Hello,

I have started with a new kit from my stash, it is the Tiger II by CyberHobby.

I decided to apply my own Zimmerit all these vehicles had got.


At first I have begun with the font plate of the lower hull to become a feeling for the technic.



The welds were taped as they should be treated separately




To ensure a better adhesion for the putty I roughened the styrene with sand paper




Taping to protect areas with no Zimmerit



Tamiya's Basic Putty for the Zimmerit coat




A screw driver with a small blade



The Zimmerit...



...and the complete plate with sectionally reworked Zimmerit



Not perfect, but I think the texture matches the pattern good enough and the other areas will look better.




This session took nearly two hours but it is fun.

Hope you enjoy the start of this blog.

I really like the look of your Zimm. A very tedious task indeed with a screw driver but the look is great. Two quick questions. Did you mix your putty with anything when you applied it and do you fear that the putty will become too "brittle" when it dries.
I have the same kit but opted for the Cavalier Zimm kit. I have not built up the nerves or the skill yet to try my own Zimm

Your Zimm looks great dont think I would have the patience to do it in this method but it has payed off for you.Always wanted to see this kit built as Ive been trying to get one for ages but it keeps evading me.Anyhoo shall be watching this one for sure

Deano

Hello Fred,

I am pleased that you like the look so far.

So, let me see...

Did you mix your putty with anything when you applied it"

No, I did not.

" and do you fear that the putty will become too "brittle" when it dries."

Fortunately it becomes hard only.


Before I used this precious kit I had done many trials to check how thick the coat had to be, how long it must dry before the texture could be embossed and to achieve a realistic look of the texture by itself.

Hello Dean,

I am sure you will find your kit - to a payable price...

Marco, You made that look very easy! Armorama is seeming to turn in to the KT webpage! Dan

Indeed Dan,

"Armorama - Home of the Bengal Tiger"

That's damn fine zimmerit!

You could ask Barkmann to come take a look to compare it to his multi zimmerit Tiger-E thread. Some very good Zimmerit both here and there!

Hi Marco, nice to see one more KT coming up. Soon a whole panzer abteilung will be ready Good job on the zimm. I prefer milliput myself. Which vehicle will it be?

spit

First rate work on the zim Marco.

How did you apply the putty to the plastic in such a smooth layer, by just using a wet finger? also why did you do the ends of the interlocking plates seperately?

nice work so far marco, damn that zimmerit is nice, wish i could pull it off so well.

Hello friends of big cats,

the main thing I had to take care of was to find out which blade size of the screwdriver is the correct one.


Herbert,

thanks for the nice comment. I have been taking from time to time a closer look to Barkman's blog.

But I have to be honest: When I started this project I was not having his most interesting thread on my screen...

I gonna invite him to take a look at my Tiger when I will have finished the Zimmerit/build phase.


Djenkuje Pawel,

concerning the vehicle I am favouring either Nr. 02 or Nr. 13.


Hugh,

"How did you apply the putty to the plastic in such a smooth layer, by just using a wet finger?

For the front plate I used a simple toothpick, but the rear plate required more and other tools you can see below






"also why did you do the ends of the interlocking plates seperately?"

On the pics I have checked the welds did not disappear under the Zimmerit coat though ithey were covered completely with the paste. At these welds the Zimmerit seemed to me being countersunk.

Therefore I worked them out separately to replicate this feature - and it works!


Now I can present you the rear plate

The new molded parts with improved texture





At first I laid on the plastic parts without gluing to outline the areas without Zimmerit








Then I masked these areas











The applied Zimmerit...





...and the finished and cleaned-up rear plate ready for assembling





The assembly of the small parts began with cutting of the regular production's exhaust pipes to replace them with the inital pipes the kit provides








Drilling of the pipes







and a fixing hole





Assembling the rods for the C-hooks














The finished rear plate








The ladybird helped to hold the exhaust covers which are only put on without gluing to see how they look and how they fit as well as the the hooks and the wood block




The small gap at the left hand side of the left cover disappears when the cover is being pressed on.

That's it so far.

Wow that is some really impressive work! the zimmerit looks perfect. I like the way you do the tow hooks to. Can't wait to see more.

Hello,

thank you Ryan for your interest and your comment.


Over the past weeks and months I have noticed requests about how to assemble Magic Tracks.

As this kit provides the most trickiest and extensive ones I decided to present you two different methods I used.

Enjoy it…


At first a closer look at the special features of the Initial Production I had to considered for the lower hull and the suspensions.








Here are the Magic Tracks – not less than 16 sprues and nearly all of the parts were needed.





It’s allright, you may laugh.


The tracks consist of 460(!) parts in total. No doubt these MTs can be regard as a kit-in-kit.





92 main connectors
276 small connectors
92 single tracks

Cut off and clean up took about 16 hours – you have no idea how tiring that was..


Here are some





Left hand side - first method

For the left side I devided the track in sections and pre-assembled and glued them before mounting.

On both sides all wheels (road, idler and sprocket) as well as the arm of the idler wheel are not glued! That’s what I will do at the final stage of finishing the model in complete (inclusive painting).

At first I began with section around the sprocket wheel by using the main connector at first.

Dry-fitting and glueing




























Fitting at the frontal road wheel




Then I attached the small connectors











Next I assembled the bottom section to the rear wheel.

















The most difficult section: The idler wheel














Attaching the upper section.








The final section








Mounting the track

Regard that I primarily left away the front and rear wheel to ease mounting.











Next was to put on the wheels left away before




Fixing and adjustment









Right hand side – second method

This method is fast explained.

I assembled the whole track at once (without! glueing) and mounted it like in real.

A nice feature CyberHobby realised with these tracks are the different small connectors you do not find at the tracks provided with the recent DML Jagdtiger(P) kit.

Regard the both single-edged connectors at the top and the double-edged one at the bottom.

















Both finished tracks will be removed and be painted separately.

Further some cosmetic operations are left to do like re-adjustment those connectors which have not been in place properly after mounting as well as to re-attach the few connectors dropped out...

The most important thing to take care is not to glue the idler wheel AND its arm - no matter in which way you assemble the tracks.

This idler wheel is the key to adjust the whole track successfully whilst assembling and mounting the tracks.









The completed suspensions







(What you cannot see at all these pics how tedious assembling was – especially how often the tracks ripped apart… )


That’s it for toenoit.

Very nice work Marco and good clear pictures of the stages you have completed so far. I hope you will consider sending in a Build feature of this when complete.

Thank you Darren.


"I hope you will consider sending in a Build feature"

Sure, I will.

Hello,

next Zimmerit session. This weekend I have finished the upper hull.


At first a look at the intial production’s feature of this part ...can you see it?





The front glacis plate has got no edge at the RO’s sight block.





First step was to mask again the areas without Zimmerit




















Then I coated small areas only cause of the short time the putty needed to dry.











Zimmeritised...





Removing the tape and cleaning up

















Again the Zimmerit on the welds were embossed separately








The front glacis plate




















Cleaned up...








and the finished upper hull.






Thanks for watching.

Hi Marco,

very good job. You decided to leave the part of the hull where the shurzen go. In fact the zimmerit was applied all over the hull

a pic of n°11 (the number doesn't really matter)



another thing is the shape of the towing eye where the shackles go. The front ones are correct but rear are not. I think DML just forgot it....



hope it helps

spit

Marco i've got to say you work is amazing, can't wait to see this KT finished. watching with interest. Ant

Hello,

thank you very much Ant ,

"can't wait to see this KT finished"

Me too



Merci aussi Pawel ,

that has been my intention to leave away the Zimmerit at the area where the Schürzen were fixed though I know they were coated usually too.

The reason is: I want to attach the Schürzen too, but to ensure the fitting with the front parts (K1, K2, D15 and D16) and I do not want to sand the complete Schürzen.


The shackle holes...do you mean the upper one is too small? I hope so, because it would be an easy thing to enlarge them...

Marco thanks for the show, I've learned a lot about another way to do zim. My first attempt was a disaster and have been chicken to try it again, maybe it's time to try again - maybe. Thanks again and I look forward to your completion. Are you going to put this in a diorama?

nope, the lower one. But don't worry it will take you 5 minutes to get it right.

Thanks again Pawel,

thankfully that's all - indeed a fast job...


Ivanhoe,

you will also manage it to apply Zimmerit in a satisfied way, as it is only a question of practice.

Most probably I do not put it into a dio or a vignette because I usually prefer to display a model as a stand-alone one.

Hi Marco, I can sympathize with the track assembly! I did a set of Fruil tracks that were the early production. What a pain in the butt
Spent hours having to redrill the pin holes, clean up metal flash, and then put them together.
You're doing a beautiful job, keep it up!!
Regards, Ed