Understood, I am still working on the vertical ridge. I have not been able to perfect that yet. Did not have that much room in the back. I will be appling the zim on the majority of the hull today. Should have more room and hopefuly a better working surface. The polyseamseal is already a thin putty right out of the tube. It is water soluable and suppose you could thin it out with water. Do not think it needs to be any thinner though. Before I put the hull togther i have to build a partial interior around the drivers hatch. The hatch is going to be open so want to put somthing in there. Will be looking for pictures of interior. Later I will also be putting the interior into the turret. All hatches will also be open on the turret.
Well have not done as much as planed. Had some water pipes break in the house! Maybe I should start building some boats. Decided that I had to get all wheels and tracks on so that I could put the fenders on so that I could finally put some zimmerit on. Last night managed to get one side installed with tracks. Tonight figered I would stay late and get the other side done. I have also started to bent up one of the wheel skirts. As soon as the skirts are finished and installed should be able to lay some more zim.
Thats all for tonight. Believe I am going to be paying for staying up all night.
Little more done tonight. Still have not made up my mind if I like this or not? I will let you all comment. Either way work will continue. No turning back for this polyseamseal does not come off when fully cured. Managed to get the glacis and the left side done with zimmerit. As soon as the zim was layed down I went ahead and put the tools on. Usually leave those for last to make painting easier but thought I should press them into the zim with a little CA glue before it was to dry.
Was still unable to make the vertical line that is made in the real zim. If I stoped to much or moved the tool in to many different directions the polyseam would peel up. Anyway manged to get a few verticals in there. Was able to get fenders on both sides. I am pleased with how they came out but realy like it without the skirts on.
Thats the last look at them. I am building from a picture of a tiger that I have been wanting to replicate in a dio and it has it’s skirts on so mine does to.
Tomorrow is back to work for me so not sure when I will be able to get back to the Tiger. When I do I will zim and tool the right side and then move on from there.
After my last post was a bit embarrassed about my zim. After a day of not looking then coming back and looking at it again, I really decided it was no good. Keep hearing PVT. Mutt and Deafpanzer saying in my head, why did he not use shorter strokes. So I went to scraping all of the zim off, that took quite a few hours, and then layed down a new pattern of zim. After getting the old zim off , first I put some guide marks on to follow. Followed by small (about 1/8) strokes whith the tool. This is what it is now. Think it is much better.
HOLY COW! Now this is the Z-I-M-M! [Y] I am so glad you heard my voices… I was standing right behind you when you worked on it. Now I can’t wait to try it on my old Tamiya kit… Panzer IV Ausf J for Eastern Front GB I signed earlier. The tracks look great too!
That zimm is looking really good. Haven’t worked up the nerve to try scratched zimm myself yet but maybe one day. I really really like how the running gear turned out. The weathering and drybrushing really paid off on it!!
Thanks for the good comments. It’s good to hear about this zim, I have been trying to figure this stuff out for a while ( even before this build). All good opinions lets me know to keep going but any negative is just as wanted so I can correct. Moving to work on a partial scratch build of the interior of the turret. All hatches will be open so will put something in there to look at. Decided I needed no interior for the driver’s hatch, plan to have a man on top of the tank with his head poking down through the hatch filling most of the space.
Update on where The tiger is at. Same excuse as a lot of you, work has kept me from the work bench last week. First 2 day weekend off for some time now. Started the scratch build of the turret. Lots of styrene, spare parts and wire. Has been slow going. For those of you that have a Kingtiger parked in your garage, this is not for a 100% accuracy it is to give a good representation of what would be in case some one wants to take a look inside. Would spend more time if one would be able to see the details a bit better. Unfortunately not much will be able to be seen once the turret cover is on. Had to put something as the kit did not provide much.
That is all the kit provided. Here is where I am at now.
Still much left to do. Commander and loader’s area, more around the gun and gunners site. Also more junction boxes and wiring on the upper turret ring. The back part of the turret will be receiving the ammo racks. After that will move to the turret cover for a few items.
Few touch ups here and there but mainly will start work around the gun / coaxial / gunners site. Hope to have some paint on soon then load the ammo racks with a few rounds.
Many years ago (actually probably 25-30 years ago, talk about a long-term project) I started playing with doing zimmerit on a Sturmgeschutz kit I was working on. I used Squadron green putty and a small flat-blade screw driver. I spread a small amount of putty out on the surface with a putty knife, and pressed the blade of the screw driver in at an angle. It seemed to provide me with nice little ridges on top and bottom, as well as squeezing out some putty along the sides, providing the little vertical ridges, too. Comparing to pictures, it looked pretty good.
I haven’t returned to this kit yet, but want to finish it with added details, and, of course, finish the zimmerit.
