Panzer IV/70 (V) Aug. 1944

The fit of the hull Tamiya-like - absolutely perfect. The road wheels need some cleanup, which is a bit tedious but OK if you do it after gluing the two halves together first. The barrel doesn't need replacement IMHO: it's moulded in one piece and it even has rifling inside the muzzle. 

Details on the underside of the mudguards. 

David complained about the fit of the upper rear hull, apparently because of the way the side louvres are done, but I can't complain at all. I attached the louvres with slow-drying cement and put the engine deck in place immediately. No fit issues whatsoever. Only then I attached the rear plate, and the mudguards were attached last.
The spare wheels were indeed a bit tight, but if you flatten the brackets a bit it's OK. 

The main gun assembly is longer than the vehicle itself. Superb engineering on the gun breech; too bad it'll be all but invisible after assembly. 

The gun mounted to the superstructure. It's worth studying the manual closely and do some dry-fitting before doing that, because the assembly is quite complicated. As a bonus, the gun is movable in both directions if you're careful with the glue. There's a tiny gap between the driver's visor and the surrounding zimmerit that'll have to be addressed. 

Viewed from the inside. Don't forget the tiny part attached to the bottom of the mantlet (Topfblende). 

At this point I chose to fit the superstructure to the lower hull - much earlier than the manual suggests. I prefer doing "heavy" work before lots of tiny parts are fitted. 

Some medium-sized clamps were used to eliminate a tiny gap between the superstructure and the mudguards. The fit is again excellent. 

The superstructure roof contains lots of tiny parts. The hinges on the loader's hatch are very difficult. They won't be seen, but I figured they would be a good exercise. The commander's hatch will also be closed, only the small hatch in front of it for the scissors periscope will be kept open. 

This one is a bit tricky: the knob for locking the scissors periscope hatch is moulded flat, but it should be mounted on a tiny wire to be more correct. 

Here it is cut off with a fresh scalpel. 

The underside of the superstructure roof. The scissors periscope is still missing. 

Viewed from a different angle. 

The episcope covers are thinned down a bit, and the top edges are a bit rounded to look more like the real ones. 

The front mudguards completed and the gun support (workable) added. 

The rear mudguards also completed, just missing two tiny PE parts. The wheels are only dry-fitted. 

And now the tedious work of assembling the tracks (type 5b). I assembled 50 links so far and cleanup is minimal: a 0.5mm drill is used to clear out any obstructions and one quick pass with a file cleans up slight burrs. As the metal is quite soft, some links are slightly bent, but this can easily corrected by hand.
The bags are not marked, but the links are handed. Above is the RH track, with the "pins" pointing to the hull. Seen from the front, the links should resemble the shape of an A - only Nibelungen fitted them the wrong way around for some time in 1943, with the shape resembling a V. 

The RH track test-fitted. I started with 96 links, which turned out too short. I added more links until it fit, but now it's a bit too slack. Metal tracks usually get sligthly longer in the cleaning / burnishing / weathering phase, so I'll take one link away. Fine-tuning can be done with the pivoting idler wheel. The wheels are tacked on with Panzer Putty, otherwise they would fall off all the time. Next I'll paint the lower hull. 

The LH track test-fitted. I noticed that when the idler is in this position (most slack), the track touches the rear mudguard. But as the tracks usually get a bit longer, as I already wrote, I'll hopefully be able to put it into a more "tight" position. 

After masking certain parts - the axles for the road wheels, the attachment points for the rear armour plates and drive sprockets - I started painting with Vallejo Primer. The colour is more than slightly off, but a layer or two of AK Real Colors Dunkelgelb RAL 7018 will take care of that. 

 

The rear armour plates now in place. 

The tracks now burnished and weathered with pigments. 

The hull painted with the actual colour, Vallejo Model Air 025.