Just about the same time that wbill76 started his PzIV F2 WIP thread here in the beginning of the month, I picked up a set of Bison decals of DAK Pz IV F1, F2 and G that showed tanks in the early Tropen schemes. I wanted to do an F1 and had Dragons PzIV ausf F1 kit on hand. It’s being built as part of the 1000 road wheels GB but I thought might be a nice complement to Bill’s F2, described earlier. Because of that, I’m not going to present a detailed description of the build since the kit is very similar to the F2 and Bill did a fine job showing that assembly. The F1 will be modeled after tank 403 from the 5th Leichte division in Tobruk in summer 1941…
… and will be the earlier Tropen color scheme consisting of RAL8000 with RAL7008 camo (as opposed to Bill’s 8020/7027 scheme). Here’s a look at the colors (from White Ensign Models):
A second Pz IV variant that I’m building for the GB is the Trumpeter Bruckenleger, which comes with a nice interior consisting of transmission, and driver and radio compartments. This went together beautifully but since I was planning on having hatches closed on the Bruckenleger, I used it on the F1.
It required a little surgery to remove a set of the side braces to make it fit but in it went. I also cut out the center hatch to make the transmission visible.
So far, the kit is going together very nicely with just the usual attention to the instructions being necessary. That seems to be par for the course with Dragon kits so no surprises. Here she is dry fit with a bag o’ wheels ready to go.
They were shipped into Africa in standard panzer gray with the DAK symbols already applied. The tanks were then oversprayed with RAL8000/7007. The palms were masked off so that they still appear over the original gray base coat.
I will certainly defer to someone with more knowledge, but yes, my understanding is that at some point the tropen scheme was painted at the factory rather than on site. That is why the Tropen schemes also ended up on the Eastern front in '43 when it was determined that Northern Africa was a lost cause.
I put the Trumpeter interior in my Pz IV F2 build a while back. It does fit like a glove and much more useful in a regular gun tank than the bridgelayer…
The appearance of the DAK palm on a Panzer Gray block is one of those things that has gotten carried over as a “regular” occurrence when in fact it was somewhat limited. The initial forces that were sent to N. Afrika were shipped over in Feb. 1941 as part of the original “Blocking Force” that came to be known as the DAK. The 1st “Tropen” scheme was ordered in March 1941 and all vehicles destined for N. Afrika had that scheme applied at the factory before the vehicles were shipped to the corresponding depots and ultimately to the N. Afrika theater. The orders were also given that vehicles already in theater were to be overpainted with this scheme and stocks provided to the units to do so. The DAK palm on Panzer Gray would be appropriate for any vehicles sent over in the initial batches in Feb but after that they wouldn’t have had the Panzer Gray base. Bearing in mind that “Tropen” vehicles had special modifications to them for engine cooling, dust filtration, etc. that set them apart from “standard” vehicles…so the factory would know which units were destined for where on a pretty consistent basis as a result.
The other factor to keep in mind is that the F1 production began in May 1941, after the “Tropen” scheme had been ordered and was in place for several months…so any Pz IV F1s sent to N. Afrika would not likely have had the Panzer Gray base underneath the RAL 8000/RAL 7008 scheme. As with anything related to German vehicles, it’s tough to establish 100% absolutes and I have a “never say never” attitude when it comes to things like this…but the overwhelming possibility is that the Panzer Gray wouldn’t have been present on a F1. D’s and E’s, yes, F1s, no.
You’re off to a great start on this one Don, looking forward to seeing the scheme painted with the White Ensign colors! [tup]
Sounds to me like that’s about as close to 100% as you can get. [:)] Thanks for the clarification Bill. I guess also that the decal sheet shows a fictitious F1 since it is labeled as being in Tobruk in March 1941. [:O] Anyway, painting of this just got a little easier since I now don’t have to worry about undercoating with gray.
