Has anyone tried to weather a zimmerit?

[michaelwhittmann]

I would like to give this a shot on my HL panther g?

What method is easier? There are so many.

Any help or website would be appreciated.

[Rad_Schuhart]

Not sure if this will help you.

https://radindustries.wordpress.com/202 ... /zimmerit/

[HERMAN BIX]

Ive pretty much tried all options.
Washing is good using Mig or similar products, or if you prefer light weathering use several filters to change the surface look very gradually.
I used stuff called Magic Grime. Its an acrylic paste that wipes off with baby wipes and works well. Can easily get too heavy though if you dont wipe enough off but that was just me being new to using it.
Then there is Pigments, depending on your level of weathering and of course the subject theme, dry dusting or wet splash (using the flicking or blowing method) can also change the look a lot.
Of course a combination of methods & products is best!!

viewtopic.php?t=29404

[MrChef]

Not sure if this will help you.

https://radindustries.wordpress.com/202 ... /zimmerit/

Wow excellent tutorial And even a shout out to our resident masochist Mr. Bix!

Ive pretty much tried all options.
Washing is good using Mig or similar products, or if you prefer light weathering use several filters to change the surface look very gradually.
I used stuff called Magic Grime. Its an acrylic paste that wipes off with baby wipes and works well. Can easily get too heavy though if you dont wipe enough off but that was just me being new to using it.
Then there is Pigments, depending on your level of weathering and of course the subject theme, dry dusting or wet splash (using the flicking or blowing method) can also change the look a lot.
Of course a combination of methods & products is best!!

viewtopic.php?t=29404

I agree with Mr. Bix here. The traditional methods are there. Here is a Link to Martin Kovac AKA "Nightshift" on you tube who is good model contributor that has Many videos on painting ans weathering armor models.This video is just part of a whole series on his build of a Jagdpanther what will cover alot of weathering you may have questions about=

phpBB [video]

I also support The Magic Grime that Mr. Bix lists as well as Jnewboys contribution of said product. It is a great medium for a beginner to start with as well a more experienced modeler. I had learned the more current stuff like Night Shift goes over because his videos and others like him are exactly where I'm learning. There are many other contributors on Youtube with very helpful videos on the subject of weathering. I suggest=

Nightshift
Panzermeister36 &

Coldemonspl who actually covers the specific topic of using a pin wash on Zimmerit-

phpBB [video]

[STHV]

As a side note, if you want it to be historically plausible you may want to replace the mantlet if you are adding Zimmerit as as far as I am aware no Panther G with the chin type mantlet ever had Zimmerit.
Zimmerit was dropped around the 9th September 1944 and the chin mantlet began being gradually introduced later that same month however the Chin never fully took over from the earlier mantlet.

[Tiger6]

If memory serves, MAN never implimented the chin turret on their production (which is a little weird, as they were the 'lead plant' for the programme).
(The fabricated armoured exhaust elbow covers on the Heng Long are also heavily indicative of MAN built tanks, but HL never let details like that stop them...)

Panthers with the chin didn't start to be issued to units until late October / early November, which for example, is why none of the SS Panthers have chins in the Ardennes but they are quite prevalent in the regular army Panzer Divisions that got re-equipped after the SS divisions.

Converting the HL to the earlier style mantlet is entirely possible, with the aid of Milliput and some careful work with a Dremel:

IMG_20180909_141805.jpg (1.53 MiB) Viewed 235 times

[HERMAN BIX]

Atak Zimmerit sets come with the mantle.

As for weathering I’d say to decide your subject theatre of operations, the month or season it was there, figure out the prevailing weather conditions at that time, then gather products to suit that likely scenario.
Zimmerit holds more visual effects of weathering than flat plates so best to start lighter and go up.

[Tiger6]

The Atak set is for a Trumpeter tho, so you'll have to graft it onto the HL mantlet backing plate, and then either fit the Trumpeter barrel or somehow bodge the HL barrel to fill in the gap.

I have been thru this exercise fitting the Tamiya specific Atak kit to a HL, and that wasn't exactly straight forward if you wanted to keep the recoil functional (and I made it harder for myslef by wanting to fit a Tamiya recoil).
As I was only doing the turret anyway, I probably should have just cut the HL mantlet down and saved myself the money, but I had already sprung for the Atak kit by the time I had decided to put my big boy pants on and bust out the Dremel...

[HERMAN BIX]

Ive done both on H/Ls panthers. Cut off the chin and fitted the Atak one on different models.
Both have degrees of difficulty, but the Atak version has a specific pattern of zimmerit that is harder to replicate with putty than the standard type so I had to use that.

viewtopic.php?t=31768


The chinless Panther I did that did not have the style of zim as atak I just freestyled out of putty.

viewtopic.php?t=28256

[Tiger6]

Never considered using a piece of pipe for the infill
I just backfilled mine and started hacking away. The first one took me an hour to do because I was being super careful, by the time I'd done the 5th I'd gotten the whole process down to 20 mins...!