Customer Reviews

Modelling the Early Panzerkampfwagen IV (Osprey Modelling)

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The Panzerkampfwagen IV was the only German tank to remain in production for the entire six years of World War Two, and was central in almost every campaign from 1939 to 1945. Aimed at very advanced modelers, this book's articles show how to combine the 1/35th scale Tamiya late model Panzer IV kits released in the 1990's with a few parts from the dreadful Tamiya Panzer IV D from the 1970's and some resin and brass aftermarket parts to create the early, short-gun variants of this most important German tank. Unfortunately, timing is everything, and the book became obsolete seemingly within minutes of publication, as each of these early Panzer IV variants (except the very first production version) became available within the last two years as new, state of the art kits from Dragon-1/35 Pz. IV Ausf. C - Superkit and Tristar-1/35 Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf.D/T. In a sense, Tom Cockle has been "hoist by his own petard," as he served as technical advisor on some of these excellent new model kits.
Most useful to the reader would be the chapter on building the very first Panzer IV variant, the Ausf. A, which had a wider superstructure than subsequent versions, and is still not available in kit form (at this writing). However, as the book includes no templates or scale drawings, it would still be necessary to buy a dedicated reference book like Thomas Jentz's Panzer Tracts volume devoted to the Panzer IV to glean a set of the necessary plans. The builder should of course, use one of the new Panzer IV B or C kits from Dragon or Tristar as a starting point, which would save some work.
This title doesn't offer any scale reference drawings or alternate marking schemes (other than the the single scheme shown on each of the featured tanks), and there is relatively little in the way of "how to" model building advice that we find in Steve Zaloga's books in Osprey's series.
Curiously, one chapter is devoted to modeling the Neubaufahrzeug heavy tank prototype from 1932, a tank that was unrelated to the Panzer IV, and was limited to just three examples built. The 1/35th scale resin kit by Armo used in this build is given a fairly poor rating (Cromwell in the UK reportedly offers a better kit).
Overall, it is really difficult to justify buying the book now, unless you just want to study the painting styles used in the final finishes.

This book is written by Tom Cockle, a master modeler who obviously knows his stuff. It is profusely illustrated although the color balance of the photos is off and slightly greenish. It goes into great detail although it is more of a "what I did" rather than a "how I did it" book. There is a good index and good references for further study. All in all, it is a good book and I would recommend it.

I got back into modeling after a hiatus of some years. This Osprey book helped me a lot. Excellent pictures, good suggestions for practitioners. Not for the beginner, this is a very useful tool for this specific tank.