Graeme's Panzer IV, Simon's memorial build.

[Richard48]

Looking great!!,I used to do Italeri kits in the 80s as a teen,Its nice sometimes to just get an older kit and just enjoy putting it together and not worrying about accuracy and updates.
Richard

[Graeme C.]

Jim, Si, Andrew & Richard, Thanks for the encouragement, sometimes doing an old kit is just fun!
A bit more done, made a start on the upper hull, a bit of fettling of the parts was needed (a bit of a theme going on there). Some filler will be needed in places, removal of some plastic for replacement with etch is next.

[BattleshipBob]

Up and at it Graeme, never built a Italeri kit.

[Graeme C.]

Thanks Bob, I've built a couple of their Crusader kits, which are ok, but need a few upgrades.
I've started on the turret, building up the shell, again a bit of fettling required! A bit of modification was needed to make the resin mantlet fit, the casting block on the mantlet was on the turret side which was sawn off & filed flat. The gun mount had a flat filed onto it to mate to the mantlet, after a bit of trial & error it looked right.

[Lee Drennen]

Graeme. Nice updates.

[Graeme C.]

Thanks Lee!
Not too much done, just cleaned up & assembled the wheels, all 20 of them! There was me thinking a Panzer IV only had 16, maybe Italeri have done the stretch panzer.......

As usual there was a lot of cleaning up to do, I'll have order a large box of sanding sticks.....

[BattleshipBob]

16 sets, not a top secret paper panzer !

[Graeme C.]

Could be a Frankenpanzer!

[BattleshipBob]

Being thick, i assume the extras are spares D'Oh

[Guest]

There are at least two spares, for mounting on the hull side.

[Richard48]

Wheels arghhhh.Worse bit of armour kits when i make them.Looking great!!!
Nice work again.
Rich

[Guest]

Late in sorry Graeme, you seem to have it under control .

[Graeme C.]

Bob, they are spares, but four?
Jakko, usually in a rack on the side, but I'm doing a desert version, so where to put the extras which would be needed for the conditions in North Africa?
Rich, it can be therapeutic cleaning up all those wheels, could be worse, I could have built a Tiger.....
John, good to have you along, plenty to do yet, but I'm not sure any of my builds are under control!

[Guest]

usually in a rack on the side, but I'm doing a desert version, so where to put the extras which would be needed for the conditions in North Africa?

Anywhere they wouldn’t fall off, probably If you’re aiming for a generic vehicle rather than trying to model a specific one, you could do something like make a rack for jerrycans along one of the hull sides and put a spare wheel in that as well, for example. Another would be to lay a wheel flat on the mudguard, held by a bracket between the bow machine gun and driver’s visor, or to have a longer length of spare track on the hull front than will fit there, so it hangs in an arc, with one or two spare wheels between the track and the hull.

Here, for example, the crew have added an extension to the normal spare wheel rack so it will hold a third:

[ATTACH]403853[/ATTACH]

On this one, though it’s blown apart, you can see a spare wheel on the ground in front of the tank. It most likely sat behind the spare tracks on the bow:

[ATTACH]403854[/ATTACH]

This one has its spare wheels on the sides of the engine deck, in the curved brackets that Italeri also supplies, but it doesn’t have the rectangular “bin” for wheels on the side:

[ATTACH]403855[/ATTACH]

There are all kinds of other options. If you ask Google for images of something like [ICODE]Panzer IV North Africa[/ICODE] you’ll probably find lots of inspiration. Just be aware that you use pictures of long-barreled PzKpfw IVs, since the short-barreled ones often differed from them in this kind of stowage.

[Jim R]

Bet you're glad the wheels are done :thumb2:
Nice job marrying up the resin and kit parts.
It seems that the spare wheels were fitted in many different places. Jakko is a master at finding reference photos. I like the rack with the home made addition for a third wheel.
Jim