[Guest]

On the driver, I used a Vallejo Game Colour wash labelled as "Dipping Formula Immersion, so I dipped the figure, but found the consistency was like treacle, so brushed most of it off with a wet brush straight away. It seemed OK, but for the other 2 figures I think I'll try diluting it and brushing it on.

For a quick shade, I use transparent paint with pigment mixed in and brush it on with a large brush. Dipping is a lot of wasted paint and the risk of dropping the figure into the paint, if you ask me.

As for the figures, they should be wearing black uniforms — the field grey on one of your figures would make him a StuG crewman, not a tanker. Afrikakorps olive green would also be an option, but IIRC tanker’s uniforms weren’t made in that colour, certainly not early on when tankers newly arrived in Africa were photographed wearing their normal black uniforms.

[JR]

Figure looks fine Pete.
Like the sound of your Parkside machine, as you say the Dremel is too fast.
Contrary to Mikes thinking we at Race towers have moved with the times, only last week we had water connected. As for this electricity stuff , we have a peddle operated genny, does wonders for the figure.
John.

[stillp]

Steve. Looking good. I believe the cupola pads are leather pads around the inside to prevent the head hitting bare metal.

Steve?
Thanks Paul, I found a reference in a British Intelligence report on Google Books, that said they were synthetic rubber on the Panzer IV, so I'll go with black as Steve suggested rather than leather brown.

For a quick shade, I use transparent paint with pigment mixed in and brush it on with a large brush. Dipping is a lot of wasted paint and the risk of dropping the figure into the paint, if you ask me.

As for the figures, they should be wearing black uniforms — the field grey on one of your figures would make him a StuG crewman, not a tanker. Afrikakorps olive green would also be an option, but IIRC tanker’s uniforms weren’t made in that colour, certainly not early on when tankers newly arrived in Africa were photographed wearing their normal black uniforms.

Thanks Jakko. The wash was about the price of two cups of coffee for a 200 ml jar, so seemed worth a try. If it was thinner there wouldn't be much waste as it would drip back into the jar.
Thanks for the information about the uniforms - TBH I'm not too concerned about the historical accuracy (do I hear cries of "Burn the heretic"?), I'm just building a representation of a Panzer. If I give the commander a black uniform then his headphone leads won't show up.

But... when I dipped the driver then wiped off most of the dip with a brush, the remainder dried a dark sepia brown. However, I thinned some with water and brushed it on, it looked the same brown when wet, but has dried to a sort of salmon pink!

Not sure what to do about that. It goes brown again if I wet it, so maybe a coat of flat varnish will restore the brown-ness, or should I try a brown oil wash over it? All suggestions gratefully received.
Pete

[Steve Jones]

Hi Pete

I have always known them as cupola pads but they may go by another name. Any how its the section of the cupola lid just behind the guy in the middle's wrists. As you can see they are black - with a little dust of course :smiling5::smiling5:

Happy moggeling

Steve

[stillp]

Thanks Steve, I wondered whether they were supposed to be there! Black they shall be!

Pete

[Guest]

looks like you're having fun.

[Guest]

If I give the commander a black uniform then his headphone leads won't show up.

Paint them dark grey Or just drybrush the uniform dark grey to highlight it, that’ll also do that for the wires in one go.

[stillp]

Found this: [MEDIA=pinterest]463237511656255056[/MEDIA]

In other news, I tried a coat of Galeria matt over the wash that turned out pink, and it seems to have restored the sepia colour. That's a relief!
Pete

[stillp]

Here's another: [MEDIA=pinterest]581597739357922717[/MEDIA]

[Guest]

Found this: [MEDIA=pinterest]463237511656255056[/MEDIA]

Do you mean this photo?



He’s wearing the olive green Africa uniform, with a tanker’s badge pinned to the lapel.

The other photo you linked to is:—



This one is wearing the assault artillery uniform, with red artillery piping, not pink armour piping. You can tell it’s field grey by the black patches on the lapels. Not sure why he’s wearing tanker’s badges, though — my knowledge of German insignia isn’t that great Trying to look up these details turns up this photo as well, captioned as being on the Eastern Front. IOW, not Africa I’d be surprised to see tankers in Africa wearing StuG uniforms, since it’s much more likely for them to have traded in their heavy black woolen uniforms for lightweight olive green cotton ones in the climate there.

[Gary MacKenzie]

The other photo you linked to is:—



This one is wearing the assault artillery uniform, with red artillery piping, not pink armour piping. You can tell it’s field grey by the black patches on the lapels. Not sure why he’s wearing tanker’s badges, though — my knowledge of German insignia isn’t that great :smiling3: Trying to look up these details turns up this photo as well, captioned as being on the Eastern Front. IOW, not Africa :smiling3: I’d be surprised to see tankers in Africa wearing StuG uniforms, since it’s much more likely for them to have traded in their heavy black woolen uniforms for lightweight olive green cotton ones in the climate there.

From German Army Uniform and Insignia , Brian L Davis , isbn 00 85368 068 x

pink surround , black patch , deaths head silver = Panzerchutze , 4th Company , Panzer Instruction and Demonstration Unit. ... rose pink waffenfarbe

I wonder if above picture has been colour corrected incorrectly.

[Guest]

From German Army Uniform and Insignia , Brian L Davis , isbn 00 85368 068 x

Do you mean that photo is in that book, or that you got the uniform/unit information from that book and applied it to this photo yourself?

I wonder if above picture has been colour corrected incorrectly.

Is it coloured in or is this an original colour photo? I find it very hard to tell, and kind of assumed the latter, which is why I pointed out the red piping (if I’d taken it as a coloured-in photo I wouldn’t have bothered with that, instead pointing that out). You could well be right in thinking it’s coloured in, though.

[Gary MacKenzie]

sorry, a better explanation.
In the book mentioned there is a collar patch ( in colour ) with that description.
There is no red outlined black patch with skull described , only a red outlined , green background , with skull , for assault artillery

Further on in the book , only in B&W are pictures that state they are either pink or red , on the green denim version of the tank uniform , for sturmgeschütz etc crews.
The denim would make it 1943 onwards , BUT , the cap is pre 1943 , which is why i am leaning towards an ''instructors'' uniform, or , poor colour rendition in the photo.

There is a long discussion about red waffenfarbe @ http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=169526