I am currently building a Tiger I and am mulling over making a later version. There are many parts I like about these tanks, the wheels, cuppola etc, but the zimmermat is scaring the hell out of me. I have found several Zim applications for 1/35 scale but nothing yet for 1/16.

Has anybody had any success on 1/16 tanks?? does anybody have any tips, tricks, sources etc worth checking out?

Thanks
Noel

Zimmerit*

You can buy pre-made stick on Zimmerit to suit the Tiger (HL or Tamiya), blueslateman / Welsh Dragon models on [link=http://stores.ebay.com.au/Welsh-Dragon-Models]ebay[/link] (UK-based) quite often has the set (including glue) for £11.99. Of course if you're doing a late Tiger made after September 1944 then you dont need Zimmerit because it was phased out at that time.

I have a set on my mid-Tiger project, they look great but I'd rough them up a little so it doesnt look so glossy and perfect, and more realistic (easy).

hi
Ilooked into the stick-on zimmerit when I built my tiger but I thought it loked a bit too uniform, so I went down the milliput route. I spread milliput thinnly onto the tank in small sections, then gently pressed a flat bladed screwdriver into the putty to make the ridges. It took a bit of time but I think the end result was worth it.
remember to post pictures as we all love 'em!!

Here's a pic.

It was my understanding that ALL late Tiger I tanks had zimmerit and only the very early ones were void of it:

Production of the Tiger I began in August 1942, and 1,355 were built by August 1944 when production ceased. Production started at a rate of 25 per month and peaked in April 1944 at 104 per month. Strength peaked at 671 on 1 July 1944. Generally speaking, it took about twice as long to build a PzKpfw VI than another German tank of the period. When the improved PzKw VI Ausf B Tiger II began production in January 1944, the Tiger I was soon phased out.

I read in The Modeler's Guide To The Tiger Tank that Tamiya's Polyester Putty is another good choice to use as zimmerit. It is a very slow setting putty (depending on your ratio of the supplied hardener) and I've used it before and seams to be an easy one to be patient with.

Steve Patton from SCAT does zimmerit very well and he might be one to ask his method.

It was introduced in 43' and Zimmerit was phased out late 1944 due to increasing effectiveness in anti tank weaponry like rockets, making it obsolete. Any tanks produced before July 43 and late 44 would not have Zimmerit applied.

Zimmerit was applied to all tanks and closed-top self-propelled guns produced from about August 1943 to September 1944.

So all late Tiger I tanks had zimmerit.

They stopped producint the Tiger 1 in august/september '44, before zimmerit application was stopped

That's just what I posted earlier.

Hey njmlondon.

I have the zimmerit pack for Tiger 1 that wackywheelz have posted. It looks ok, was better than I thought. Check my gallery for pics if you like
But, it's the lazy version.. if you want the best look I think making your own is the way to go. I will make my own zimmerit on my Königtiger, not sure what to use but I will try milliput.

Edit: By the way, I am also making a late Tiger.

Good luck!

I have had a look as the stick on Zimmermat and agree it is a bit too even. the latex is also quite thick so I am not sure how it will look at the corners. I am also concerned that it will eventually peel off in big sheets. If it is going to get damaged I would rather it looked a bit realistic.

fynsdad - love your Tiger1 If that is what can be achived with Milliput then I am all for the more labour intesive route!

There are a very few exceptions to the Zimmermat rules re the late tigers. One of these is the hybrid tigers of Kompanie Ferhmann. These Tigers had Late hullls with Early Turrets and were put into the field just south of Hamburg in April 1945. It is believed (although there are only a couple of photos to go by) that these were not Zimmed up.

Like F13, a true bitsa

There were always some exceptions to the rule, I mean there were hybrids in every army. There were even Mark IV turrets placed on Panther chassis's, but they were not produced that way and I think that was the question about production Late Tigers.

I've seen guys here practice this policy of 'what if' and they get grilled on historical accuracies.

Interesting. Note also the Ferdinand Tiger in front. These were built in competition with the famous Henscal model but I didn't think any actually survived with a turret - the 90 or so chassis were converted to SP guns (Ferdinands and Elephants) when the contract was lost.

Where did you find with photo?

Exactly like that! I found that profile on your excellent site whackywheels and it has inspired me to try that one (which conveniently means I can leave the zimmermat for another day!)

F05 carried zimmerit, I believe, but I cant remember where Ive seen the photo

See also [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5697824/tm.htm]this[/link]

Darren Thompson's model of Major Schulze's F05 in 'Modelling the Tiger 1', Osprey Publishing 2007 reproduces the vehcile with zimmerit, although he claims to have used photographs of F01 for inspiration

This Kompanie offers the modeller a lot of leeway. If you are like me where you want a tank that is relisitic but you are not a rivet-counter, then you can get away with quite a bit artistic interpretation.

There were 6 tigers. apparently all of them were hybrids. Some sources claim they were F01, F02, F03, F04, F05 and F13 but there are numerous sources which disagree. There are only photos of 2 tanks (F01 and F13) and these show a reasonable level of variance (you can see zimmermat on f13 in one photo and none shows on F01.

The paint schemes also vary with some eye witnesses claiming they were all grey and other evidence pointing to olive drab or the usual german yellow and greens.

Bearing in mind this group survived for only about a month and was thrown together in the last moments of the war, there is enough leeway in the limited knowledge to model your tank as you see fit.

As far as I can tell, you can go for the late steel wheels but there is enough argument to claim that some of them were fitted with early wheels. There are arguments for and against zimmermat and arguments for and against the use of storgae bins on the back of the turret (at least one F13 photo looks like this is missing). The barrels may have been a differnet colour (like the black barrels on Pz.Abt.505's late tigers) and some of the tanks carried spare tracks on the front of the hull but not necessarily all.

The Kompanie's story is also interesting, in particular the story of Major Schulze. Having taken a few allied tanks out he got caught behind allied lines and when trying to get back behind German lines attacked a convey of 100 tanks, destroying a few and releasing 200 German POWs whilst he was at it and then leading them back before running out of fuel. He may well have been on the "wrong" side as far as an Englishman like me goes, but he definately had style.

Here are some photos of different models I have found and some templates...

As you can see there are a lot of ways of interpreting Kompanie Fehrmann!