Decided i'd like to do a King Tiger here in the future and decided on the Dragon King Tiger. I've never worked with Zimmerit coating before and like to know a few things.

1. Will I have to purchase this seperate?

2. If so, where and from who?

3. What tools will i need?

thanks guys
-Shain

Well, you shure picked a topic.

First of all, Dragon have a model that has ready-made Zimmerit, so that would take care of your problem.

BUT, your other questions can keep us up all night in heavy discussion because, to put it mildly, there is war of opinins on that subject.

Some people like to use a soldering device and burn the texture into the plastic of the model, others prefer to use miliput and sculpt it on the model, and there are a different group that buy add-ons to stick on the model.

The first technique invoves a soldering iron with a flat tip the size of the original tools used, cut down to scale. You etch the desired Zimmerit sceme to a depth of roughly 1/2 a millimeter.

The second technique involves the time consuming use of Miliput. You spread a thin layer of it on the model, sculpt it with either a home-made or ready-sold tool (Tamiya sells a kit BTW), and let it dry before painting.

And last, but certainly not least, you have people using various upgrading Zimmerit kits sold on the market. These come in different types, I've seen paper sheets, PU sheets and resin as well. You stick theese sheets on top of your naked model.

I am not taking any sides, but you must know that there are pluses and minuses in all of the above mentioned methods. Take a pick.

Nikola
-thanks, which method works for you, so i can have something to base my opinion on.

dont know which one has the ready made zimmerit but this is the one i plan on purchasing

What i try to do is a mixture of using ready sold zimmerit sheets and some miliput. The simple reason is that I don't have strong enough nerves to sculpt the whole thing. The reason I don't solder is that my heart won't take the pressure of taking hot steel to something so small, inocent and frail as a plastic kit. Do not use the paper sheets some companies sell, the texture on them is very rounded and not realistic. If you decide to do it my way, remember that you must size down your tool to the apropriate size according to the width if zimmerit slashes on the ready sheet. I use sheets on the bigger, smooth surfaces and miliput everywhere else. You'll have to work on your technique., especially blending in the edges of the ready-made sheets.

P.S. I am not familiar with this dragon kit, but judging by the drawing on the box, it might have Zimmerit. See how the drawing of the knight that signifies the tanks division seems surrounded by a lighter in shade rectangle, these are the tell-tale signs of zimmerit added in the field.

The Dragon King Tiger with the molded on zimmerit is a 72nd scale kit

I'll have to agree with you since as I already stated I am not familiar with this model

Jim-thanks

Nikola-Where can i order these ready made zimmerit pieces?

thanks
-shain

I am certain I have seen them in Squadron's on-line catalog, http://www,hannants.co.uk is another place to look. I am sure others can contribute an idea too.

I baught a tamiya kit that came with zimmerit. I was overall not impressed with it because it was hardly noticable. I do suggest you do your own zimmeritt. Good luck and sorry I cant help you with doing it.

Hi~
Cavalier zimeret is a round $15 at either ebay
or a little more a GMW!
I used thickened elmers glue to apply, and
take tamiya paint with no problems!
Ron

awsome guys, went to squadron.com and found the Eduard Zimmerit made for the dragon kit, thanks for all your tips they are much appreciated, if theres anything else to add..go ahead

thanks
-shain

Oh well, I see you've got all the info you need already...

Good luck then. I just build that kit in 1:35 and I really enjoyed it. No zimmerit included in the kit though, but I wanted to make a "clean" version anyway

Greetings

Glad to be able to help.
Cheers!

Shain, let me know how the brass Eduard Zimmerit goes on. I myself have used the resin based Cavalier and sing it's praises to the highest. To me it is just far more flexible than metal. Used to do the putty method and it is difficult and tedous...never will do it again except as a touch up or to blend sheets together

Mech-Maniac -

I'm finishing up the Tamiya "Ardennes Front" King Tiger for "AGE 2" and really enjoyed putting it together. Haven't had a chance to do the Dragon King Tigers yet so please give us a "how it goes" on your build. For your "zimmerit" dilema, I'll trying the Cavalier for a Panther and have heard good things about it. Where and when are you "placing" your King Tiger? Depending on this, you may not even need the zimmerit as not all the "Henschel" King Tigers had it.

Blade48mrd

Shain, this is just MHO but the Eduard stuff can not only be a little tough to use due to it being thin sheets of metal, but it also looks too "regular" if that makes sense. Zimmerit, while done in a pattern did have iregularities in places and with the PE stuff you just can't duplicate that. (it's also very hard to simulate battle damage on it) If you want to go the aftermarket route my suggestion would be either Cavalier or Atak, both of which are very thin resin sheets of zim, made to fit the model. The Atak stuff is probably a little thinner and they do make a set specifically for the Dragon kit you want. It is available through Missionmodels.com, I think they also carry Cavalier too. You might want to check it out as another option.

Cheers,
Mike

edit: just to add, as "blade" mentioned above, if you wanted to skip the zim, it's use was discontinued in mid-September '44. So if you wanted to portray a Tiger II produced after that it would be OK without zim. For example, most of the Tiger II's that took part in The Battle Of The Bulge didn't have zimmerit.

I'm not sure that the edges of the Ed PE can be blended in nicely.
Battle damage simulation is important since Zimmerit was quite brittle and flaked of around bumps an ammo hits.

okay did some thinking before I read all these posts, and I think i'm going to actually try to work with the Cavalier, the brass does seem a bit iffy and would seem hard to put on.

thanks
-shain

Shain

None of the three Dragon King Tigers have moulded on zimmerit. All Porsche turreted King Tigers (except the prototype) had Zimmerit, but any Henschel turreted versions produced after 19 September 1944 would not have.

The product that I have used quite successfully is made by an Australian firm called Cavalier. It comes in sheets with moulded on details, and all youhave to do is shave off any moulded on detail on the kit and stick the sheets on. Cavalier recommend using 2 pack epeoxy but I've found thin CA works just as well.

That's the good news - the bad news is that Cavalier have produced sheets specifically for the Tamiya King Tiger, but not for the Dragon ones. They do, however, make plain sheets in various patterns that you can cut to size. Price is about $20 - 25 Australian.

my Tiger will be from spzAbt. 505 which fought in east prussia. so this is why I'd like to do the Zimmerit application.

I like to use Cavalier zimmerit. I use elmers glue and some super gluefor touchup. I feel for the money cavallier is the best.
You can always make your own zimmerit with squadron white putty!!
Good luck.
Recon

oh...well as i was searching for the King Tiger zimmerit I found it, but i didnt know Tamiya made a Henschel Tiger.

this is the zimmerit I found, but like you said I guess its for the Tamiya kit.

where can I find those sheets you were talking about?

Hi Shain. Sorry to get involved in this discussion so late. Alpenflage, a member of Armorama, sells the Cavalier sets at a decent price both on ebay and through his own shop. On ebay he sells under the name Gebirgsjager (not sure about the spelling). Send him a PM and he can probably tell you what sets are available for the Dragon King Tiger.

As to alternatives to the Cavalier route. I have had good success using pre-mixed wall spackle that I bought at Wal-Mart and the Tamiya zimmerit tools. I have some pictures of a Tiger I I did that way for my Kelly's Heroes diroama in my photo gallery. This method was cheap, fast and simple.

Good luck.

Keith

I hot knife my zimm. The hot knife is basically just a soldiering iron with a number 11 blade on the end instead of a soldering tip. Draw some vertical lines on the model with a pencil and go to town. You want to practice a while on a scrap kit until you get a feel for the pressure, etc. Goes pretty quick once you get the hang of it.

Here are some (blurry) pictures of a DML Jagdpanzer IV early version that I am working on...





It looks pretty subtle now but after a wash and some dry brushing it looks pretty good, IMHO.

Hope this helps,

Shaun