shelden3

I've been working on my Tiger for about 3 months off and on, have spent much of that time in research, mulling over photos, stories etc about said tank. I was almost to the point of applying the camo pattern when I decided to apply zimmerit to my tank. I had to sand off the base color, and figure out how to do said job. There are many ways to apply zimmerit and I'm by far no expert as my photos will attest.

I opted to go with Squadron Putty, using a plastic knife as a trowel and used a pinion gear from an RC motor. The result I think turned out well for the most part. It doesn't have the uniformity that some pics show, yet has the rough hand applied look that many other pics show. I applied the putty in lines along the hull then using the plastic knife i smoothed it to about 1-2mm, getting the right thickness was critical as well as the drying time to make it go well. I then would use a pinon gear on a piece of wire, think of the pinion gear as a roller. I would then roll it along the wet putty after allowing it to set for 3-5 minutes, that sounds like a long time but by the time you get it on, spread it, clean your spreader make sure the pinion is clean and roll it you are at about 3-5 minutes. It went fairly fast I thought. I'm using Tamiya colors and krylon oxide red primer, that really seems to help the yellow. I will overcoat in yellow then apply the patter with green and brown/red, per instructions. Well I have the turret to do know, enjoy and I welcome any constructive criticism.

charlie
OKC,OK

shelden3

And yes, I'm missing a road wheel on the left front, I left this off for conversation really. I saw several pics of tigers missing front road wheels or removed due to fouling in mud and snow or damage. I slightly damaged the skirts but nothing major.

Wozwasnt

They use to remove the front outer wheels but they kept the inner wheels on.

I like what you've dome with the zimmerite.

martin g

Charlie, i think this looks great.

The fact that there is NO uniformity makes it all the more realistic. I am very big on natural looking decoration of models, meaning they should look like the paint job or zim job were done by hand, by unskilled crew in a hurry. I hav seen some beautifull paint jobs on RC tanks, almost flawless, a credit to the owner, but it is that flawlessness that makes the end result look..err...toylike? for want of a better word.

you may have seen on the tiki thread I am working on that fella right now, I took some stick in my early days for doing everything by hand, but for me that gives the more natural effect. Airbrishing is ok for small models but 1/16 and above you need to see brush marks.

shelden3

Thanks guys, I appreciate the observations. I'll make note of the inner wheel. Nice TIKI! I've not been on the board in a while, I need to look your thread up. It is nice to see "non" box tanks. Nothing wrong with out of the box, but nice to see a personal touch.

martin g

Ta, but dont think the tanks of mine are out of the box. All so far are built from bits and pieces of other HL tanks and none are standard inside. Its just that the outer shells are cheap and that suits me.

swathdiver

Your zimmerit looks fantastic! Looks like it was applied in the field rather then at the factory. As for that front wheel, I'm going to do the same. The inner wheel will stay and the outter wheels will be dremeled (cut off) leaving only the hub.

shelden3

Thanks that really is my goal (field fix look), It will be a late war Tiger set in France 1944 or that era...and will have the rubber road wheels and such, plan to eventually change the copula and that is about it.

ksoc

To all the Tiger historians,

I know early in the war, Zimmerit was field applied to existing tanks while the newer ones had it applied at the factor. Should all mid and late Tigers have a more factory look, or were they still doing field applications?

I am planning to do Zimmerit on a late production Tiger and would like to know how "careful" I have to be.

Thanks

Kevin O
<S.C.A.T>

shelden3

Thats a real good question and from what I've read and i may be wrong so someone correct me please if so. During mid/late production they did come from the factory with Zim applied. But as the war machine was being slowed many times tanks were field modified, units were moved from Italy and the ETO to the WTO towards the end. Many of these had field mods applied as I'm hoping i am portraying. For me this has been as much of a research project as it is a kit build. Which is the fun of the whole project. I look forward to hearing what other more knowledgeable modelers may know.

charlie

swathdiver

The factory started applying the zimmerit in September '43. Was it applied in the field before September? Never heard that it was. It was retro-fitted to many, not all tanks in the field after September '43. Remember, Tiger tanks didn't have a long lifespan, you find few if any pictures of tanks that were more then a year old. It's unlikely that a tank produced in '42 would have zimmerit because it had probably been destroyed by that point.

shelden3

Here is a link discussing zim applications and such.

http://www.panzerworld.net/zimmerit.html

ah64

Looks like it does in my books about using Zimmermit paste for anti magnetic mines and such...... Looks great

shelden3

I've just added the camoflage and not real sure it is what I was aiming to get but it is here none the less. I used Tamiya colors, the green turned out much darker than I expected but maybe it is supposed to. It is XF-61 I believe. I tried to start doing it by hand but I did not like how it was looking and ended up airbrushing it. I thinned my paints about 50/50 with iso alcohol, using a #1 needle with #3 tip in a Paasche VL airbrush. My #1 tip was no where to be found. I will do the turret next, but wanted some feedback. Good bad what ever. All you painting vets chime in, tell me what is good what needs to change? I want to learn. I hope after a good wash it tones down the lines. I have no clue how i'm going to do the wash, and just the thought of it scares the you know what out of me.

pattonrocked45

nice job on pait and zimm!!!![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

shrugger

Hey, wow! The Zim and paint look great to me. It's ok if you airbrush, as they usually got spray painted
in the factory. In the field they got painted with whatever could be found.

tanktrack

Am i right in believing that i read in one of the posts that some
late production tigers were not coated in zimmerit ???

shrugger

That is correct. They stopped using it after it was rumored that it was catching fire.
It turned out it wasn't true, but they didn't go back to using it. So none of the
Late, Late tanks had it.

gorehound

Hi

I am afraid, according to the records, all the steel wheeled Tigers had Zimmerit coating. Zimmerit was still being applied at the factory when the last Tiger I rolled off in August 1944 although only 6 were produced in that month and they were mainly reworked beasts made from damaged tanks returned from the front.

The only apparently later (steel wheeled) Tigers that did not have zimmerit were the Hybrid Tigers. These used by Oberleutnant Fehrmann and consisted of early Hulls, turrets etc but had the later steel wheel fitted. They were built when the German War machine was running out of materials and was salvaging what they could to fight on both fronts.

There are several photos of late Tigers that appear to be zimmeritless but these have had most of the zimm removed by damage and shell hits. When examined closley the remains of the zimmerit coating is still evident.

Gorehound

YHR

You have done an excellent job. Don't worry about the washes. The trick is to apply a thin wash a few times instead of trying to get the "perfect" wash the first time. Use a couple of drops of dish detergent in your wash. This lowers the surface tension of the water and prevents water droplets from forming.

shelden3

I guess the question in my mind is:
1. what is the wash made of (colors of paint?) I'm thinking maybe a black/yellow that I used for base super thin
2. how to apply?

I'm going to research today on this, i've not ever built anything like this so it is all new. I finished the turret last night and am attaching remaining pieces.

Thanks all.
Charlie

YHR

I would apply thinned grey acrylic paint.(don't forget the drop of dish detergent) This will tone down the paint and give it a faded look. After you are finished with the grey washes and they have dried, then apply a thinned black wash. This will enhance all the recessed lines. After this dry brush gun metal grey/silver over some of the raised surfaces.

This picture of my T-34 demonstrates this technique the best. The other trick is using womens eye shadow. They make many shades that have a metalizer in them. This works well to apply to the edges to make it look like the paint has worn through to the metal.