i have recently invested in the dragon 3 in 1 tiger late production and would like to give it a true to scale coat of zimmerit. i have used the milliput way and etch but these turn out to be overscale (milliput) and non exsistant (etch) i tried humbrol filler but it seemed to dry before i could get the desired effect!!!!! please help this is stopping the build of a very very nice kit

Cheers
Champy

Well, I shared your opinion. So I decided to try the Francois Verlinden method, that is to burn the zimmerit into the plastic with a soldering iron. I've done it now on two late Tiger kits, and I feel it is great and is really easy to do.

I get a lot of feedback from modelers who are afraid to take the risk, but it is almost foolproof, if you can operate a paint brush, you can do this.....






If you are interested, obtain a 15W soldering gun and install the smallest conical tip available. Practice on scrap plastic. When you get ready to apply, mark out the vertical spacing on the hull/turret with a drafting pencil. your horizontal trough lines should be about 3mm long in scale...

Good luck,

Steve

Ive never built the Tiger before but damn this looks like a pain staking process. Almost as fun as painting track wheels.

Try using Apoxie-sculpt, it is easier to use than milliput. Also cut down on the thickness of putty layer. The iron method is nice, but if you screw up, you just toasted a 30 to 40 dollar kit. It's also hard to replicate damaged zim with the iron method. Not knocking it, just giving advice.

This effect was achieved using a thin coating of Squadron "Green Stuff" putty. I'm not saying it's perfect of course!

Trying again!

If you are interested, I just use the Elmer's wood putty. and Tamiya putty..its cheaper and easy to apply and remove :-) . Maybe you could also post the result of your zimm so that we could also comment/suggest improvements...you never know, it might just be OK.

BTW, here is my zimm...

Before

After


Hope this helps...

Cheers