My review and rating of Tamiya’s Panzer IV F #35374 Just my opinion of course.
4 Price ~$59 MSRP, ~$50 (paid ~$45)
5 Instructions - top notch
5 Molding Quality
5 Plastic Quality
5 Parts Clean Up - well engineered
4 Ease of build - lost one point due to suspension & wheels, no polycap wheels, wheels are very loose and fall off unless secured in some way.
4 Accuracy - suspension & wheels some what lacking for 2020+, rest of kit is very nice
5 Fit - outstanding, made Dragon’s Pz IV F look like junk
4 Doesn’t Require Aftermarket - had link & length tracks vomit personally not at all happy with kit parts , replaced with aftermarket , kit MG barrels are junk need replaced.
3 Details built Out of the Box - missing flat head screw details & wheel welds, MG not slide molded, string tow cables, missing external vane sight for commander, all minor but it adds up
** 44 points out of 50 **
Highly Recommended as a low stress fun build. For more enjoyment, budget for track replacement and MG barrel replacement. Other enhancements could be added as desired. Very nice canvas for the modeler.
smashing build Wade. You have added a lot of nice clean and tidy extra detailing. The mudguard springs have really added to the look and make it a whole lot more realistic. Well done
The tank looks great. Hope I find the right words, to me it’s great, how interesting a " just grey " tank can look. I think it’s not easy to get this result, I have seen german tank models from the early war in grey they look not really " real ", but your paint-job has a really good result👍
@Johnnych01, thank you for your kind comments. Greatly appreciate the feedback
@BillM Bill, thank you for checking back! Pz IV’s are my favorite vehicles to model.
@Marco_Schaper Marco, thank you for the kind words. Gray is my favorite color to work with because it offers a lot of interesting shading opportunities. Panzer Gray is also a very easy to work and surprisingly forgiving.
There’s just a few techniques to the above finish. Dark gray black base coat, several shades of Panzer Gray, an oil paint wash of Raw Umber thinned with Zippo lighter fluid and light drybrushing in Panzer Gray & Titanium White oil paint.
Okay, maybe there are different meanings about " easy "
All the things you wrote of, that brings that result that you got sure need some practice. I’m happy when the day comes when I got a result like that on your PzIV
Thank you Wade for posting your comprehensive yet simple build.
In returning to the hobby, and wanting to start (practice ) on some of the ancient armo*r kits from the stash before attempting any of the finer detailed kits, your SBS just hits the mark. Look frwd to the final completion.
As stated before, a very tight build. Outstanding!
@strongarden , Dave thank you, appreciate you taking time ti checout the thread.
While an older kit Salvage-26-year-old-wip-tamiya-pz-iv-j might be of interest as it is a significantly more involved build involving flat head screws, wing nuts, home made zimmerit, suspension replacement and adding weld seams.
Likewise, while older still going back to a 1970’s vintage-italeri-pz-iv-build-kit-bash is far more involved with well over a 1,000 part bash may also be of interest…or not.
personally not at all happy with kit parts , replaced with aftermarket , kit MG barrels are junk need replaced.
nudge!
Cheers
