Armchair modeller here - enjoying your series for newcomers to armour modelling. Used to be well into it around thirty years ago and considered myself reasonably competent, but lost interest and life took over, so looking to get back into it - will start with 1/76 or 1/72 and see how I get on. I shall be following your vlogs with great interest. Keep up the good work!
How'd you go? When I returned I found 1/76 & 1/72 too small and fiddly for old fingers and eyes, and insufficiently detailed. Like time I'd moved on. 1/35 in armour for me these days. Very affordable these days and much more enjoyable both to build and visually in the finished result.
Same here in the US, if there is a kit you want you better grab it. COVID has caused a surge of interest in the hobby, which is fantastic, but it also makes getting supplies and kits difficult. Some stuff you can sell and make a nice profit. Too bad I am a dragon when it comes to my stash and I don't want to part with a drop of paint or piece of plastic!
Yes you cant find paint, thinner ie mlt, etc. Some kits I cant get for months and then its sold out within it's being filled at the shop. One thing that has me really pissed is. The price of kits since last march April 2020, the prices on kits have risen like $30/$40 bucks.
@@rickmoreno6858 agreed, the prices just keep climbing, as do the number of ebay scammers from other countries who list the kits and either don't actually have them so they cancel the order or worse they say they shipped it and attach falsified tracking data so it takes three months and an ebay case to get your $$$ back. ... Not to say they are all bad, I too am an Ebay seller and the few bad ones are causing issues for all of us. I have personally had three orders canceled, and been scammed twice. In both cases though Ebay has taken care of it.
Very good break down of various Zimmerit options. I have used the Cavalier products a few times and they were pretty good - liked them. Have built a few kits that have the pre-molded Zimmerit and they were fun. Never really tried to use the putty method. However, 1 thing that I learned about Zimmerit: IF you do not want Zimmerit on your kit then do not put it on, regardless of time frame vehicle is depicted. I used to spaz about Zimmerit and time frames, so a lot of kits stayed unbuilt for years. Decided IF I wanted to add Zimmerit then I'll make it happen, otherwise....maybe the crew got tired of that stuff being on their vehicle and one day they decided to scrape all that stuff off.
I've found No More Nails to work best. It spreads nice and easy, using a razor saw to make the pattern. It's easy to wipe away until dry if you make a mistake, but once dry it's nice and durable.
I just got finished with Hobby Bosses King Tiger and was my first experience with applying Zimmerit. It was designed beautifully and went on without a hitch. Just applied a very thin layer of glue on the part and line the Zimmerit up and smooth down. Matched on all edges perfectly.
Excited to follow along with the Tamiya Tiger I Late. Just got back into the hobby and had put that kit on the back burner partly because of the Zimmerit. Bought the kit used and it has some aftermarket paper Zimmerit with it, not Tamiya, but doesn’t look great. Cheers from Canada!
Built the same tiger 1 tank just a couple months ago. Really enjoyed it. But screwed up on the tracks. Had to order some printed tracks. But the detail is far more superior. A great build thou
I made a trumpeter 1/16 scale Panzer IV and added Resin zimmerit. Using liquid superglue leaves no time for fine positional adjustment. However super glue gel was fantastic, it has that adjustment time you need to to fine tune a larger sheets of resin zimmerit into the exact positions required.
I've only tried zimmerit once long ago on a tiger....I used that aluminium tape that you used to make tarpaulins with on that check p35 kit...etched it with a knife blade...it was ok..
I am starting to get near the end of my pzll tamiya 1971kit which i am turning into a Soviet captured tank..i have decals for a Soviet army sherman but i will b placing this in a Pacific diorama against some Japanese army troops i just finished..thanks for the tips..and whats effd up is covid19 rekindeled my love for this hobby after 20years
Good to see you back Jason. I've built the Hobby Boss King Tiger with Porsche turret...the Zimmerit was great to apply and once painted looks brilliant in my opinion. I made a great diorama with it as well 👍😊. Good luck with your builds
Nice video, I could have used that a lot back when I started modelling and was mortally afraid of Zimmerit ;-) In the years since I've tried pretty much all the methods and so far Vallejo putty is my favourite. It sticks well to plastic and can be easily shaped with the etched rake tools provided with some kits (also sold separately by Tamiya). The good thing is, you can also scrape it off fairly easy even when it's dry, which is nice if you're not happy with a spot or want to recreate some battle damage. It's best suited for the fine ridge pattern often seen on Tigers, for a more rough, irregular pattern I still prefer Milliput and a screwdriver.
Great video. I recently built Tamiya's new tool Brummbar with their sheet of self adhesive zimmerit.... and wished I hadn't. Before getting painted the zimmerit sheets started to peel at the corners, so I superglued the corners back down. When it was done and painted, the self adhesive sheets started to peel off on corners that I hadn't superglued down, so it went in the bin as I couldn't be bothered to fix it. The sheets are a nightmare: you have to cut out every bolt hole, and every tiny little curve and so on... if they were pre-cut I might be a bit more forgiving, but I'll never use them again. I generally stick to Milliput (white) and have some sets of PE trowels for Tiger zimmerit and some stamps for Panther and Stug zim patterns. Good video though, and I never knew that about those Hobby Boss kits - I might buy one. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to the next installment.
I have used what is known as glazing putty used in autobody with a zimmerit blade tool, it worked well but fumes were pretty bad and you have a time limit to work within because it uses a hardener, similar to a epoxy, definitely mask off any area you do not want the zimmerit because this stuff fuses to the plastic, I suppose you could decrease the hardener you mix into it to give you more time- at the recommended ratio you have about 5 minutes of work time.....probably way overkill, I have done some body work before and blazing putty is the last step in the process to fill pin holes and finely tune the surface and can go on ultra thin. Just throwing this out there as a possibility.
I’ve used both the DEF Models decal zimmerit (for the 2019 release Academy Stug IV) and the Tamiya “sticky” Zimmerit sheets (on Tamiya’s Pz IV Ausf J early). The decals from DEF Models worked ok but clearly had some flaws along the edges of seams to deal with. The Tamiya stick on zimmerit was worse and didn’t stick on as well as I would like to see in several areas near raised details. I’ve got the Tamiya Zimmerit tools and will give that a try with some wood putty sometime soon.
Do the zimmerit the way I do it. I do the hot knife method. Its tedious but very effective. Go to fenderlickengood on Instagram. You can look at my tamiya mid production tiger. It was done that way. Happy modeling!!!!
Amazing video,thank you..I could listen to you all day as you know your subject..So glad you like the Hobbyboss king tiger as I got 2 of them.!..Bad news I’ve got 2 Airfix Tigers😵💫..(I watched your Airfix tiger build loaded with your warnings.)..What in your opinion is a good tiger kit on the market.?..Thanks again and take care.!👍
The Champ is here! Is it wrong that I'd probably just be lazy and plump for moulded on Zimmerit? I more prefer the painting side of scale modelling so investing all the time in the a manual zimmerit is the same as doing individual link tracks to my mind i.e. can be a right ball ache. I've seen some tools online like little stamps that look like a good cheat instead of using a saw blade or screwdriver. Those resin sheets seem to be a happy medium. Super thin so easy to cut out and do any trimming if you need to fit them to the tank.
I have shaky hands the track build was a challenge but worthwhile pity all kits didn't have this system that hobbyboss has is cheaper option than the metal tracks , the zimmerit was the best so far I have used cheers
Hello, after returning to modelling after almost a 40 year lay off (oh how things have changed) I find your broadcasts highly informative and inspirational, as I work my way through them. Back in the day I mainly built aircraft and cars, but before I attempt these I thought to get my skills back to a more competent level, I’d begin with armour as it’s a little more forgiving. I’m not a great one for tanks, instead other ground support vehicles (think building the tracks is putting me off). I’ve been looking at IBG and Thunder kits as they seem to do a nice array of British vehicles, do you have any experience with these and are they any good? Keep up the great work and look forward to future broadcasts.
You are me in a parallel universe! My lay off is around 30 years, I've done 2 kits in the past 3 decades!! Beer, girls, then job, wife, kids got in the way until I'm now saying bugger this I need something for my wellbeing. Anyway I've been looking at shop websites to get a feel for things. I still think Tamiya are the best value for money, you know they're going to be good and generally cheaper than brands like Thunder or Dragon. IBG do some good truck kits. Italeri are decent as well, always like them back in the day. Going to get the Tamiya Churchill with the farmer offering the tank crew wine, it looks great that kit.
Ok lets go down the rabbit hole, anyone that knows their German tanks knows that Porsche and Henschel referred to the suspension system and not the turret, Even Bovington Tank museum made a Tank chat video about this and the maker of the turret was Krupp.
Hello, ummm on the Tiger 1 the zimmerit on the turret was a different width from the hull if you have a look at Micheal Coen Campbell’s video on his RU-vid channel Coens scale modelling he has a brilliant video showing the dimensions for each homemade tool out of a lollipop stick. He’s also a deacon when it comes to Tiger 1’s. Great informative video of yours though, as usual full of extremely helpful tips. Please don’t think I’m a rivet counter, I just wanted you to know as you’re always helping us out with your wonderful knowledge. Anyway take care, stay safe and thanks for yet another awesome video. Kenny.
I have a Panter Ausf. G early/ late and would like to add zimmerit to however it is not that important to me. I'm having a hard time finding good pictures of a Panter ausf. G with zimmerit please help me with finding a Panter with zimmerit or at least find out one way or the other.
One method of zimmerit you didn't mention. I been modeling since the early 70s. Back then there was no after market items. The most needed tool then was the Shep Pain book how to detail military models. What I did and still do today on my tigers, Panthers, and panzer 4s is using a pyrographer. It a unit like a hot knife with a dial to control the volume of heat. You can even create damage to the zimmerit. It's very effective but tedious lol!!!
I'm building that stug myself but it is the one Dragon got completely wrong and das werk have put the same kit out with no corrections! It Alkett waffle zim, the return rollers should be the steel type the mantle is wrong it should be the saukopf mantlet on this one! I have the Dragon 6 day war stug it has has all the correction part's in that kit so you can build it accurate I already had it but the six day war kit had the super structure caste without zimmert that's the one that should have been in the das werk kit to start with! When you start doing your own research into it from Hilary Doyals research it all falls together with these 2 kit's to kit bash them with!
It was a PASTE that the German army placed on their armored vehicles from about mid-1943 till about September 1944. It was meant to help defeat any MAGNETIC Mines that enemy soldiers may try to place onto their vehicles. The magnetic mine would not be able to attach properly because of this barrier between the mine and the surface of the vehicle. It also added additional unnecessary weight to the vehicle as well. Although most armies during WWII had some type of a magnetic mine, pretty much the Germans were the only ones that used them - they probably figured since they had/used them, then the enemy probably have/will use them as well.