Well, here I go again with another Vbench. This time the subject of this thread is the Panzer IF by Alan Models. Yeah, I know, right now you’re thinking “this guy is a masochist, a glutton for pain”. But no, this one is a walk in the park compared to the Bison II and I’ll show you why.
This thread won’t be a SBS from the beginning because this is one of my sleepers (or as David likes to call them, one of my corpses). The basic hull and turret has been built some years ago so here I’ll show you the improvements that I’ll make to the model to bring it to the currents standards. (Well, almost.)
So let me show you where I’ll begin…
Here is the model as I left it some years ago, just the basics, hull, turret and suspension. Now, a word of caution here;
Do not glue the idler wheel until you finish the tracks. I glued it as per instructions and later had to break it off to compensate for the length of the track. The position indicated by the instructions put the idler in a position that leaves you with a half link gap in the tracks. If you add a link it’s too much and if not the track gets too tight.
Next I proceed to add the weld seams that are missing in the vehicle.
Between the front and sides…(still thinking about replacing those bolts)
…the visor and glacis plate…
(While I was doing this a little voice inside my head was telling me that something was not quite right. But as you might have experienced, once we start it’s difficult to stop. So, the next day I checked my references and noticed that there was no weld seam around the driver’s visor.
So I removed it.)
…and the top of the hull.
Then I added the tools to their positions around the tank. The tan color tools are from the Panzer IV accessory set from Tamiya and the gray ones are the original ones. Here in the front you can see the fire extinguisher and the Notek light…
…In the right rear fender we have the shovel, axe, S hook, crow bar and a large box…
…In the left rear fender we can find the jack, wire cutters, the manual starting handle and what appears to be an ammo box.
The left front fender is used to store the wood block for the jack but I’ll have to reconstruct the one that comes with the model because I don’t have a replacement.
I also drilled the headlights because the originals are poorly done.
Then I proceeded to make a chrome interior for them. Here are the headlights in the tank. They aren’t glued yet, just dry fitted.
For more detailed instruction of how I did the headlights you can go to the Tips & Trix page:
http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/sh...3134#post43134
Until next time
Ruben
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