Reads the card of a man...

Just thought I would show you folks my first "real" attempt at hot knifing zimmerit. Layed out 4mm lines on the side of this DML jadg and went to town. I learned a lot. It isn't perfect. I think the paint will make it "pop" some and am pretty happy with the results.
The damaged sections were layed out before hand, too.
I took the first picture before the leftt hand side was finished so you could still see the pencil lines...
Shaun

Hey Shaun,

I think that it looks quite nice. You are able to get a very good alignment and it is clean which, I think, lends itself to a good scale zimmerit. Certainly better than I have been able to do with putty. What kind of a hot knife are you using?

Shaun,

-not to blow up your A** but that has to be the best job I have ever seen using that method. It looks like zimmerit & not like some folks who used a hot knife to make their zimmerit (aka Francois Verlinden & Tony Greenland....yes those guys)

Excellent looking zim, and as you have said, painting should really make it pop. I am looking forward to see it as you progress.

For use novices & trainees can you go over the equipment and the technique? I have a spare model I can play with. How hot is the knife, what type tip, etc.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

The hot knife is just a wood burning kit I bought at Walmart for about $25. If you are going to buy a set make sure it comes with an attachment for an Exacto knife blade. (It should come with several points and one of them will look just like the end of a regular Exacto knife) I put in a #16 blade and used that to score the lines in the plastic. When I did the front glacis and the area between the road wheels I did not mark vertical lines on the model before I started. I thought I could eye ball it and have it be okay. It wasn't. I would highly recommend drawing vertical lines before you start to get consistent horizontal spacing. I put marks every 4mm along the top edges and then drew vertical lines down the side of the kit using a machinist's square. (I think an index card would work just as well.)
You can see the pencil marks along the top in this pic:



As far as scoring the horizontal lines is concerned all I can really say is practice on a scrap model for a while.
One other thing I did learn was to let your hot knife heat up as hot as it is going to get before you start if you aren't using a rheostat to control the temperature. If the temperature of the knife increases while you are scoring lines the depth and general appearance of the lines will change. To get consistent lines while scoring you need to try and use the same temperature and pressure. You can't do that if your knife is heating up while you are adding the zimmerit.

Hope this helps some. Again, I am by no means an expert but I am ready to try it again. I only took about 2 hand cramping hours to do both sides and the lower front hull, which is the bulk of the work.

Shaun

That looks really good Shaun.......

I have to agree...
That has to be the best hotknifezim..EVER

JoeP

Looks good Shaun,
hope to see you Saturday

Great job! I have seen a lot of people ruin a good kit tring to do what you did. Can't wait to see it painted.

Looks awesome. Probably the best I've seen at that style of zim. I have to ask, once you had the layout pencilled on, how long did it take to accomplish what you've got in the photos? What is the hardest part to do?

2 Hours for both sides and lower hull huh? Not too shabby at all for your first try, Damn nice to be honest. Looking forward to the paint. Now where did I put my hot knife? :-) "Q"

Absolutely fantastic! Could you explain how you did the damaged section? Are those simply areas where you did not score with the hot knife?

I'm impressed, very impressed.. I never liked the results of 'hot kniving' zimmerit ( I'm firmly in the putty method camp) but this is excellent. Hurry up and get it painted .

Cheers
Henk

Keenan,

Excellent job! I have always put on my zimm with putty but haven't liked the trouble of working around rivets, etc. Hot knife gives superior control.

I wish my first attempt is as good as yours:



Fred's Zimmerit Gallery Pix

OK, wanna guess the scale?

The damaged sections were left untouched? So, on the tanks where the unit insignia is on the metal of the turret/chassis, just mark off the area and leave it untouched and them apply the unit logo.

Most impressive work. I can hardly wait to give it a try

Thanks for all the feedabck, everyone.

I have seen pictures of various Tigers with the unit insigna painted in a spot where there was no zimmerit. (The King Tigers with the charging knight on the sides of the turret come to mind) I haven't on jagdpanzer IVs, though. I think the only marking I am going to put on this one is a balkenkruez on the side. I will have to cut a stencil for that and air brush it on because there no way a decal is going to snuggle down.

I have the base coat on and the green stripe cammo. Tools and weathering, tonight, maybe...

Shaun

PIcture of the initial paint. Some of the pioneer tools are finished as well. Paint colors look really odd in the picture. I should have known better than take the pictures outside in Indiana in March. (It was 14 degrees, not that that has anything to do with the color).

More to come. Weathering tonight...

Update:

Vehicle almost finished. Figures need some more work on the faces. Coming along pretty smoothly.







I am especially proud of the carrots...
Feedback more than welcome.
Shaun