Big Pussycat with Zimmerit

[Susanna Viljanen]

I build usually aircraft, but I some time ago tried the Airfix new 1/72 Tiger I.

The kit is somewhat immature. It represents the middle production Tiger I (from August 1943 to February 1944) as it has the rubber-rimmed road wheels, no Feifel air filters and no twin bow lights, but there is one big problem.

It has no Zimmerit. The same problem as with 1/72 Königstiger.

After the first 20 or so specimens, all middle production Tiger Is were covered with Zimmerit anti-mine paste, which is recognizable from its corrugated surface. Zimmerit was applied on all German tanks in service from August 1943 to September 1944, and retrofitted on all surviving Elefants. So the Airfix Tiger I is in serious need of Zimmerit.

Polish company Aber makes photoetched Zimmerit panels, intended for the Revell 1/72 Tiger. I thought I'd give it a try, and included them in my order at Super Hobby (an excellent Polish distributor - it has become one of my main providers after the Brexit). The Aber Zimmerit has been etched on thin brass sheet, which is extremely malleable.

I decided to build a "wargaming quality" Tiger I, middle production. The part distribution on Revell Tiger and Airfix Tiger are somewhat different, and while dimensionally the panels are quite good, some of the parts need to be modified.

The Airfix kit wing mudguards need to be cut off so that the hull side Zimmerit panels can be glued on. This succeeded well with a razor saw. I sanded the hull sides flat and applied the Zimmerit panels. The result was nice - once the wing mudguards were glued back in the place, the result was convincing.

The hull front Zimmerit panels fit almost to the tenth of a millimetre. Unfortunately, the headplate panel didn't. The Airfix hull bow armour plate is larger than that of Revell, and I needed to extend the Zimmerit panel with Tamiya White Putty and Trumpeter Zimmerit tool.

The same with the rear plate. It is somewhat bigger, and all the details on Airfix Tiger and Revell Tiger don't match by place. I simply sawed all details off, attached the Zimmerit, and glued them back to place.

Turret was much easier. The Airfix and Revell turrets are almost perfect matches - the only difficulty I really had was with the side vision ports, which I sawed off and relocated. Superglue is your friend!

The model is still yet to be painted, but the initial results are convincing. It has now quite realistic Zimmerit - and it looks like a middle production Tiger. I will most likely use the "wargaming" tracks provided with the kit and save the "serious model" tracks for the AMC Models 1/72 Sturmtiger which has soft rubber tracks.

Now how about a late production Tiger - and Wittman's '007' (which actually was the battalion command tank) ? The AMC Models Sturmtiger has late production road wheels, so I might do a simple swap here. All Sturmtigers were rebuilt from battle damaged individuals, from all production batches, so perhaps I will build one with rubber rimmed road wheels?

[peebeep]

That's a useful head's up for etched Zimmerit, because when I was looking I couldn't find any, although I did come across (and bought) plain sheets of Zimmerit in resin, by JKT. I've tried using putty and a suitable tool, but it just doesn't seem to work for me.

[Susanna Viljanen]

There were late type (Feb 1944 to Sept 1944) road wheels from Plastic Soldier Company in my spares box. Yay! I could now try the Wittmann's fateful '007' and see how it goes.

Try either Super Hobby (http://www.super-hobby.com) or Jadar Hobby (https://www.jadarhobby.pl) and check for 'Part Zimmerit' - Aber makes photoetched Zimmerit for Panzer IV, Panther and Tiger under trade name 'Part'.

Both are reliable Polish suppliers - sadly, after the Brexit, the UK residents have to pay the tariff to Her Majesty's Customs Office.