Most of the work on the lower hull would be typical for all HL Pz IVs v F and later. The first thing that needed to be done was to increase the frontal armour. Hence 3 mm of styrene was added to the front.
A 1 mm sheet of styrene was added below this and detailed with 1.2 mm nuts. The towing brackets were detailed with conical rivets and 1 mm styrene added to the back to allow clearance for the spare track links. 3mm wide brass bar was used for the spare track bracket. 2 mm brass rod was used for the new towing pins.
The alignment of the drive sprockets, rollers and rear idler on your standard Heng Long Pz IV is all wrong. The track on the ground is not parrallel to the return track rather the return track is high on the drive sprocket and slopes downwards to the rear idler.
The new Asiatam track adjusters easily fixs the position of the rear idler but to get the correct shape the drive sprockets need to be raised 3 mm and the last return roller needs to be lowered. To raise the drive sprockets a 3mm sheet of styrene is placed in the bottom of the 'motor compartment'.
Since the motors have been raised 3mm so too must the casings.
The rear return roller is lowered about 3 mm. Real 1.2 M brass nuts and bolts are perfect for the job of reattaching the return roller assemblies.
If you are using the new idler adjusters you can probably get away without increasing the height of the drive sprockets BUT if the rear roller is not lowered the tracks will look quite odd.
Detailing the rear end
The following was added/removed from the rear end:
A: Extra bolt detail added
B: Since there is no turret there is no turret motor muffler hence it is removed and the outlet is covered with a rectangular plate.
C: The adjusting levers of the rear idlers were relocated to the more typical 'top' position.
D: Aber clamps for the crank handle positioned.
E: Bottom plate for the towing assembly added.
F: Towing pin and chain added
G: Scratch built filler cap &b retaining chain
Rear deck & fenders
The rear deck where the fenders are attached need to be extended (again about the magical 3mm). New tread plate added along with the covers for the air intakes. Small hinges were used to attach the rear fenders/mud flaps. Rather than create new brass ones I decided to simply cover the original ones with brass shim sheet. Since these will be covered in zimmerit I thought it a waste of money to add expensive brass bolt detail so instead the brass was indented at the nut positions.
The flaps are held in postion with a mini spring:
Front deck detail
The small brackets used to attach the spare track to the front deck were a bit tedious to make and postion but finally there were made and operate exactly like the original. The wierd Heng Long inteprretation of slot headed screws were removed and real ones took their place.
Although the front will be completely covered in zimmerit, tread plate and bolt detail is still added in case it shows through.
The Dreaded Schurzen:
Constructing & attaching the schurzen was/still is what a have dreaded most about this project. More to come inthe next update but for now here are the main support bars.
Statistics: Posted by Phyrephish — Thu May 12, 2011 10:27 am
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