This is my first tank in years.
First effort at Zimmerit. It's Milliput Superfine White. I used the lid from a Tamiya paint jar for the turret. The hull was done when I got a roller set in the mail. The putty was rolled into sheets with a "rolling pin" that is a teflon rod. That's something I read about years ago; roll it onto a porcelain tile and use talcum powder to keep it from sticking. I recently had the idea of using a flat plate of teflon along with the teflon rod, so no talcum powder would be required. That's what the tank is sitting on. It didn't work. It stuck like crazy. Kind of an expensive lesson.

In front is a test piece for attempting Zimmerit and for hand painting the markings. More practice is needed for that.

That looks really good! And using a tamiya paint lid is absolute genius!

that is beautifully done!!! And thank you for the talcum powder trick

Great idea with the Tamiya lid, looks good!

Thanks for the compliments. The Tamiya paint lid thing was more of a search for an alternate roller. A guy at the hobby shop recommended the lid from a plastic bottle of Coca-Cola, but those now have an interrupted pattern of lines. I needed to find something else to use.

Soon I'll show pics of Mom's King Tiger. She bought a Meng caricature Sherman a few weeks ago, the same week she turned 70. Her first model ever. She had fun with it, but felt like it was too small. I gave her a Tamiya King Tiger/Ardennes box.

Nice job on this one, and can't wait to see Mom's

Keep it up.

Got a little more work done. The hull got painted and a wash with oil paint. The turret is painted, waiting for more work. I tried something else that's new to me; dry brushing with oils. That is the carbon around the muzzle of the co-ax machine gun. I was wondering if I overdid it, so I looked for a picture of Anneliese...and saw no carbon staining at all. But hey- I think it worked out ok for a first try.

A little more progress.

Looking at a few photos of Anneliese, it appears that the "314" was painted over 3-color camo, the whitewash put on around it. My 3-color patch was done with drybrushed oils. The Balkan Cross was also drybrushed through a mash made with 18mm Tamiya tape. The 314 was painted with Tamiya acrylic and aided with a tape mask for the border. The mask had markings for the borders of the numbers, which were then extended onto the turret with a fine pencil, so I only had to fill in the lines...more or less.

Pretty much all of this is new to me, so I'm happy with how it's coming along.

A little more work.

Good progress and nice Zimmerit modulation. Keep it up.

Lee, I think you are doing an absolutely fabulous job on your King Tiger. You have far more fortitude than I have or ever will have to make my own Zimmerit; the closest I will ever come is to install premade Zimm by Atak, and even that scares me...so my hat is off to you. I am VERY, VERY interested in seeing how your mom’s tank turns out. My own mom impressed me when she did a pretty good job of taking on learning the computer and internet in her early 80s, before she passed on, but I honestly could never have pictured her building a tank model... congratulations to your mom on a very impressive skill that she’s taking on late in life. I bet she loves it, though! 😊

Thank you for the compliments. I think that making Zimmerit could done by any modelers with some experience. The pictures may not show the areas that don't look so good. I learned that something as big as a Tamiya paint jar lid is not ideal for an area with compound curves, like the left side of the turret.

Tony Greenland's book is a big help. I just wish it had more step-by-step instruction.

Mom's Tamiya King Tiger will not be getting Zimmerit. It's only her second model ever, so she's sticking to the basics. We are both very busy with other things for now. I'll post update pics when we have more time for it.

Looks great. Really need to try those techniques for the Zimmerit. You should do a tutorial on how you do this.

ZIM is looking great. Please do a tutorial... Would love to follow this build.... Thanks for sharing the technique....

Wow. I am really flattered by the compliments. I will look into doing a tutorial.

Will post updates soon. I just started a new job. Longer hours during the week, but more weekends off. There's just lots of other things that need to be done. Things that keep me away from the workbench for now.

Thanks again. Lee

I will be following this one closely, hope to see more! Nicely done so far!