Small Scale Military Headquarters

I was presented with one of the R/C Pzkw IVs over the holidays. Of course it had the broken road wheels noted in earlier threads about this item. I glued them back on with a high grade ACC and they seem stronger than the other intact road wheels. The tank is painted in a three color camo scheme and marked (mostly in a correct fashion) for the Panzer Lehr Division, late war.

Much like the non-motorized "Euro" version of this tank, this pup is in need of alot of work. All the hatches were painted shut. I opened the tank up and removed all the "blocks" used to blank out the inside of the opening hatches on the turret. They came out with a pair of nippers. Same with the commander position. I trimmmed the "bucket" so the turret ring support remained, but the rest of the bucket was gone to allow placement of the commander. I removed the gun barrel cam and spring that made the gun go up and down when the turret turns. I also removed the stop on the turret gear to allow full 360 degree movement. I think the rotating turret is the best R/C trait of this tank. Too bad this tank is geared so high. I wish my 1/6 Stuart went that fast. The motors and gearing look very robust and well built though. The sound is a joke, as is the recoil action. The recoil would be in the barrel, naturally. I am not big on running R/C to begin with, so this tank will be mainly a display.

Finally, a couple things dawned on me as I sat looking at this tank. One was, why doesnt 21st sell the side skirts and or skirt rails as a seperate kit since they decided to leave them off the RC models? Secondly, and this is a big peave of mine, the headlights. Not one of their PZKW IV offerings has had the complete headlight included on the model. The base is there, but the important part, the top is missing. Do they still produce the Panther? If so. maybe they should hire one more person for the PZKW IV assembly line and have them dip into the Panther headlight bin and glue them to the IVs. They put everthing else on, like all the tools and the machine guns. Just go that one percent more and do the headlights..Pleeeese!

I actually removed the entire 'hatch block/turret ring support' thingy without any ill effect. Yes, I'm too lazy to trim it out. I also removed the traverse block on the ring itself. Makes a world of difference playing with the tank. I do have to agree with you about the skirts. Not having them makes me want to pull the turret armor off, but then you lose all the markings. Minor issues for me ultimately, but annoying nonetheless.

The turret stop on the ring gear was probably an indication that they might have been planning some electrical gizmo in the turret. Wonder what they were considering.

I looked through some books for Pz IVs with same paint and markings. The photos I found show tanks with turret armor and the skirt plates missing but with most of the support frames. One shot had the tank with all the skirting and turret armor plate ripped or shot off. It was very near the end of the war and German armor was not fairing well and maintainence was all but nonexistant.

I ended up taking the cannon apart as it sat crooked in the mantlet. I had to surgically split it the entire length after removing the screws. It was simply glued on crooked at the factory...

TJ

21st took another cheap way out with these RC Panzers. First, they churned out that "exclusive" Euro Panzer with the sideskirts, but that turned out to be actually worse than having no sideskirts. Molded on? Come on?! Wouldn't be easier to just make the skirts SEPARATELY?

Instead of actually fixing the Euro Panzer, they took another cheap way out and made things worse by removing the side brackets entirely on the RC Panzers. They must have thought,

"Hey, nobody would complain about the lack of sideskirts, if there are no brackets to put them on!"

Scratch-building sideskirts is kinda easy. Scratch-building the side brackets is MUCH harder. 21st must enjoy kneeing us in the cojones.

Hey, they don't have any competition in the 1/18 armor arena, so they think and do crappy armor, because they know we starved for armor and buy them nonetheless.

I could almost wish Dragon would come back into the fray and drive 21st to the ground like they did in the 1/6 line.

Oh, the Panzer S1 I got not only had a misaligned barrel, but bent as well, so I replaced the whole thing with brass tubes.

And lastly, why do they keep making German armor whose version should have zimmerit already? Their Tiger is a horrible mutant late version which should have zimmerit. Their Panzer IV is a J which should also have Zimmerit. If they don't want to do zimmerit, then make version of the tank that didn't have zimmerit.

Googly, if you look here you will see a very nice RC Panzer without side skirts (though it has mounts)

http://www.tanktraxx.com/gallery/displa ... fullsize=1

Many RC tanks have you remove the side skirts before running because they are problematic to operation. I think that even the tiny skirts on the 1/16 Tamiya Pershing need to come off

Don't think of the RC Panzer as an attempt to improve on the S1 as a detailed model, think of it as pretty good for $50 And an even better deal at WM discount. I want new armor too but as you said nobody is making it.

Remember way back when we haven't see the Euro Panzer yet, we were all planning on making sideskirts for the Panzer, and I think someone was even planning on making and marketing sideskirts.

But with the announcement of a "special" Panzer with the sideskirts already, the custom sideskirts talks died out....I think most of us preferred to just buy another Panzer OOB with the sideskirts.

Then we saw they Euro Panzer and how substandard it is, compared to the S1 version.

Now the S1 is rare, and the RC version is almost everywhere.

Yeah, I know that sideskirts aren't mandatory, even during WWII. But late Panzers gotta have those brackets! Most Panzer crews don't bother replacing the skirts if they get lost, but they won't remove the mounts as well, because they're good for tying down camoflauge things, like tree branches, shrubs, etc.

21st should have left the Panzer IV well enough alone, if they are not gonna improve on it.

The RC Panzer is pretty good for $50, but it seems this version, or the Euro Panzer is the wave of the future (didn't someone post pics of a tri-color "S2" Panzer?". While the better-looking S1 will be left aside.

I wish they'd drop the Rc thing altogether. Without enemy to fight against, driving a whole bunch of Panzers with M113s is just plain silly.

Hey, maybe someone would create a Panzer Grand Prix.

At least with 1/16, you can have Sherman vs Tiger, or King Tiger vs, Pershing/or T-34/85 battles.

21st, if you're listening (which I doubt), don't bother releasing the Euro Panzer here! Just keep making the old Panzer and we'll make the skirts ourselves! Maybe the company who makes accessories for 1/18 and 1/32 (forgot their name) can make the skirts and market them.

For the Pershing, it's okay to keep the skirts if you're driving inside. But if you're driving outside, you better remove them.

Hi new to this forum I have just finished redoing a panzer 1V and made the sideskirts from scratch.they can be taken off as well,other stuff done was lowered handles on top hull,straightened gun barrel,added visors to both sides of hull,filled all seams,lowered vent on top hull,lowered both hatches on lower hull these are way to high.Made oil container at rear with gear drive.Tank has been completely repainted and re decaled with custom made decals.This was alot of work but I have to give 21st century a thumbs up for a good building block.

Excellent work problemchild! Wish 21st gave us one like that
Welcome aboard, look forward to seeing more of your customs!

I do have to agree. As I have said on the 1:32 side, 21st Does provide some great starting points with their stuff. By the way, nice work, PC.

TJ

WOW

VERY NICE WORK

If the tank came like that it would be a mini-fov at $250!
That really is some inspiration for the rest of us with OOB Panzers.
Big Thanks & Welcome to problemchild

What is the oil tank with the gear drive you mention? You kind of lost me with that. Pardon my curiosity.

TJ

Dang! Very nice work PC. If you guys haven't seen PC's winter Tiger check out the the Eastern Front Tiger post. Keep it coming PC great stuff.

Googly, the other day I found 3 RC Panzer IV's all 3 were 3 tone camo (redbrown, tan and darkgreen) one had armor on the turret but the other two had no extra armor or brackets. I'm not all that happy with my RC Panzer I wish 21st would just reissue the S1 Panzer IV and in plastic. Whats with this bi-cast stuff? part metal part plastic
This dicast metal is a pain in the A to cut when your doing customs
I have to agree that these tanks... Panther, Tiger and Panzer IV are great building blocks. Thanks 21st and no matter what I still want Armor.

thanks guys it was alot of work but well worth it If any of you are looking for side skirts let me know I have a pattern for them or I will make sets up depending on how many want these.Believe me I don't want to make a 100 of these but a few won't be bad as for the oil tank at the back I was hoping someone out there knew what this was?If you look at the back of some panzer1V on the left side of muffler there is a oil tank with a drive on it I'm thinking for cold winter starts.Some panzers have it and some don't,The guy I did the tank for wanted it I to would like to know what it is.

Oh, okay. I think I know what you mean. It is the flattened thing with four tabs ect. That is a later version muffler for the turret traverse motor. The Pv IVs had a two cycle gas engine to spin the turret. The earlier versions had a skinny tubular muffler atop the main engine muffler. I have seen a lot of photos of tanks with these mufflers missing. Maybe they rusted out or something. But then again they could have been "J" models since at that point, the turret gas motors were replaced by a hand crank system.

TJ

I like your Panzer IV the best. Great paint job. Very realistic!

Mark

Nice Custom job. I was wondering if there were any tricks to keeping the tracks from coming off when running this tank. All in all a nice tank for the price considering it is only $10 more than the non R/C model. My twin sons enjoy it as much as I do except when we have to stop and put the tracks back on. I appreciate any help.
Todd