12SS Panzer IV - Mod'd Warlord

 

Panthers and IV's are definitely the most common vehicles I've done over the years and its a challenge keeping each one in some way different from the previous. In this case i decided to modify the recent Warlord Pzr IV. 

It is a really good kit, but like all 1/56th offerings it has room for improvement, so hopefully I've added some value, well for my tastes anyway.

First to go was the schurzen, nice robust moldings designed for gaming and handling. However,  i wanted to bash mine around a bit so utilised spare JTFM plates and made up some rudimentary rails. The attachment points aren't strictly accurate but then I'm not doing a scale model after all. The next item for change was the turret. I felt it sits high so the underside was shaved to create a lower profile and some of the schurzen opened up.

After that, all was fairly standard, spare tracks (JTFM), attachment points and stowage. Some great points about the Warlord IV is the opening hatches and the zimmerit. I decided to try something different this time and instead of having it opened up with 1/2 figure crew hanging out, i wanted to model a more realistic "in-action" composition with the hatches opened up but with just the crews heads showing. In this case the commander is a Warlord head and the crew are Westwind, the commander has some miliput shoulders but the crew didn't need them. I quite like the hull gunner "shouting" pose, maybe he's spotted something the others hadn't?

The rest is just painting and weathering :o). Decals in this case are Archer dry rub transfers and Dom's decals for the 12SS insignia.

I've included a before and after picture to show the changes. As always loads more pictures in my Flickr gallery, and double click these for "full fat" pictures.

Neil