OK, I've got this Dragon Sturmpanzer IV "Brummbar" (kit 6490). Looks properly ugly and I'm looking forward to it because I've never done a Dragon AFV and never met up with Magic Tracks. (This guy's got side-skirts, so if I really bungle the Magic Tracks, nobody will be the wiser. Better get this down because I've got two other kits with them and I don't want to bungle them.)

This one comes without Zimmerit. I know dealing with Zimmerit witches' brew is part of building German tanks. I don't really quite get it here though because there appears to be a lot of surface detail that will be demolished and it will confuse the build/paint sequence I think. Frankly I'm tempted to put off the Zimmerit (say try it out on an ancient and cheap Tamiya Panther which has no surface detail that I can see) and face up to a blizzard of fiddly parts and Magic Tracks for penance.

But gurus on Armorama and other sites insist every bloody Brummbar had Zimmerit, crap not seen to needed by any other army in history. Only 306 of these buggies were made, but according to the net they were (in theory) in production and use through the end of the war. Zimmerit was discontinued at factory in September 44 and by repair units in field in October. Now get this: the Brummbar (or "Stupa - the German name) began deployment in April 43 before Zimmerit was introduced and served after it terminated. I'll grant that the few photos I've seen of them (with the interesting exception of one of the real ones in a German museum) appear to have Zimmerit. I'm far from a purist but if it's true that every one of these things had paste slopped on them, I'll slop on paste. But if it's a matter of "most", the path of prudence has much to recommend it. Advice from Zimmerit fans?

Eric

Try your hand at zimmerit on the old Panther, and then give it a shot on the StuPa. I tried for the first time on a Sturmtiger a couple of months ago, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I used Milliput and 2 different screwdrivers to make the ridges.
I'm not afraid of the Zimmerit monster anymore.
John

I have done the molded-on Zim, the resin AM Zim (Cavalier, not Atak or Eduard's PE Zim), and have done my own with both white filler putty and Milliput. All three work very well. The AM resin sets are good, but Cavalier left a few pieces out in my Elefant build, so I had to try first white putty (bad, tends to come apart) and then Milliput (excellent results, you can thin it with a little water to get it into place, and it holds the Zimming quite well.

Hi Eric ... You got all your facts right and yes there were Stupas without zimmerit...but not like your kit ...Cyber Hobbies kit number 25 was the early type that was used at Kursk without zimmerit,but quite soon after they seem to have all been refitted and a new coat of zimmerit was added..There were also some late models with the ball mounted MG that were built after the end of the zimmerit ,so you could build one of those without it...But for your kit you are kinda stuck with it ...