Panzer IV Ausf.F2

[Andrew Hall]

A Pz.IV.Ausf.F2 of Pz.Abt.'GD' I've been working on, the kit is the very excellent DML of course. I've made every attempt to build out of the box with the exception of the specific Grossdeutschland modifications. As an out of the box build the only niggle I had was with the steel tow cables which, even after heating to 40000°C, still have a lot of spring in them.

Still a few little bits to add - the commander needs connecting to electricity, one of the jerry cans needs turning around, dangly chains for the tow pins and so on and on. The figure comes from DMLs Achtung Jabo set with just some seam filling for a 1st pattern HBT jacket and a Hornet head.

Particular thanks to Henrik 'I was blond once...really' S, The Sheeds, Paul 'I can curl it in from 40 yards' Ranta and Lawrence 'My house is sinking under the weight of all this etched brass' Quah :thumb:

Andrew

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[sam_dwyer]

Gday Andrew!

Mate looking super - those DML F2/G's are a gem of a kit.

Have you picked a paint scheme as yet? - oh wait its a GD one - so grey?

Sheeds was lamenting the need to practically set off a small nuke to anneal the tow cables!

Great to see you back modelling and posting here again

Sam

[pwranta193]

I had that happen with some "picture wire" I thought I'd be clever and use once. They must have got it from an aircraft manufacturer's surplus sale.

It looks good Andrew - nice little personal touches all around, but still very OOB. Nice when they get them truly right.

I'm kind of excited to see you paint your figure... a little inside note for the folks - Andy used to make miniatures for the British Movie industry. I keep forgetting to tell you that I saw your stuff during the last James Bond week on telly.

Paint pics, Bitte.

[panamadan]

Looks great! Dan

[RickLawler]

Echo what the others have said Andrew...great to see you posting.

rick

[Joaquin G. Gazquez]

Hi Andrew,

Good Work, congratulations, very clean and well builded. kkep posting more pictures.

Regards,

Joaquin

[holmerz]

Good job :thumb: looking forward to see it painted.

\Erik

[Sheeds]

Le Tasty Bergerrrrrrrrrrr. :thumb:

Nice tow cables!

Sheeds

[Flak]

Nice build...can't wait to see it in paint.

[lquah]

Hi Andrew

There's not enough brass! ;) :)

But seriously, love the unit mods. The rubber roadwheels look to be too perfect - a bit too crisp on the edges. Maybe nick it here and there?

Looking at the pic, it does look like there's an overspray of DG (?) over a grey base - the fenders, cupola, the gunner klappe. But what do I know :o

LQ

[Evan August]

Very Cool! What's with all the green stuff? Some texturing on cast items? Hope my Ausf G comes out as good.

[Panzergrenadier]

Indeed it looks very good!:thumb:

[Sheeds]

I forgot to mention, your use of the Squadron Green putty. It's great to see this once great brand being used again. There was a time past, where you were only a casual hobbyist if you didn't have this stuff on your models. :)

Retro being "in", perhaps Green is the new "Grey"????

Sheeds.

[Andrew Hall]

Thanks for the comments gents.

Evan, yes the Green Stuff is for texturing of the cast parts, hopefully like this

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Andrewausfa/PzIIIPort.jpg

On the visors etc it's just there to make these parts more matt when the paint goes on and hopefully make them look a little different. I'm cutting the putty very heavily with poly so it's more of a thick glaze and just lightly stippling it on. While for the 'heavier' cast parts such as the cast suspension units and the sprocket I'd thicken it up or go over it twice.

Sheeds, can you remember years ago Humbrol used to do a light green putty? A bit more substance to it than Green Stuff but I think I just might still have some somewhere. Green is the new Grey.

LQ, noted on the tyres and I've done some suitable chunks out of the rubber.

Paul, yes I did but that was over 20 years ago and my eyes are going now :) I am so out of practice with figures. I think, particularly with figures, you have to really keep your hand in and I most certainly haven't. I so wish I could paint like Calvin Tan, IMHO the best 1/35 figure painter out there today, but I guess even Calvins eyes will fade some day! I've bought some 2x glasses for modelling recently as I got fed up with holding things at arms length. I tells ya, once you hit 43-44, your eyes definitely start to fade a bit.

Coming to a town near you soon...dangly chains, electrics and paint.

Cheers -Andrew

[NAS]

Hello Andrew,

your Pz IV F2 looks very promising!:thumb:
I like the modifications you did, looks good!
I just would like to know what kind of wire you have used on the backplate where the towing cable is? What size is it?

Keep up your great work!

Regards,

Notger

[Andrew Hall]

Hallo Notger,

Thanks :)

The brass wire is K&S .20 (of an inch). The copper wire is normal 13 amp electric cable. I saw in another shot of a Pz.IV from a different Pz.Rgt. the chain was missing and they'd used a piece of rope to secure the tow cable, so I just copied that to be a little different.

Andrew

[Andrew Hall]

Just an update on this project - as always, fire away if you have any comments etc

I sprayed the base using Vallejo 50/50 977 Desert Yellow and 825 German Cam Pale Brown with a dash of Flesh. For the grey, straight Tamiya XF63 which came out much lighter when dry than I expected but I'm sure I can manage to darken it with the weathering yet to come. I then went over the wheels, tools etc etc

Anyway, that was a few days ago and so, while listening to Liverpool beat Internazionale last night, I painted the turret number and the GD insignia.

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BTW: the masking tape is so I can pick the turret up. I usually roll a bit of card up and stick it in the opening but with this model, the gun parts get in the way.

[RickLawler]

while listening to Liverpool beat Internazionale last night
I sure do wish that we had more of that enthusiasm for the game here in the states. I played for a while, my oldest is playing in collage and my youngest is on a U13 club team.

Anyway...nice paintwork Andrew, and the yellow doesn't look too light in my opinion. Stencils for the GD emblems? They are super good.

later,

[Panzergrenadier]

The gray might be a little light, but I think it will turn out well under some weathering.:thumb:

[James Tainton]

Now this is what I'm talking about Andrew! - Always good for me to see some paint going on a Panzer IV, whatever type. Only thing I can see that I'll bring up that you might want to take a look at is the muffler. The straps. The way DML has them broken down to put together sort of creates these deep join lines where the muffler part comes into the strap parts on the inside edges. I had to go back and fill mine, but might be something you aren't bothered by. Keep on keeping on with it.

[pwranta193]

Good looking results Andrew - I was a little confused by the two tones of greay for a while until I figured out that it was the barrel shadow falling across the hull :)

Nice little touches in the GD customization - and I see you've gone for the hand painted emblems again, nicely executed.

I wouldn't sweat the lighter grey - as you know you'll be able to get a fair amount of that back in the wahes. Have you thought about going over the vertical surfaces with a darker version of the grey before washing/filtering - so the uppers are a little more lit/faded/dusted? I hear it is all the rage :D

[Andrew Hall]

Wesside,

Ta for the comments.

Rick, no stencils, I couldn't find any suitable numbers and I just carried on painting the GD emblem. The good thing about football is it lasts 90 minutes unlike 'your' football which is, what, 15 hours per game? :p

Siim, the grey is not far off what the 'grey' vehicles in Bovington are painted....so it must be right! :D Seriously, it's probably a bit more lighter in the photos than it really is.

James, yes you're right. I hope to fill these up with rusty gunge!

Pablo, fading and stuff is coming up next. I was just Underpinning here and will immerse myself in a technique that is both Mirkoesque and Wilderesque and that hasn't been recognised yet. As you well know a technique is unworthy and copied by no-one until it has a name.

So, instead of modulation, I'm going to call my new technique 'Illusions Of Light Acting On Material Forms'. It's catchy, eh? :thumb:

Andrew

[kinfa-t]

Nice paintwork, i haven't seen this type before-very interesting!

And the ''decels'' looks preety damn nice!

[Andrew Hall]

Hi Tomislav,

Some Pz.IV in 1942 were painted ready for service in Africa but were diverted to 'Russia' instead to replace losses. They were overpainted with grey paint.

There's a series of colour photos of 14PD Pz.IV which show this very well, though a different pattern to GDs vehicles.

This is a GD vehicle

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Andrewausfa/PanzerIV0011a.jpg

Cheers - Andrew

[kinfa-t]

Very nice, i love it!

[RickLawler]

So, instead of modulation, I'm going to call my new technique 'Illusions Of Light Acting On Material Forms'. It's catchy, eh? :thumb:

Andrew

And so it has been proclaimed: IOLAOMF
Do you have a catchy Jingle to go with it? Perhaps something that we can whistle while we perform this "Illusions Of Light Acting On Material Forms" on our humble projects?

:D:D:D:D:D

[James Tainton]

And so it has been proclaimed: IOLAMF

I think you mean ILMAO.:confused::thumb:

[lquah]

Andrew

Are the colours meant to represent RAL8000/RAL7008 or the RAL8020/RAL7027 colour scheme?

I could be totally off base here (well, I won't be surprised actually) but if they were originally painted in two tone for Afrika and then subsequently oversprayed with grey, won't you see a tiny bit of colour that was oversprayed hence giving you three colours?

BTW, shouldn't the turret number read F9T? :D

LQ

[Andrew Hall]

Hi LQ, Fernando is the man right now :)

RAL 8020 but you're essentially right. The HM 1942, Nr.315 order for 8020/7027 was on March 25 1942 so by summer, when my vehicle is depicted, the vehicles should follow the order. However, looking at (Afrika) photos it's hard to seperate these two quite similiar shades, even when you think they might be 8020/7027 and you have to think, on new vehicles, 7027 might not even have been applied. One vehicle I've always though interesting and worth deliberating over, from winter '42, is 18PD's 242 (the Ausf.G with the knight emblem in Squadrons Pz.IV In Action).

Have you had a look at that colour shot of 14PD's 431? I can't see more than two colours here though admittedly the vehicle is a trifle dusty.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/Andrewausfa/Panzer4F1sF2s14thPcpy.jpg

[Andrew Hall]

As I come to the end of this build just a few shots showing what it looks like. I have a couple of waterbottles to add and then I'm done but if anyone thinks differently please pipe up. Of course, this has been painted in my new 'Illusions of Light Acting on Material Forms' technique.

Andrew

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[pwranta193]

(Sorry - it's the last three nights of watching The Wire first season back to back)

Love the bucket - and I think the mud turned out good in spite of your earlier concerns. I have two points of critique - warm up the cheeks of your figure - he bears a strong resemblance to Vlad the Panzer Commander, and maybe a little fine point rust detail on the muffler. I'm not even sure how to describe the latter - but it just seems to need some detail rusting... maybe some light texturing?

Nice painting detail on the markings, and the little bits like the brown outline behind the open front gunner's port.

How's the garden coming along - the outdoor shot looks good, but I can't see the background :D

[Sheeds]

Very Nice Herr Hall! :thumb:

Great to see at least one of us is finishing something!.

Sheeds

[Stuke Sowle]

Excellent work Andrew! I really like the subtle rain/dust streaks especially on the glacis plate.

The mud and dirt build up on the chassis and tracks is very well done as well.

[RickLawler]

Hello Andrew, I really like the rear of this, the details (buckets, cables, wire, etc.) really make it a stand-out.

The lower hull and tracks are awesome, though maybe they could use a little more dust or mud on the interior and edges of the tracks.....they look pretty clean considering the build-up on the exterior. Ok, one other thing...perhaps I'm mistaken, but shouldn't the commander have a GD sleeve band?

That's it...nice build Andrew.

[Sticky]

Hi Andrew looks great to me. My Fav long barrel IV!

[Andrew Hall]

Thanks for the comments gents, all noted and remedial action will be done. I took the shots outside in my photo-cube without much planning so there's probably more light than needed which is making the figures face look washed out. I'll warm him up though, as long as he doesn't drift towards the 'sunburnt' look ;) and take some more photos under more controlled conditions.

Rick, not sure on the cuff title. While it's not 100% clear in the series of photos I was basing this on, one shot shows one commander with no cuff title.

Mr Sowle! nice to see you drop by again :) How art thou?

[Stuke Sowle]

All things aside, not too bad Andrew. The current downturn in our economy over here has me on temporary lay-off, but I'm eligible for unemployment and honestly ready to dig all my tools out of storage and start using all this extra time to get my skills back up to where they use to be. Which is going to take some time! :)

[Flak]

Looks sweet...Andrew

[dsleigh]

Very nice GD IV Andrew! and that is a very nice rear end if I do say so myself.