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Building a Panzer IVJ - Part 1

Where to Start?......

At the beginning, of course. I started with step 1 of the Eduard sheet-cutting off and replacing the kits front fenders. Using a straight edge I scribed a line with my x-acto across the fender till I had a nice groove. Then using a razor saw I cut the down angles on the fender side. I lined this up by using the angle between the forward hull lip to the fender top hinge line. Once that was cut through the fender can be snapped off and the edge cleaned up with a file or sandpaper. The Eduard set is extremely user friendly. All fold lines are easy to see and equally easy to bend. I used my needle nosed pliers to bend the fender to shape and test fit it to make sure everything was all right. A bit of super glue on the fender location of the kit and the p.e. fender was set in place. Then I run a small bead of glue on the underside of the fender to secure it. I repeated this procedure for the other side with the exception that I wanted to have some damage to this fender.

I cut a small nick in the fenders front edge with a pair of scissors before I glued it in place. After it was placed and dried I used my pliers to open it up a bit, like it was hung up and torn on something. Be Careful! These can be sharp. The fender hinges are what I call extremely fiddly bits-being easily bent out of shape so care was needed in cutting them out and placing them into their positions on the fenders. Eduard supplies spare track stowage braces and a few other structures for the front end of the upper hull. I used the kit spare track length (#D12) to mark the position of the braces. These braces are among the smaller parts on the p.e. fret. Once removed they were bent using my pliers, dipped into some CA and carefully positioned on the marks I made using the kit part as a template. Eduard also includes the frame to surround the spare wheels, air intake doors, clamps and latches, tow cable hangers, side fender braces, and tie downs. Most were easily bent to shape with the pliers, the tie downs were started with pliers then bent down around the back side of my exacto blade.