0.9mm Brass Screwheads
LionMarc Model Designs Set No. LM60007
Passion Models Set P35-003
1:35th Scale
Review by Terry Ashley

This set has 100 finely machined brass screws and one 0.9mm drill bit to use in fitting the screws to your model.

Brass flat screws

The brass screws are perfectly formed with the groove in the head nicely defined and the inner shank thinner than the head if you want to show a vehicle under major repair with the screws removed. The one thing you have to note is these screws are extremely small and a good pair of tweezers and some form of magnification will be the order of the day when handling and fitting the screws.

These 0.9mm screws are of the type used on the Panzer IVs and other later German vehicles and are just the thing to add that little bit extra to the latest Panzer IV kits from Dragon and Tristar and will address the minor issue the the Dragon kits where the "flush screw" are too indented to be truly "flush"

To fit the screws I actually used a second smaller drill bit (0.3mm) to drill a hole in the centre if the screw location, be it on the turret roof (as with the Dragon image below) or around the front crew hatch (with the Tristar image below). I then partially drilled the 0.9mm hole to take the screw head only and this allowed a more precise fit of the screws.

Hole profile as drilled through the kit surface
with the 0.3mm and 0.9mm bit provided

You can then fit the screws with the aid of fine tweezers into the holes and as the larger 0.9mm hole is only drilled partially the screws won't sink too deep into the hole and gives a nice flush appearance with the smaller hole holding the shank snugly. A small drop of cyanoacrylate can be added from below to glue the screws in place.

Images showing the screw heads added to the Dragon Panzer IV roof
and around the Tristar forward crew hatch.
Note large 0.9mm hole only drilled partially through the roof,
the same was done with the hatch screw holes.

Conclusion:
Another superb update set that is very simple to fit with the only thing to watch is getting the smaller hole drilled dead centre of the larger 0.9mm hole so the screw heads sit snugly but fitting the actual screws is very quick and easy. The 100 screws in the set will allow you to fully detail a full Panzer IV with some left over.

These sets will almost become indispensable to the German armour modeller as they so easily allow this often misrepresented detail to be added or corrected with such ease.

Highly recommended

References:

	Panzer Tracts No.4 Panzerkampfwagen IV Typical Panzer Tracts book with excellent technical descriptions and detailed coverage of the Panzer IV.
	Achtung Panzer No.3 Panzer IV Excellent detail coverage of the Panzer IV with the usual detail photos and drawings of all versions of the Panzer IV.
	Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.D Up-Gunned AFV Super Detail Photo Book Vol.1 Published by Model Art Co.Ltd. 56 pages, full colour, soft cover
	Ground Power Magazine #108 - 5/2003 Published by GALILEO Publishing PzKpfw IV Ausf.A-D (pages 5-75)

Thanks to Passion Models Japan and LionMarc Model Designs for the review sets.

Page created May 1, 2006