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)

How to paint Fallschirmjäger 1943-45

Time for another how to paint!  After a few request from friends on how to paint World War 2 Germans for 28mm wargaming (mainly Bolt Action) I'd thought I would start with my favorite German force from the conflict, the Fallschirmjäger.  

The period that this paint guide is most useful for is the late war period, I have used models from the fantastic Warlord Games plastic box set for this tutorial.

All of the paints used for this guide are from the latest (at the time of writing) Citadel paint range.

Stage 1. 

So the model has been built, mold lines removed and based with the normal sand/gravel mix glued with PVA.  Then the model is sprayed with Chaos Black spray. The base is then painted with Steel Legion Drab.

Stage 2. 

The jump smock is painted with Karak Stone, if the model has a helmet cover paint this as per the jump smock. The trousers are painted Castellan Green, alternatively you could paint the trouser Eshin Grey to add variation to the way you paint your squads.
The face and hands have been painted with Bugmans Glow.  Finally all wood areas (rifle, spade handle, grenade handle) have been painted Doombull Brown. 

The helmet, stick grenade head, lid of the water bottle, mess tin and gas mask canister were all painted with Stormvermin Fur with a little Abbadon Black (3 parts Fur to 1 Black).  Ammo pouches have been painted Eshin Grey.

The bread bag is painted Zandri Dust.  The main body of the water bottle, helmet straps and goggles are Mornfang brown,  the rifle strap is painted XV-88.  All metal, rifle, shovel, buckles are coated with Leadbelcher and finally and belts and webbing are painted Abbadon Black.

Stage 3.

The model is then given a liberal coating of Agrax Earthshade and left to fully dry, ensure that there is no excessive pooling on the model as the shade dries.

As with the last guide, at this point you could stop at this stage as this is perfectly adequate for tabletop standard.

Stage 4.

So now we start the highlight stage, this is basically re applying the colours back to the raised areas of the model prior to Stage 3 but ensuring we leave the creases and recesses with the wash still showing.  So to recap paint all of the raised area with the following,  jump smock Karak Stone. Trousers Castellan Green. Wood areas (rifle, spade handle, grenade handle) Doombull Brown.  Helmet, stick grenade head, lid of the water bottle, mess tin and gas mask canister Stormvermin Fur/Abbadon Black mix. Ammo pouches Eshin Grey. Bread bag Zandri Dust. The main body of the water bottle, helmet straps and goggles Mornfang Brown. Rifle strap XV-88. All metal, rifle, shovel, buckles Leadbelcher.

For the face Bugmans Glow is applied to the raised areas of the face leaving the creases with the wash showing.  Then an 50/50 mix of Bugmans Glow and Cadian Fleshtone is added to the raised areas. what you are trying to a achieve is a gradual change from dark to light by using less paint each stage.  You can go lighter by doing a pure Cadian Fleshtone stage and even a mix of this colour and white. Finally a pure Bugmans Glow is reapplied to the bottom lip and a thin black line is added on the mouth.

Stage 5.

This is were the fun begins....to add the iconic zeltbahn pattern to the jump smock.  

First using Mornfang Brown paint geometric shapes haphazardly over the jump smock, ensuring that you leave plenty of the base Karak stone showing underneath.

Next, using Loren Forest paint more smaller geometric shapes on top of the Karak Stone and Mornfang Brown, again ensuring that you leave some of the original colours showing underneath.  

Stage 6. 

Now the detail and finish.  With the smock you can leave it at Stage 5 or for extra detail you can add the 'splinters' that is found on the zeltbahn pattern.  This would be far to small to be in scale but it looks cool and simulates the actual pattern.  Using Caliban Green paint groups of rows of 4 dashes all over the smock, adding as many as these as you see fit, but remember not to over do these as you don't want to lose the pattern underneath. Finally a very light wash of Adrax Earthshade mixed with an acrylic thinner, Tamiya Colour X-20A thinner to be precise (50/50 mix) is applied to the smock and any cloth parts (bread bag, poncho, ammo pouches, etc) to blend the highlight. A further highlight of pure Stormvermin Fur is added to the edges of the helmet, gas canister, mess tin and water bottle lid.  Last of all all metal parts, rifle, buckles, shovel are picked out with Runefang Steel on the edges to just help them stand out.

As an added bonus I made this visual guide for anyone wanting use my method of painting

  

So there you have it  a completed Fallschirmjäger to battle the Allies on the tabletop.  Till next time.......

Action pictures of Fallschirmjäger 1944-45 Army and completed terrain

I was off work today sick so I though I'd be reasonably productive and take some 'action' shots of my Fallschirmjäger infantry and late war armour with my finished ruined village terrain...enjoy

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!