Dragon Panzer IV/H-Late Production

[James Tainton]

Here's the build up almost straight from the box. New approach this time for me, I usually don't put the model all together before painting but Tom's looked so good that way I thought I'd try something different. Went together with no real issues except the fit of front side hull parts that sit under the final drive- This problem was encountered before with the other recent Panzer IV's from DML. That is the parts B10 and B11 are a little thick, half a mil. or so, and this interferes with a flush joint with the final drive pars A12. I remedied this very easily by gluing parts A12 to their respective B10 and B11. Then a thin piece of Evergreen sheet plastic of the correct gauge was glued to the back end of A12, (behind B10 & B11)to create shim which in turn allowed for a flush fit. Easy peasy.

I did not use any of the supplied metal parts- Dragon's take on these is rather poor. Good thing all the plastic parts are well within tolerance levels.
Here's the pics. ( I had to replace the hand holds on the upper plate of the turret because of course I lost one sides, and then after attempting to bend some with brass rod- went thru the spares box and came out gleefully with a set from an old abandoned Tamiya Panzer IV/J.