PSC Pz IV endstates...

... just when one wants fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-trousers' photography to work reasonably well, someone infects the kit-bashing, toy soldier blogosphere with a desire to become a keen amateur. The impact has spread, on undoubtedly occult and arcane lines even unto this blog! As a result, my photographs of the Plastic Soldier Company Pz IVs are poor, even by my standards. So, you will have to forgive, and use your imagination:

Above and below, two of the PSCs constructed as Pz IV ausf. H.

The camouflage pattern on the side skirts was lifted from photographs and a colour plate from Hilary Doyle's Osprey on the late mark Pz IVs - a very useful reference.

And, the remaining kit from the PSC box of three, finished as a Pz IVF1 for Rommel:

Below, the PSC version is accompanied by an out of focus Frontline Wargames resin Pz IVD (does anyone remember the marvellous Airfix Magazine article from the early 1970s which celebrated the arrival of the Airfix F1/F2 with conversions to a Pz IVD and a Pz IVJ ? The former was very nicely presented,  I remember, with crew emerging from every turret hatch, and a peasant woman (and duck?) greeting them as liberators (eastern Europe, and early, then, but not Poland in any case; though perhaps Polish-Galicia).

And, below, the PSC on the left, with a 30 year old Airfix version on the right. The Airfix version has endured some 10 house moves in that time and has only lost one half of the turret hatch!

You can see that there is a noticeable 1/72 v. 1/76 difference here, but as one whose wargaming mind was formed in the days when the wargaming clergy were happy to mix 1/76 with 1/87, I don't really care.

So, what's the verdict on the PSC Pz IVs ?  In a word, worthwhile. There are detail issues, for example, the notek light is merely a raised blister, and there are, if one knows enough, issues re the rear of the hulls, and, probably, with the turret side hatches, but they look the business for the wargames table! They are excellent value for money, you get three at once, and you don't give sterling (TM, rUK) to the Chinese (I see the US think China is shaping up for a bit of aggro over Japanese islands).