Offical Panzer IV Ausf H build start

[CrankyCrafstman]

Hey all

  I actually started on this on Friday the 28th.  I started out drilling out all, and I mean all the hinge pivots. I bought some extra long 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 1.0mm and 1.2mm drill bits off of Amazon. There from China, but they are pretty decent. The 0.5 are 80mm long and are VERY flexible. As of today (my 72 birthday)🎃 I have most of the hinges done, all but the turret hatch hinges. So here are some pictures for you to perose.

This is the gyro compass from AFV Modeller it's made up of 3 parts, plus a decal.

Another view of the compass.

This is the fan belt system from AFV Modeller. It is more accurate then the kit, which is missing alot.

This is a picture of how the fan belt system is supposed to look, from AFV Modeller.

This is some more 3D printed parts from AFV Modeller. The black parts are a bracket, fire extinguisher and transformer box for the compass. The grey parts on the bottom are electrical boxs and valves for the engine compartment. The parts on top are machine gun ammo belt and 4 gerttz sacks for holding ammo for the machine guns.

This view shows how the 3 peices go together. This sits on the wall to the left of the driver.

View showing one of the turret hatch doors for the loader in the closed position.

This view shows the hatch in the open position.

I'm not sure what this small hatch is but made so it will open.

This view shows the rear upper back panel, the front upper hull plate with hatches and the cupola hatch.

This view shows the hatches over the steering brakes in the open position. I'm thinking about making the center hatch removable. I know there are several spare track links mounted on this, but they are held on with track pins, which are removable. I think I can hide some small Tamiya magnets under the hull plate to hold the hatch in the closed position.

This shows the lid cover over the starter port, I  made this operable.

This view shows the cupola hatch in the open position.

This view shows the upper hull and the engine hatches and the driver and radio operators hatches.

This view shows all the hatches in the open position. Well that's it for know I'll be back with more soon.

Ron G 

[GazzaS]

I like the metal pins for the hatches.

[CrankyCrafstman]

9 hours ago, GazzaS said:

I like the metal pins for the hatches.

Yeah, there small pieces of brass rod, I  will trim them to size at final installation.

Ron G 

[Bomber_County]

Tried to do that on 35 scale once, good start Ron…..

[CrankyCrafstman]

On 11/1/2022 at 9:33 AM, Bomber_County said:

Tried to do that on 35 scale once, good start Ron…..

Hey Bomber 

  I had a devil of a time doing this in 1/16 scale, I wouldn't even want to think about doing it in 1/35 scale .

Ron G 

[CrankyCrafstman]

Hey all 

 Just a small update. I started on the kits engine, I didn't get the one from AFV Modeller because it costs $96.50 and I've already spent over $150.00 there , so I'm going to add my own scratch building to this. If you have ever seen David Parkers build of this kit on Facebook, it's absolutely fantastic. I think it took him over 7 years to finish this kit, at least I think he finished it, I wouldn't know I don't do social media. That's a long time on one kit.

This view shows the front of the engine. (actually the front faces to the rear of the tank on the Panzer IV). The white parts are the water intake manifolds. Trumpeter forgot to add any water hoses, plumbing or anything but the basic engine to this kit.

This view shows the right side of the engine and the right water intake manifold. I made this from Evergreen plastic stock and some Plastsruct 0.04" hexagon rods to make the bolts.

This view shows the left side water intake manifold. I added some tape to the small hose to make a rubber hose connection. Well that's all for know I'll be back with more soon 

Ron G 

[CrankyCrafstman]

 Some more done on the engine. I started to fit the AFV fan belt system to the kit engine. This was designed to fit there resin engine kit. I had to modify this to work with the kit engine. The round part on the left is part of the cooling system. The round part on the right has a pulley  on it, I think it's the generator, but I'm not sure. I added a fan belt to it made out of a piece of small rubber tube.

This view shows how I added the fan belts to the front of the engine.

This view shows the modifications I made to the engine oil tank. This is modelled wrong from Trumpeter, so I reworked it to look more like the real thing. The white parts are what I added.

  The next 3 pictures are of David Parkers build up of this kit. All the plumbing you see was completely scratch built, as Trumpeter neglected to give us any.which is to bad because it is very visible through the open engine hatch.

This view shows both the front (red) and the rear (green) radiator hose valves. I'm going to try and replicate this up to a point.

This view shows the front plumbing.

This view shows the rear plumbing.

This view shows my crude attempt at replicating David's work. Close, but no cookie...lol

Another view of the valve.

And another view of the valve. I still need to make the ones for the rear. This is very time consuming and tedious work, especially with my eyes not being that good. Oh well, that's it for know I'll be back with more updates soon.

Ron G 

[Irishman1]

Great job on the hinges but man, you really knocked it out of the park on that engine!!!! The belts too!!!

[CrankyCrafstman]

1 hour ago, Irishman1 said:

Great job on the hinges but man, you really knocked it out of the park on that engine!!!! The belts too!!!

  Thanks Irish

  The belts are 3D printed and are from AFV Modeller, made by David Parker. I only made the one that goes from the crank pulley to the alternator pulley.

Ron G 

[GazzaS]

Yeah man...   that engine!  Not far from real.

[CANicoll]

Whoa, and WOW...  I'm not a big armor fan, but this is really impressive!

[CrankyCrafstman]

Thanks guys 

[CrankyCrafstman]

Hey all 

  Some more work done on the engine. Also, some more stuff from AFV Modeller came today (shhuuu! don't tell the wife, I like my genitals right were they came from the factory...lol)So here are some pictures for you to look at.

This view shows the exhaust pipes I made from evergreen plastic tube. Another thing that Trumpeter forgot to put in this kit.

Another view showing the exhaust pipes, also the nuts I added around the area where they go through the rear wall.

This view shows the hole I cut out of the floor and the escape hatch from AFV.

These are the parts that came from AFV. Starting in the upper left are some interior light fixtures and switch terminal boxes, then moving right are the control levers and linkages for the front steering brakes, back to the left are ammo pouches closed (there are 32 of these) below them is the z-18 box, and below that is the spare vison blocks with mounting bracket for the drivers area. To the right is the escape hatch,  the rest is the power transformer for the radios. The 8 grey brackets on the right I'm not sure what they are for.

This view shows the fuel tank for the auxiliary engine.

This picture shows how the steering mechanism goes together.

This picture shows how the transformer goes together. That's it for now be back with more soon.

Ron G 

[CrankyCrafstman]

Hey all 

  More work done on the engine and some other parts. I forgot to take pictures of the engine stuff, I'll post some tomorrow.

This view shows the rear cover of the transmission housing. I drilled out the holes and added some screen to make it look more like the real thing.

This view shows one of the steering brake housings. I drilled out the holes in these and added some screen to make them look more real.

This view shows the steering housing on the right, the way it looks from the kit. The one on the left is the one I drilled out.

This view shows the drivers seat that I added the two support straps on the sides.

This is the rear of the seat that I added the seat springs to. This seat isn't as accurate as the one from AFV Modeller, but, I do want to do some scratch building on this kit...lol. I'll be back tomorrow with more pictures.

Ron G 

[CrankyCrafstman]

 Did some more work on the engine and radiator hoses. So here are some pictures for you to look at.

This view shows the two solex carburetors and the intake inlet on top of them. I added the nuts on the carbs,  4 on each side.

This view shows the exhaust manifold that I modified to look more realistic. Below it on the left is the inertia starter. To the right of this is the oil cooler, this is connected to the radiator cooling system.

This view shows the rear radiator plumbing to the left, it's the white pipe work. To the right you can see the exhaust pipes that go from the exhaust manifolds to the rear panel.

Closer view of the radiator plumbing and the white pipe with the dark brown wire rapped around it is the ignition leads from the magneto (the grey part that it is attached to) these feed the spark plugs that are incorporated into the heads under a cover.

Another view showing the rear radiator plumbing.

This view shows the radiators, the engine with the exhaust pipes and the radiator plumbing.

Another view of the  same thing from a different angle.

This view shows the rear plumbing and valve and the front valve.

Same thing from a different angle.

This view shows the front and rear plumbing and valves. The black areas are the rubber tubes that connect the pipes together. These will eventually have silver clamps.

Same thing from a different angle. Well that's it for now be back with more updates soon. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Ron G 

[CrankyCrafstman]

Thanks guys 

[harv]

Really nice work !....harv 

[CrankyCrafstman]

1 minute ago, harv said:

Really nice work !....harv 

Thanks Harv 

  This kit is very challenging in as I need to skip around the build sequence in order to make sure all of the scratch building I'm doing fits. I had to modify the plumbing for the radiator hoses in order to get them to fit under the upper deck. Right now I'm in the process of finishing all of the plumbing to the radiators. This all has to fit around the auxiliary power generator that sits next to the engine. As soon as I'm done with that I will hopefully be ready for some paint.

 It would have been a lot easier if Trumpeter supplied all this in the first place...lol. they do have it in there king tiger and jagtiger kits.

Ron G 

[harv]

On the plumbing,  you can use black shrink tubing for connections....harv

[CrankyCrafstman]

6 minutes ago, harv said:

On the plumbing,  you can use black shrink tubing for connections....harv

Thanks Harv 

 That's a great idea. I made mine out of tamiya tape colored with a black sharpie and the clamps are small 1/32" .0312" tape painted with silver sharpie.

Ron G 

.

[harv]

I used this on my P38. I scratch built most of one engin and bay and plumbing...harv

[Peterpools]

Terrific detail work and is looking so good.

  

[CrankyCrafstman]

Thanks Peter 

[CrankyCrafstman]

Hey all

  New toy showed up from Amazon. It's an air brush from a company called Nedeco,  it is Chinese made, but it is pretty good for the price. $38.95 including shipping from Amazon! I saw this on YouTube previewed by Barbatosa rex, I think thats right. He has quite a few YouTube videos about spray painting with air brushes. He rated it very highly, did a demo on it with all three needles 0.2mm, 0.3mm & 0.5mm all included. It comes with a quick disconnect, different nozzle guard, moisture trap, 6' hose, eye dropper, 9cc cup with lid (the chrome one) 20cc cup & a 40cc cup, all for under 40 bucks! 

 As soon as I try it out I'll let you all know if it is as good as I  hope.

 One thing, the 0.2mm needle was bent like a fishing hook, but I think I got it straightened out.

Ron G

[harv]

Yes, let us know.....harv