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)

Completed Kaputten Brummbar and guest stars from Last Levy 1945

So I was motivated to complete my knocked out Brummbar terrain piece,  here is the results

As is often the case, I was joined in my hobby day by my good friend Dean who is currently working on a Last Levy, Berlin 1945 German army. He has completed 6 models of his 10 man Hitler youth squad so here are the pictures. (sorry about the terrible lighting its really late)

 

Anyway we are both kaput after today's effort so good night to you all! 

Re-purposing a Brummbar and the Dark Age challenge

So in the theme of resurrection my first modelling project is the re-purposing of an armoured vehicle that had been ruined by a spray can.

The vehicle in question is the Sturmpanzer or Brummbar assault gun, this is a nice kit from Warlord Games but it had an unfortunate accident with a can of Army Painter desert yellow spray which went on too thick.  Spray can paint is a bit of a nightmare in Auckland as it has to be the the right weather (not too Humid, Damp, Cold, etc) for the spray to go on without issue, and I sprayed at the wrong time......

But after languishing in a tub of simple green for months I decided that a wrecked tank is in order for my ruined village, and I was inspired by this picture.

    

So after finding the correct ruin and a bit of chopping and sanding here is the end result...

So the next step is to get some paint on the thing.

In other News.....

So I have been trying to get my gaming group sorted with war gaming in the Dark ages/Early Medieval, 800AD to 1100 AD. We are using a variant of the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Strategy battle game we have called Skjaldborg!

Anyhow my Brother (Sam) and I have chosen our armies, Sam will be the stinkin' Normans and I will be the Norsemen! 

The Army of Henri ‘le boucher pieuse’ Picard

The Longboat crew of Ulf the Red

Sam will be completing for the Normans, 5 knights (including the Noble) 11 spear and shield infantry, 6 Crossbow men and 1 Daneaxe armed infantry.  

My Norsemen include 1 Thegn, 3 Hersir (elite warriors)  with sword and Shield, 1 Hersir with a banner, 2 Hersir with Daneaxes, 8 warriors with Axe and shield and 8 warriors with spear and shield.

We aim to have all this painted by the 31 August 2016 so we can have a game and post pictures of the skirmish, watch this space!

From the ashes rises a new better blog!

Hello Internets,

Well this blog died a death with the last post being 3 years, 9 months, and 7 days ago........ But as the title of this post states this is the resurrection of the blog with a new name and totally different content!  
Since the last post I have fallen out with 40k and Games Workshop in general, but stayed a keen wargamer and have gone all Historical, Mainly with the fantastic Warlord Games Bolt Action.

So this Blog will be mainly Bolt Action, and many different periods and theaters of war, but also World War 1 using the now defunct Warhammer Historical The Great War rules set, and Dark Age battles using a Variant of the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Strategy Battle game. I'm sure other wargames will appear as my gaming group is always playing new (often weird) wargaming periods and settings.

So just to get started here are example pictures of the things i will be putting on this blog......

  German 1940 Blitzkrieg Force

Michael Wittmann commanding a Tiger of 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion

A machine gun nest for the trenches of 1918

MkIV 8 Company, C Battalion, Battle of Cambrai 1917

Stay posted as I will attempt to update and use this blog far more than last time......maybe ;-)