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There can be few worse di lemmas than

having only twenty minutes to look around

a wel l stocked m odel shop f i l led w ith all

m anner of rare del ights. This was the

situation that I found m yself in during a

unscheduled visi t to the Azimut shop in

Paris during a fam ily holiday. During m y

panicky attem pts to exam ine everything in

the shop I cam e across the Coree Panzer

IV Ausf A. Im m ediate ly I felt the need to

own one and although I couldnt open the

box I could tel l f rom the p hotos on the box

that i t was good . In the end I di thered and l

didnt buy i t and of course instantly

regretted m y decision. I didnt repeat m y

m istake and the next t ime I saw one I

snapped i t up.

Coree give you a full resin kit and include

an etched brass fret as wel l. Assemb ly

was fair ly straightforward a nd I beg an w ith

the lower hull and running gear. The road

wheels are exquisite, but I had problem s

with the idlers as they were both b adly

m isshapen, and one was so badly

dam aged as to need a new sect ion of r im

added to repair it. This was a difficult

procedure and I was forced to hide my

repair as best I could by p osit ioning the

affected area up under the tracks.

I decided not to use the resin tracks

suppl ied but to replace them with a set of

Mo del Kasten working tracks. Assembling

these proved to be m ore t im e consuming

than cleaning up the resin ones, and they

OFFENSIVE

PANZERIV ausf ACor ee 1: 35t h sca le

By Dav i d Park er

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proved to be extreme ly delicate and l iable

to break which was som ething of a

problem during paint ing.

Moving to the upper hul l the qual i ty of the

m aster and the ca st ings is very

apparent, but I encountered

som e problem s with the f it of the

front glacis plate and the up per

hull. I had to fiddle around and

add sp acers to get a sucessful fi t .

The only other problem I had was

the f i t of the trackguards, which

were not long enoug h. I replaced

them with a set of Aber track

guards (the newe r versions) which Iwas slightly wary of, but in fact,

they fell together and a re wel l

worth the effort. They add a level of

detail and finesse to the finished

m odel which is mo st im pressive.

The hull is supplied with open front

hatches, but I chose to close one to

show the w el l executed de tai l on

both sides of the hatches w ich is

excellent. The kit supplies excellent

tool stowage and there w as very li t t le need

to enhance o r improve parts. The brass

fret suppl ies all the latches and wing nuts

that are required. One improvem ent that i

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OFFENSIVEA very rare picture of an Ausf A in com bat,

presum ably during the French cam paign. White turret

num bers and a ho rizontal rhomb oid are visible on the

side of the turret. Also highly visible are the white

recognit ion panels painted on the rear of the Sd kfz

251s in the ba ckground. Unusual ly, al l the crew w ear

grey sidecaps.

(Photo: Akira Takiguchi)

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made was to rebui ld the pivot ing machine

gun m ount on the hul l side b ecause the ki t

part wa s f limsy and distorted. I buil t a new

one from plast ic rod and added new

catches from spare brass fret, and detai led

the folding step next to i t in the sam e wa y.

The turret is superb, w ith subtly represented

weld seam s, cr isp hatches w ith detai led

interiors. The only tricky parts are the vision

por ts on the cupola which are m ade f rom a

brass s t rip which m ust be w rapped around

the resin cupola. As you m ight expect, the

two end s do no t join exactly, so obtaining a

good joint required careful tr im m ing of the

brass and care in al igning the vision p orts

with the front of the turret. The joint areawas then c arefully f il led before sanding to

avoid the tell tale line along the joint.

I added ne w g rab rai ls to the turret roof and

a handle onto the cupola hatch m echanism.

My only other addit ions were som e etched

chains for the towing points at the front and

rear.

I painted the m odel using ename ls with a

base co at of panzer grey l ightened with

som e No.72. and the running gear and

tracks were given a good dusting of pure

No.72. Once this had d ried thoroughly I

painted on al l the markings having m uted al l

the colours by m ixing in some Hum brol

No.72 to them . An oil wash was then

appl ied to p ick out al l the detai ls and o nce

again the m odel was left to dry. I appl iedsom e very del icate d ry-brushing in a pa le

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Above Detai l of the sm ashed fencing under the tracks of the tank

Above Close up of the detai led Machine gun m ount and step arrangem ent

Above The turret hatch in detai l Be l ow view of the engine deck and spare tracks

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grey, but this was extrem ely minimal. After

the other f ixtures and tools had been

picked out, I appl ied several del icate

appl icat ions of pastels to the m odel,

working the d usty colours into al l the

corners and around the raised detai ls.

Darker pastel tones were used to ad d

shadow s and water staining down vert ical

surfaces. On the tracks and p arts of the

running gear the pastels were mixed with

acryl ic solvent and p ainted on to g ive a

thick textural f inish. The same m ethod w as

used to f inish the exhaust m uff lers, with

black pastel dusted on to create the soot

stains.

The figures are a m ixture, with the infantry

com ing from the Drag on Advance to

Stal ingrad set , w hi lst the c rew are a

m ixture of di f ferent body pa rts whoes

exac t origin is now a m ystery. The

com m ander has a new sculpted

outstretched arm and al l the f igures have

had their heads replaced w ith Hornet

item s. All the figures we re finished in

enamels.

The groundwork wa s kept del iberately

simp le, with the tank having d riven through

a fence, c onveying a sense of invasion.

The fencing i tself was mad e from m odel

shipbui lding t imb er and sect ions were

assem bled and painted before being

broken and ad ded to the base. I especial ly

wanted to show the dif ference between

the old weathered wood and the fresher

wood that is visible once the t im ber is

broken. It took som e t ime to arrange the

com posit ion and to get the vehicle to si t

convincingly into the ground and run dow n

the slope. Hanging basket l iner was used

to m ake the grass and i t was t rimm ed torecreate the path o f the vehicle through

the grass. The whole base w as airbrushed

and edged to com plete the scene.

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