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Building a 1:8 Scale Panther: Part 3
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Zimmerit Hell |
My wife helped apply the Zimmeritte (anti-magnetic
mine paste) and the final finished result was most pleasing. I used Zimm-it-Right
as this had received the best write up in the excellent Paul Owen article on
Zimmerit. After considerable research and taking Paul’s valued advice, I
decided to copy the style of Zimmerit shown in photographs on a late
Panther A on another tank web site.
In view of the large scale of the tank paper templates were made and the
shapes cut from rolled 1.5 mm thick Zimm-it-Rite. (The actual Zimmerit I
have read was applied in 2 separate sessions to a total thickness of 12mm).
The use of talcum powder prevented the rolling pin sticking and we
discovered that adhesion to the model was improved if all of the powder was
washed off and the model surface well whetted with copious quantities of
washing up liquid added to the water. A lot of trial and error proved that
it is better to allow a short delay of 10-20 minutes after fixing it to the
tank allowed the Zimm-it-Rite to semi-set and by doing this, the impressing
of the tools that I had made to create the pattern did not cause the Zimm-it-Rite
to lift. In all in 9 separate sessions were needed to finish the Zimmerit.
I really do not like Zimmerit but it had to be applied to depict the
original. Applying the Zimmerit was bad enough but additionally a squared
pattern was applied through the Zimmerit on most Panther A’s. The actual
tank I had selected to model obviously missed this procedure and only sports
horizontally ribbed Zimmerit without the scribed squares apart from a small
amount on the rear plate only! Not lazy, just did not like the look of it!
It did dawn on me however when I was initially deciding on what tank to
depict the purpose of the squares. By drawing squares through the Zimmerit
to the armour beneath the shock effect of an AP hit was localized and the
unhit Zimmerit remained on the armour.
Without doubt in all of my modelling life of 40 years, the application of
the Zimmerit was the least enjoyable modelling aspect that I have ever
undertaken.
Thank you Margaret for your help, your encouragement and your support.
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About the Author
About Peter Mealing (trackpins)
Copyright ©2021 by Peter Mealing. Images and/or videos also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely the views and opinions of the authors and/or contributors to this Web site and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of Armorama, KitMaker Network, or Silver Star Enterrpises. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2003-02-02 00:00:00. Unique Reads: 13291