Mirage Hobby gets in on the early Pz IV action -- in braille scale!

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Check this out:

http://www.mirage-hobby.com.pl/index_en.html

I can’t find any information on it on the internet, and they are not taking orders for it on their website (orders usually bounce over to Squadron), but if this little fella is anything like their Grant/Lee series, it’ll be a real treat for braille scale builders.

2

There was a review on Hyperscale:

http://misc.kitreview.com/armourreviews/mirage72853reviewgp_1.htm

3

I had one sent to me to review. I was planning on starting it this weekend.

4

Thanks for the link, sounds like a fun kit. I built the Grant for the Mad Allied Day and am happy with it, though I never finished weathering it.

Rob, let us know how it turns out. Do you have the France 40 version or the DAK version?

5

Neither, I have kit #72853, PzKpfw IV Ausf. C, Normandy 1944 shown in the above link.

6

Oh, I misread that. I saw Normandy and I assumed it was 1940, because it’s an early Pz IV. I didn’t know any Pz IV Cs were still in service in 1944.

7

What exactly is Braille scale? Does it have anything to do with blind people?

8

Braille scale in armor is a nickname for 1/72 or 1/76 scale due to the fact that the details resemble bumps like those used in Braille writing.

9

I just finished the panzer IV D tropenkopf (sp?)-(yes, it was a review kit). I’ll post pictures to this thread when I finish the weathering. It’s a really good and fun kit. Beware of the teeny weeny PE clips for the air intake doors - or is it stowage doors on the sides of the engine compartment? Add the rear PE fenders after you get the tracks on - otherwise the tracks are nearly impossible to put on. I ended up loosing one so I had to switch them out for the kit plastic ones. Would have been nice to have te complete fender system in PE - but it’s not.

There is enough boogies for 3 tanks, same with idelers. There are atleast 3 different varients represented. there is no way to glue the tracks together, so I had to glue the 2 ends (after some minor trimming like 2 links) to a boogie.

I finished it as #414 from the 5th panzer in Libya I was very impressed with this kit and enjoyed the 3 to 4 hours it actually took me to put together - yeah a couple parts are lost in the black hole of the floor - but fun none the less.

10

So here are the picts:
Note: I was trying a different weathering technique - may be a little heavy for tis scale, but what the hay…if you were travelling around the desert for days on end
you would be a little dirty yerself[:D][:D] - atleast, that’s how I can justify it

I don’t know anything about their M3 line, but if this is any indication of it, I’m buying some. These lil feller’s are fun and quick.

11

Thanks, wibhi2

Is it the pictures, or do some of the road wheels not sit flush? That was a problem I had with Trumpeter’s Ferdinand in 1/72. Is that a problem with this kit too?

12

No, it’s not the pictures. For some reason not all wanted to sit flush - I just figured I fubar’d on some aspect of the assembly. They looked like they sat flush with out the road wheels on - or so I thought.