Landship comparison. Warlord Games vs Great War Miniatures Mk IV tank

So with the release of Battlefield 1 (BF1) inspiring me, and the fact I bought the Warlord Games (WG) model last month, I thought it a good idea to do a comparison between two available 28mm MkIV tanks or land ships as they are known in BF1.  One being from WG on the left and the other from Great War Miniatures (GWM) on the right.  Both are the 'Male' variant, the Female is also available from both companies and WG supplies the hermaphrodite variant.

Both are resin and metal kits that are relatively easy to put together with only minimal green stuff putty required, however both models top rails were not easy and require some mucking about to get into the correct positions.  Neither kits come with chain for the unditching beam which is just to be glued on the back, but I used some brass chain from a old piece of jewelry for all of my tanks for that extra bit of realism.

Both tanks have great detail, but I think the GWM kit is the more accurate, and as you can see from the pictures is slightly bigger.  but over all I am happy for them both to 'play' together and once painted will look great as a section of tanks.  Another point worth mentioning is the cost, Currently the WG kit is the cheaper at 27 British pounds compared to the GWM 32 British pounds so the 5 quid difference may sway some folks to the WG kit

 The WG Mk IV 

 The GWM MK IV

My plan if to complete a tank army from the now out of print The Great War rules set from Games Workshop.  the ultimate goal is to get the army ready for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Cambrai which is how I am painting my MkIV''s.  Below will be C Battalion, 8 Company, 5 Section 

 2061/Male/C21/Curmudgeon II (right), 2021/Male/C23/Crusty (centre), 2731/Female/C22/Cynic (Left)

Just another 3 to get.............

If you want to own your own landship please check out these links for Warlord Games and North Star Miniatures, both excellent companies to deal with.
Warlord Games WW1 selection - https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/world-war-i
North Star Miniatures WW1 tanks - http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=20&cat=153&sub=185&page=1 

Not so Lucky Lady....Knocked out Sherman tank

So a good friend of mine had an old resin M4 Sherman tank from Warlord Games in a sorry state that he had in a bits box.  Seeing how I had wrecked a Brummbar assault gun I though it fair to do the same with an American machine.  So after a bit of TLC and a few holes drilled into the front armour now I have the 'Lucky Lady' who has been on the wrong end of a high velocity AT round and has met her end.

Going mad with greenstuff, Zimmerit on Big Cats

So I had a couple of Late war big cats, namely a resin Panther and a Porsche King Tiger sat about waiting to be built for battling in Normandy, but they both lacked a very distinct feature....Zimmerit.

Now Warlord Games recently put up some articles on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/warlordgames/) regarding Zimmerit using the www.tanks-encyclopedia.com page (http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/articles/tech/zimmerit-in-german-use/) but the short version of what zimmerit is, it's a anti-magnetic mine paste applied to German armour from late 1943 to late 1944 and gave the tanks an unusual appearance, see below.

So the models in question were a resin Panther Ausf A and a resin King Tiger with Porsche Turret, both without zimmerit 'out of the box'.  The new Plastic Warlord Games Panther Ausf A is the main reason I started this madness, I have 2 of the plastic kits.  Now as this was going to be a Zug based in Normandy 1944 (9th SS Pz Div) they all would have to have zimmerit applied, including the resin one.  so after a full day of messing about with green stuff here are the results.

So after completing this task I then turned to the Königstiger, at first I wasn't going to apply zimmerit as the Bovington tank museum exhibit has none, picture below.

Unfortunately after a little research the Bovington King Tiger with Porsche Turret was captured after the war from Sennelager where it was used as a training tank and thus did not have the zimmerit applied, and all combat King Tiger in Normandy had the paste applied so my OCD forced me to zimmerit a second time.

So this time I took some stage by stage pictures of how I apply zimmerit.

1. prepare surface

For the side of the turret I removed the track hooks, I found many of the zimmerit Porsche turrets did not have them. Then scored the surface that the putty will be applied with my craft knife. This to to allow the Greenstuff putty to adhere to the surface easier.

2.Apply Greenstuff putty

Smear a thin layer over the entire surface to have zimmerit. 

 3. Apply horizontal marks

Using a small jewelers flat head screwdriver, mark the putty with lines of horizontal 'dashes' in vertical rows (see below)

 Continue this until the entire surface is covered in these rows

4. Apply vertical row marks

Score the putty with a craft knife both sides of the horizontal marks forming rows.

Use this method until all surfaces to have zimmerit applied are covered, or you go insane. Here are some picture of the completed King Tiger.

The turret sides and front armour plate are the easiest to apply using the above method. The hull sides and rear and the front and rear of the turret were a little more tricky as the putty need to be applied in and around the details such as ropes, hatches and equipment and surfaces that are not flat. I have managed to get the zimmerit applied to all surfaces that it would have been on the real Panzer(s) and pretty happy with the results.  Now to paint the buggers..........

If you want to embark on a similar insane project the Panther kit is the Warlord Games resin Panther Ausf A (https://store.warlordgames.com/products/panther-ausf-a) and the King Tiger is the JTFM Enterprises DE051 King Tiger II with PorscheTurret  (http://www.diewaffenkammer.com/_germany_page_no5.html)