I see dragon has re-released the Tiger1 mid with zimm. Is the zimm good enough or is it better to get one without zimm and add the zimm?

If this is like the late version that builds Wittmanns mount at Villers Bocage, I'd go with the Zim personally. Why make life harder than it has to be? I think the moulded on Zim is pretty good, but not everyone agrees.

Which Dragon kit are you refering to?

I personally like it as well, but, especially on the Tigers there are potential issues, as from photos, there was some variations in application that made some vehicles look drastically different than the one Dragon modeled their Zim after.....

Wow! i just reread my comment before posting it.... FYI, I'm really not a true blue rivet counter, or realism freak, it just sounds like i might be....

The Dragon kit is #6700. I have a Tamiya mid and a set of Atak Zimm but was wondering if the Dragon with zimm option was better. If so I could use the Tamiya kit on another project or maybe get a Dragon mid without the zimm and add the Atak zimm to it. I haven't seen the Dragon kit #6700 built so I don't have anything to judge by.

Thanks.

Greg,

I have the 6700, and also have Cyber-Hobby Otto Carius 6763. The Carius kit got great write-ups, in particular, for the subtlety of the Zimmerit, which reviewers really liked. All of this Carius info I discuss next, according to reviewers was replicated on 6700. Reviewers seemed to think the Zim on the Carius Tiger I was far more realistic than the Zim on the first Tiger that Dragon did with Zim, which was a late production (6383) and was the very first model I built a few years back when I got back into the hobby. I agree with those reviews. The 6383 Zim is much more pronounced. In addition, the Carius Zim is larger (wider) on the turret than it is on the hull, which matches real life, or so it has been written. I have not compared the parts side by side to see if I agree, but, given the overall accuracy of the Dragon Tigers, I would absolutely get the 6700 over a Tamiya Tiger with added Zim.

I also have a Cyber-Hobby mid-production Tiger I and got Atak resin Zimmerit for it. I haven't compared the Atak to 6700 Zim, but I will probably defer that Atak/Cyber-Hobby build until after I build all my other Tigers. I'm guessing it's going to be a lot of work, however, the one advantage to aftermarket (or scratch built Zim) is being able to show battle damaged Zim more easily than to do so on the tanks where Zimmerit is present on the vehicle. I'll have to find a real life mid-production Tiger I with damaged Zim before I do that one.

Thanks Curt. That gives me a better idea of how to proceed.

I have made home made zimm with good results.I took a standard exacto blade and inserted it in the handle so that the point was inside the handle and the flat square edge faced out. I used the dremel and ground the side of the square edge until it was the correct width of one of the zimm segments. I used Squadron putty to do a nickel size section at a time.The only issue were things like the mounting points for tools and finders. Atak molds those on already. I was thinking if Dragon's Zimm was good and the mounting points were there, that it could save some time.

A second thought or issue I was wondering is there enough difference between Dragon, Tamiya, and others dimensions so that an add on like Atak zimm would have fit issues?