1/76th Panzerkampfwagen IV - The Sequel

If you had more endurance than sense or were seeking a cure for insomnia and have stuck with this so far you may have wondered what happened to the Cromwell Models Pz IVH turret? 

I have an ongoing project to build some Berlin '45 terrain and on looking at the Battlefront Flames of War website I noticed that they produced a Pz IV turret bunker. That solved that , I hated the thought of that nice looking turret being consigned to the spares box for eternity.

I pulled the page up on the BF site on my iPad as inspiration and then measured and cut the pieces.  The top part was plastic card and the bottom part was cut from the the back of an old picture frame. I cut the bottom off the Pz IV turret to make it flush and then drilled a central hole with the pin vice. I was a little overzealous here and ended up drilling all the way through. This actually turned out to be helpful though as I placed this in the correct place on the bases and just drillled through the lot with the old pin vice. 

To add some texture I glued some wet and dry paper to each rectangle and then stuck them together with PVA.  When it was dry  I painted with various shades of grey. I think I used Privateer Press Bane Base and then Coat D'armes dark grey. I then drydrushed lighter shades of grey. The turret was attached with a piece of brass rod. I carefully filled the drill hole with green stuff and built up the missing piece of rim with green stuff.

The turret was basecoated with a mix of VMC Middlestone and VMC White and then washed with VMC Umber Wash. I used Citadel Devlan Mud to add further depth where required. I then added highlights with Middlestone mixed with more white. 

 

1/76th Panzerkampfwagen IV - Pt 4 (of 4) The End or is it?

So after painting both models I though it'd be a simple thing to add the schurtzen. Think again. When I lined them up I realised that one side fitted snugly and the other didn't. So I ended up hacking off all the inner supports and in the process cutting off one of the support rails. AARRRGGGGH. Luckily I'd had the sense to give the models a good couple of coats of varnish so I didn't do too much damage to the camo finish. They fitted quite nicely after that with liberal use of Super Glue.

You'd have thought that by now I'd call it a day. No I wanted more pain so I cut some 1mm wide plastic card strips to make the schurtzen rail supports.I slightly shaped each end and fitted with not so liberal use of Super Glue.

With plastic card side supports added

And that my friends was that, apart from when I was showing boring my wife with what I'd done I saw that the turret was missing a schurtzen support. So I had to make a plastic card one. And paint it. And while I had the paint out I added a number of highlights to all the edges. And that really is that.

Cromwell hull, Fujimi turret

Cromwell hull, Fujimi turret

Cromwell hull, Fujimi turret top view

Turret and both hulls

Fujimi hull and turret

Fujimi hull and turret

1/76th Panzerkampfwagen IV - Pt 2 (of 4) - fixing

Part 1. The Fujimi turret. Looking at the invaluable Osprey Modelling Guide no 38, Modelling the Late Panzerkampfwagen IV there wasn't too much difference between a H and a J turret. I simply removed the machine gun from the Fujimi model as both the H and J models detailed in the book didn't have one The H model should have zimmerit on the turret schurtzen but I can live without this, especially when you see how many wargamers have used non-zimmerit models for years.

Part 2. The Cromwell Pz IVH hull. This was a lovely detailed piece, with nice zimmerit and stowage moulded on. The only problem was the lack of side schurtzen. My initial thought was to use the ones off the Fujimi kit. However. these were supposed to represent the wire mesh ones that Pz IVJs had and were wrong for an H. Going through the spares box I found a set of metal schurtzen that came from an SHQ Sturmpanzer IV. Although slightly too small they had the correct number of plates (5) and would do the job. I bent some florist wire round the top of each schurtzen to shape it and then stuck it on the inside to represent the fixing rail. Fixing them was another matter but this would wait until the finishing stage.

Schurtzen  - before

Schurtzen - with rails added

The only other work needed on the Cromwell body was to drill a small hole and add an MG34 barrel from the spares box.

While I was doing all this I started to think about what I could do with the Cromwell turret and Fujimi body. I then decided that I'd repair the Fujimi body and paint it in the same scheme as the Cromwell body/Fujimi turret hybrid. That way I'd have a PZ IVJ to use if I ever wanted to. So I now increased my work load.

Part 3. The Fujimi Pz IVJ hull. When I removed the schurtzen I  pulled a couple of the track return rollers off one side and they pinged across the room never to be seen again. As I was going to model this without the side-skirts I needed to do some repair work. The surviving rollers were each made of two identical pieces glued back to back. By separating these it gave me the correct number of parts for a bodge/repair. For three of the rollers I removed the roller sections completely. I then attached a suitable size metal pin. Over this I slipped a small piece of plastic rod. Finally I added the correct roller. If you look closely and at a particular angle you'll see the rear roller is a little small but in normal use you'd never see it. I then straightened out and re-glued the tracks. 

Fujimi body with track rollers removed

Fujimi body with new rollers added

To finish the body I removed the flimsy exhausts, drilled holes and then slightly countersunk them to make them sturdier. Finally I added a new hull machine gun as above.

1/76th Panzerkampfwagen IV - Pt 1 (of 4)

Anyone that has read my start and end of month progress posts may have noticed the ever present Cromwell Models Pz IVH. I bought this back in 2014 and it's been sitting either on my table or at difficult times banished to a drawer ever since. I even referred to it as my bête noire at one stage.

Like all Cromwell Models offerings it's a lovely kit, so what was the problem with it? The problem was it needed a lot of work. As I wrote in September "It's a resin kit with incredibly fragile turret schurtzen. All of the supports were either broken when I got it or have broken just by looking at them. Additionally the model didn't come with the side schurtzen or with the supports on the model which is pretty poor as all Pz IVHs had them."

When I got my WW2 mojo back on in October/November time I had a burst of inspiration. I have a poor old Fujimi Pz-IVJ that has seen better days built many years ago. Why not use the best of each kit to make a half decent model? 

The kits as they have appeared since 2014 - Fujimi PZIVJ on the left, Cromwell PZIVH on the right.

So that's what happened and if you want to read on you can see what I did in excruciating detail - I want you to share my pain.

What's on the table - October 2016 UPDATE

Updates to the original list:

• Cromwell 1/76th Pz IV H (2014) - no progress
• Newline Designs 10mm Greek Hoplites (2015) - flesh areas painted
• Oathsworn Miniatures Burrows and Badgers Adder Mage (2016) - main colours blocked in 
• Oathsworn Miniatures Burrows and Badgers Otter Rogue (2016) - main colours blocked in
• Oathsworn Miniatures Burrows and Badgers Weasel (2016) - COMPLETED
• Revell 1/76th Comet (2014) - COMPLETED

Additional items I worked on:

• Artizan Designs 28mm LRDG (2013) - cleaned and primed
• Peter Pig 15mm WW2 14th Army infantry (2016) - cleaned, primed, fully painted and varnished.

We were away mid-month so I didn't do too much. The highlight of the month was completing the Comet, which the infamous Pz IVH aside was my oldest outstanding kit. You can read more about that on my post here.

I had a bit of a WW2 renaissance when I saw the lovely SBS Mike Owen figures for Gorgon Miniatures advertised on TMP. I promptly dug out the old packet of LRDG that I'd picked up for a couple of quid back in 2013 and started on them straightaway. I have been very close to getting shot of these on many an occasion, wondering what I was going to use them for as I don't game WW2 in 28mm. However, I am partial to Mr Owen's work and already had the matching pack which I finished in 2007. So they've now on the table and will be painted just for the joy of it.

Also, without really planning to, I  did a packet of Peter Pig WW2 14th Army that I picked up at Salute. I got these just to see if I could still paint 15mm what with the bifocal blues. Happy to say I still can and I'll do a full write up on these once I take some photos.

1/76th late WW2 British armour

Over the last few months I've completed three British tanks- Sherman Firefly, Cromwell and Comet in 1/76th scale. This was the first British armour that I'd done in this scale, my 1/76th collection being Eastern Front. I have done a fair bit in 15mm though.

It's been awhile since I completed a plastic kit and it took me a bit of time to get into the groove again. I made mistakes with each one, which I'll mention below, but overall I'm happy with the results of all three.

I built and painted the Comet and Firefly over the same period this summer. The Cromwell is the Airfix kit which I picked up in 2004 from eBay for about £5.00. It's one of the newer Airfix kits released in 2011, consisting of about 90 parts. I was really impressed with this kit having made a number of the old Airfix kits over the years. It went together very well, with little/no flash on the mouldings and made a very nice model. A bonus for me was the track moulding in one piece plastic rather than the old "rubber band" type. They worked a treat. 

Airfix Cromwell

The Sherman Firefly was another £5.00 eBay purchase. I bought it on a whim in May this year on the way home from work - the danger of smart phones! It's the old Matchbox kit re boxed as Revell. I like the old Matchbox kits. They're a good balance between being straightforward and not too fiddly to build yet still looking good for wargames purposes. This one went together without any problems apart from the very last part where I stuck the two main assemblies together without fixing the turret retaining ring. However, this self inflicted annoyance aside, it was another pleasing and successful build.

Matchbox/Revell Firefly

The Comet was bought back in 2014 at the same time as the Cromwell. Once again it was about a fiver and like the Firefly it was an old Matchbox kit re boxed as Revell. This was a breeze to build. I think this had a lot to do with having recently built the Cromwell and Firefly and I'd refreshed my skills. As seems to be the pattern at the very last I cut one of the front towing hooks off the sprue and it pinged across the room never to be seen. Mildly annoying but not the end of the world by any means. Of the three builds I think the Comet was my favourite. 

Matchbox/Revell Comet

I like to add a mix of putty, washers, old figures etc to the inside of my plastic tanks to give them a more weighty, satisfying feel. Obviously the best time to do this is during construction but I only remembered to do this at this stage for the Comet. For the Cromwell it wasn't too much trouble to fix as the turret is removable so I could pack it in. With the Firefly where I already had to correct the forgotten turret ring, I ended up drilling/cutting a whole in the bottom of the tank so with a pair of tweezers I could fit the turret ring and then I could pack the hull.  

I painted the wheels and associated parts of the Cromwell and Firefly as I assembled them. They got a base coat of Vallejo Model Colour (VMC) 924 Russian Uniform. The wheel rims were painted VMC 995 German Grey . I then painted the superstructure with a base coat of VMC 897 Bronze Green. This didn't give the colour I wanted so I repainted with Russian Uniform and applied a wash of VMC 890 Reflective Green or 894 Russian Green (can't remember which), Citadel Badab Black, VMC Glaze Medium and water mixed to the standard skimmed milk consistency. This added a nice depth to the Russian Uniform base. I then highlighted with Russian Uniform mixed with VMC 886 Green Grey to varying degrees and then a final touch of pure Green Grey on some areas.The final step was a dirty wash of Vallejo Game Colour Earth to the wheels and sparingly to the hull. 

The Comet was painted in exactly the same way apart from I didn't do any painting on the sprue and only painted the wheels when they were all assembled and stuck to the running gear. The other difference was I went straight to Russian Uniform for the base colour. Machine guns and tool heads were painted VMC Black base with a pencil highlight. Tool handles in some shade of Citadel brown I forget which. The tracks were given a base of some Citadel muddy colour with a drybrush of VGC Boltgun. Then they were washed with a Citadel Devlan Mud/Badab Black mix and then a bit more of a Boltgun drybrush. As a final finish odd areas were very lightly drybrushed with VMC  124 Iraqi Sand which has to be one of my most used/useful colours.

And that's it. I will add some stowage when I get hold of some and possible some markings. I don't really have a firm idea of what to use them for past the usual Normandy/Market-Garden scenarios for the Cromwell and Firefly and an East v West 1946 scenario for the Comet. But before I do that I'll need to get hold of some Brit infantry. 

What's on the table - July 2016 UPDATE

Updates to the original list:

• Privateer Press Hordes Titan Gladiator and Cannoneer – COMPLETED - HURRAY!!!
• Privateer Press Hordes Satyr Shadowhorn – no further progress
• Oathsworn Miniatures Burrows and Badgers - Mouse Knight, Ferret Rogue - no progress Fox Brigand – good progress, all base colours complete
• Cromwell 1/76th Pz IV H – no progress
• Airfix 1/76th Cromwell Mk IV – minimal progress, 2^nd base coat applied
• Airfix 1/76th Opel Blitz – no progress
• Revell 1/144th Hawker Hurricane – minimal progress, primed
• Revell 1/144th Bf-109E – minimal progress, primed
• Revell 1/76th Sherman Firefly – minimal progress, 2^nd base coat applied

 Additional items I worked on:

• Newline Designs 10mm Greek Hoplites - good progress, cleaned and primed

Titan Cannoneer

Research and scale questions

As mentioned in my last post I've started thinking about a new project. To this end I went through my book collection and also picked some up through my excellent local library service. Here they are:

This week my copy of the Flames of War Tour of Duty supplement arrived. I'm very happy with it, it's very good background info for whatever rules and whatever figures I end up using. It was a bit of a steal for £8.99 off eBay.

I still haven't completely decided what scale to collect 'Nam in. I have an Indo-China collection with 40-50 20mm Liberation Minis Viet-Minh figures, a few buildings, some palm trees and other assorted terrain bits that would all do very well. That leaves me to add in some AK-47, RPG and RPD armed troops and that would almost be one side complete. 

For the USA and or ANZACs I'd have to start from scratch. Dependant on the size of force and how much armour I wanted this could be costly.

Or the alternative is to go with 10mm using Pendraken and Timecast. All excellent stuff. Decisions, decisions but I've made a start and will look at properly costing out what size force I want to collect before I make any purchases. 

The year so far

By my standards I've had quite a productive year, having completed the following:

• 30mm - Privateer Press Hordes Brun Cragback and Lug. 2 figures - pic. below
• 28mm - Empress New Zealand Wars Royal Navy Boarding party. 10 figures. 
• 20mm - Newline Designs NW Frontier Afghans. 48 figures.
• 20mm - Newline Designs WW2 Red Army infantry. 8 figures.
• 20mm - SHQ WW2 Waffen SS Pak crew. 6 figures.

When writing the above it struck me that two of the entries on this list perfectly illustrates the butterfly approach to how I've accumulated my collection. 

I don't collect/game the New Zealand Wars. However, the figures are lovely sculpts, classic Paul Hicks and I had to get them in somewhere. I have an eclectic loosely categorised "Old West" collection so they are now shoehorned in here. 

The NW Frontier Afghans shows how else I can get sidetracked. Back in 2013 I became interested in Modern Warfare, something that I'd not touched before.I decided to get some Modern Afghans from MJ Miniatures. After painting these, other shiny things grabbed my attention and I didn't do anything else with this. Then I got an email from Newline Designs with a very good offer and I promptly bought 40 of their NW Frontier figures thinking I'd use them with my Modern Afghans. But think again. By this time I'd read some bits on the North West Frontier Campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s, purchased some appropriate Brits from Early War Miniatures and my Modern project had morphed into a North West Frontier project. The MJ Minis with their AKs which started it all off  are sitting in a box with little hope of seeing the light of day. 

As is the norm I've yet to game with any of the above figures. Well it did take me 10 years after buying Hordes at the release event at Salute 2006 to actually play the game. 

Brun Cragback and Lug