"Kitbashed" Panzer IV Ausf.J in Thun

Source.

Hello warriors,

Yuri Pasholok recently visited the tank museum in Thun (Switzerland) - the post yesterday was from him as well, I am sorry I forgot to mention it. This time, he had a look at the Panzer IV Ausf.J they have there - and he found out that the vehicle was heavily kitbashed and some parts of it are not original.

Basically what happened was that the vehicle arrived in Switzerland incomplete and was likely bought (received) as a wreck from somewhere. Yuri Pasholok does not mention from where but judging by the way the vehicle restoration was performed (especially the suspension kitbash), it's possible it came from Czechoslovakia along with the G-13 tank destroyers at some point (numerous Panzer IV tanks were "restored" there and used for several years under the designation of T-40N (not to mistaken with Skoda T 40 TVP prototype)). In any case, as he correctly mentions, it's good that the vehicle was "restored" like this instead of being scrapped. Some parts were clearly made from scratch, like the side mudguards. The vehicle also has the hatches and access ports on the top of the hull wrong apparently.

Luckily, Switzerland has a restoration group that is experienced in bringing the vehicles to the working order, so it's possible that this Panzer IV Ausf.J will be historically restored as well.

Notice the return rollers, some of them are from StuG III