tankman

Building this Panzer lV for a bit of fun and as something different. Was going to go down the Panzer lV “J” route but thought “ I don’t fancy building the mesh side skirts “ so looking on my shelf my eye fell on a model I had repainted for a club member. Now his brother had added some pendulum armour to this Stug lll when he rebuilt it, so I thought “ will that work on the Panzer lV”. So out came the brass and copper rod, tube and bar, some measuring, head scratching eyeing up and cussing got it to the feasible stage. I’d also had another talented ember of our club 3d print me a set of steel wheels for this flight of fancy. So the next job was to fit them and see how things looked. Decided after fitting to bush them out with brass tube so as not to kill the PLA printed wheels on the metal suspension shafts. Now a few pictures of where I am at present.

3d printed wheels having brass inserts fitted to improve fit, function and prolong wheel life span.

Inner wheels with brass bushes fitted to metal suspension.

Tread plate replaced.

Rear view.

Side view with half steel wheels and half standard Panzer lV wheels.

Stug V cupola test fitted.

Side view with all steel wheels. Here you can see the gun mantlet has been moved back closer to the turret face.

Obligatory view from the other side. The Stug V cupola seems to lower the profile nicely. Also shows how raising the front sprocket makes a lot of difference to the look of the track run.

Front view.