First off, I would like to say that this is my second kit after coming back to this fun little hobby after 25+ years being out of it. I work a pretty stressful job and Ive found that this hobby eliminates 99% of that. When I bought this kit, I had no idea what I was getting into, thinking it was going to be like the old skool Tamiya kits from my youth. Man, have things changed! Ive subscribed to a number of forums and have been reading and gathering information. Ive got a pretty good work area set up and have all the necessary tools, paints and other things needed to get this project finished and hopefully looking good. I do need to find an affordable PE bending tool...I made a scratchbuilt PE bender, but I want the real thing. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to get a vBench going for this project in hopes that your guidance and constructive criticism aid me in making this a great addition to my finished works. Anyway, onto the kit;
I selected the Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. E "Vorpanzer" when it first came out as Ive always loved the PzIV family of armor and they were the backbone of the Panzer forces and just overall good tanks from my understanding. So far, Ive spent about 20 hours on it and have only just now almost finished step 1 in the instructions
. You look at the parts and think, ok, this isnt so bad, but my eyes and fingers dont work as well as they did when I was a teenager and Im almost positive the parts got smaller! I have to say though that I absolutely love the detail that seems to be in almost every manufacturers kit and my mind is already working on what I want to do next which will be a diorama I had once done when I was younger and I want to do it over. Sadly, I have none of my models from when I was a kid.
Ok, here we go! Step 1...
Tires, spare wheels and idler(?) ready to go. Im of course cleaning all parts of flash and ensuring a good fit.
Unsure what these parts are, but cleaning them was time consuming.
Finally finished the suspension group. 64 parts total for this step. A whole lot of tiny detail cleaning and Im really surprised that I havent lost a part yet into the carpet.
Wheels done. The fit was excellent here and I ended up not gluing any of the tires to the wheels. Apparently the seam through the center of the tires is intended according to the box description of the parts.
These are all the parts for the rear of the Pz. except for the PE as those are sitting in a pill bottle. I am a little bit confused by a couple of parts here... D42 is showing that a PE bracket (MA60/61) can be attached to it, but I dont see where this is supposed to happen. Also, when I completed the sub-assembly of the rear idlers, part D31 apparently just sits in the hole of D34/35? All this took me several evenings to clean and prep. Im really impressed with the level of detail in this kit already and Im a bit intimidated by the skill its going to require.
99% finished. Still need to add the PE and figure out if Im to glue those parts of the idlers into place or leave them loose for track fitting.
I offset the nut on the gear group to be a bit more realistic.
Steve
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