WWR - Tamiya Panzer IV H #35209 & Panzer IV J #35181
These two kits have much commonality so they are together in one review.
Tamiya #35209 - Built kit twice and everything went super smooth. The turret skirt & side skirt railings being the most challenging part of the build to line up properly.
The second kit took 45 hours build time. This included Tamiya decal Zimmerit, some PE, detailed wheels, Aber gun barrel, RB muzzle brake, Aber MG’s, Aber 2m antenna, scratch details like chains & fender springs, added welds seams, bolts, screw heads, wing nuts (half & whole), tool clamp handles plus time for Fruilmodel tracks.
By contrast building a Dragon Pz IV F kit near out of the box took ~56 hours plus time for Fruilmodel tracks.
2nd H before paint…
2nd H after paint…
Occasionally, a semi-informed aficionado may insist all Pz IV H’s had zimmerit. Most did but there were a small number of early H models that didn’t have zimmerit.
The 1990’s & up Tamiya Pz IV family, with MSRP & typical online vendor pricing.
3 Price ~$45, but likely ~$25 to $30 from a motivated vendor at a model contest
5 Instructions 3C [Clear, concise & correct]
5 Molding Quality - 4NS [no sink marks, no short shots, no mold shift, no flash to speak of]
5 Plastic Quality - high quality Tamiya plastic blend we expect and love 
3 Parts Clean Up - parts are well engineered and designed for reasonable parts clean up. Many mold seams to remove on tools, small parts & wheels. Under the fenders and behind the turret skirts & side skirts are sort of ugly, needing attention. This is often the nature of a later war Pz IV build regardless of manufacturer.
4 Ease of Build - It will be as easy or hard as you want to make it. Out of the box or near, it’s easy. The various raw opening need sheet plastic to seal them etc like engine deck grills & driver visor.
Get radical, go full TriStar suspension to address multiple deficiencies in the kits parts, add zimmerit, scratch details, and PE, it’s possible to make this build…difficult 
1 Accuracy - Even Monogram’s old Panzer IV kit from 1970 has several weld seams on the turret and hull Tamiya missed!
In 1990’s, I’d have rated it a “3” but today there just so many newer kits with refined details. The bones of these H & J kits are excellent. They make a fantastic canvas to build your detail skills or show those skills to full effect.
However, if you start looking at references or had the pleasure of climbing around on an actual Pz IV or both then these two kits might prove extremely disappointing 
.
*Qualified Panzer Police have a substantial list of missed weld seams on the hull, the turret, issue with welds & lettering missed on wheels, lack of casting numbers on bogies, missing nuts, bolts, recessed screws on turret top, hull top, engine deck omitted details, missing wing nuts (both full and half) etc.
*Beating on kits with hair splitting has limited appeal to me and ruins my enjoyment of the kit, the build so with point made, time to stop.
4 Fit It fits pretty well but there’s definitely a 
fiddle factor for skirt rail alignment, turret skirts and suspension bogies.
3 Doesn’t Require Aftermarket With time a lot can be done without aftermarket parts. Kit tracks with a hint of sag via super glue etc. Realistically due time & fiddle factors etc aftermarket maybe more desirable.
4 Details Built Out of the Box
Back in the day, when new properly built out of the box an H or J was an outstanding contest model for IPMS shows due Tamiya design quality. My only stock build to win a local IPMS contest, Best of Show was a Tamiya Pz IV H nearly 30 years ago
1st H build from 1997
37 out of 50
37/50 => 74%
Recommended as:
canvas to practice or show detailing skills, campaign build,
nostalgia build.
Otherwise not recommended at all the H& J have both been surpassed. It’s the wrong kit for aspiring would be Mr. Wolfgang von Panzer Meister, aficionado extraordinaire
Bonus Folklore, Trivia & Irrelevant Information
The Pz IV J that started my adventure in serious model building back in 1994…
…completed in 2024
In 1994, #35181 was a brand new release. I was happy with the kit until checking Achtung Panzer IV #3 and other references. One of my good friends said this J build was a colossal waste of time that would have been better spent on a worthwhile Dragon Pz IV. Objectively, I think it’s hard to argue against his point of view. With a little TLC these older kits will build up close to the newer kits without much difficulty.
I built the much newer Dragon Pz IV F1 a while back. Excluding tracks it took ~56 hours - basically out of the box. I found the kit to be nice when assembled but an unpleasant build experience. There are about a dozen Dragon Pz IV kits sitting in the closet. It’s hard to really get motivated and tackle another Dragon Pz IV kit but I wouldn’t hesitate to build yet another Tamiya Pz IV H or J kit…so there is that factor in the Tamiya kits favor despite the need for adding details
on my opinion.
Review
