Zimmer-it Up

It's always important to document the heroic failures as well as the successes so this week we'll take a look at an experiment I conducted with applying Zimmerit on 1:100 models.

Firstly, what is Zimmerit?  It's an anti-magnetic mine paste that was applied to German tanks.  If you've ever seen a German tank that looks like its got a bad case of cellulite, then that is Zimmerit.  Here's a close-up photo I took of a JagdPanther at the Imperial War Museum, London that features it.

Nothing a bit of moisturiser wouldn't solve.

The paste is not anti-magnetic, it is just non-magnetic.  It provides sufficient stand-off that a hand deployed panzer-knacker magnetic mine can't find purchase and will fall off.  Based on this, the Geramns decided to apply it to all of their front-line tanks from the end of 1943.  There was just one problem...  Only the Germans used magnetic mines.

The Germans had, once again, made a massive assumption that everyone else would follow suite (like heavy tanks).  Sadly the opposition's thought process went more or less like this:

• USA - Why'd I want to throw the mine when I can launch it on a rocket?
• Britain - Why'd I want to use a magnet when I can use glu-OH LORD!  IT'S STUCK TO MY LEG!
• Russia - Why'd I want to use a mine when I can send wave after wave of my own men to use up their ammo?

Also, Dog Mines

Combined with a rumour that it caused tanks to catch fire (later disproved) it disappears off German armour production lines in September 1944.  More info can be found here.

Now, the Plastic Soldier Company have been producing some fantastic plastic kits of late, but all the German kit is 'sans Zimmerit'.  That's fine for stuff pre December '43 or post September '44 but, for the admittedly quiet  bit in between, the models are technically incorrect.

So what's a boy working on an early 1944 army to do?  There's two obvious choices here:

1. Ignore it.  At 1:100 the Zimmerit is barely visible beyond a slight surface patterning and a softening of the edges.
2. Try and sculpt it on.

I'll admit that Number 1 was the most tempting, given I still haven't started painting the StuG, but the PSC kit did leave me with a load of spare StuG F8 hulls to experiment on so I thought I'd give it a go before entirely rejecting it.

Looking at the patterns of Zimmerit used, I decided that the columns of horizontal lines (pattern 1 here) would be the easiest to replicate (although the waffle scheme - no.6 - was pretty common on StuGs and does look cool).  I also decided to try three methods of replicating it:

1. Paint on green stuff, sculpt lines as soon as applied
2. Paint on green stuff, sculpt lines as soon as the green stuff darkens and dries
3. Paint on green stuff, leave overnight, then sculpt in lines the next day.

Here's the sculpting tool I used.  The important thing is to get something with a decent, broad-ish point on it.

Also, kind of looks like a xenomorpth tail

Approach 1 - Wet Sculpt

I used a standard GW paint brush to apply some liquid breen stuff evenly over the armour plate.  It's important to get the thickness right.  The yellow plastic underneath should not be showing through.
I applied the green stuff to one location then used the sculpting tool to sculpt the lines in.  If I was doing a whole tank I'd then proceed to do the next location, and so on, always sclupting the green stuff as soon as its applied and not letting it dry.  As it was, I only did the one panel to assess the look.

Approach 1 - Sculpted straight after application

To better show the panel off, I then painted it Vallejo "Middlestone", followed by a 50:50 Brown and Black shade followed by a "Buff" drybrush

Approach 1 - allowed to dry and painted

Approach 2 - Short Dry Sculpt

I used the GW paint brush to apply liquid green stuff on all panels.  I should not that the real zimmerit wasn't applied all over a tank (this large scale photo-etch kit shows where it should be), I just wanted plenty of area to experiment with.

Very reminiscent of my early "Space Crusade" era work.  Thick, blotchy and un-even.

I then waited for the green stuff to change to a darker shade of green all over (about 30 minutes).  At this point I then set to work with the sculpting tool.  One thing I noticed was that if I got the lines too close together, it tended to rip the green stuff off which may be useful as a technique for doing battle damaged zimmerit.

Approach 2 - Green stuff applied all over and allowed to dry sufficient for colour to darken

Here's what it looks like after painting

Approach 2 - Painted

Approach 3 - Long Dry Sculpt

The liquid green stuff was painted on at the same time as Approach 2 but left overnight.  The next morning I used the sculpting tool to sculpt in the lines.  I found that it was a lot harder to get a decent line as the tool tended to stick in the solid green stuff.  Teraing seemed to be minimesd though.

Approach 3 - Allowed to dry overnight before working

Here it is painted.

Approach 3 - Painted 

Conclusions

I'd have to say that Approach 2 works the best based on the painted results.  It's also probably the faster approach to use too.  Approach 1 is too slow to do and far too subtle.  The texture does not come through the paint.  Approach 3 was equally underwhelming and difficult to work.

I painted up the Approach 2 example fully (or at least the modded area) to get a better look at the end result.

As mentioned - Zimmerit wouldn't be on track skirts and lower hull top surface as I depicted here.  So don't copy it!

But, I'm still not convinced the end effect is worth it.  The result is far too subtle and really just merges into the paint scheme.  I'll probably stick to non-Zimmerit on the StuG battery but it does seem possible to apply  it if it really bugs you.

I'd appreciate some feedback on this.  Which do you think works better?  Is it worth doing at all?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Commence engine restart procedure

in 3... 2... 1...

Hmm, November 2nd was the last update you say?  I guess I have some explaining to do...

Okay, so about November I really knuckled down on building terrain for the Brighton Bash Tournament.  With the assistance of Mike and Nathan, over the course of November, December and the first few weeks of January we cracked out 40ft of tree lines and about 50ft of hedge rows along with some Ironclad Bocage sections and a Kerr and King village in a box!  The likes of Skip, Steve B and Si also contributed.

Kerr and King Normandy Buildings - Donated by Skip, base coated by Mike (along with FFI graffiti), fine detail and frontage by me.

The tournament seemed to go well and the terrain was well received.  I took photos over the weekend which can be found here (photo-bucket uploaded them in reverse order annoyingly).

It took me a while to recover enthusiasm after that, but did eventually pick up the brush in late January to do some M3 Stuart I "Honey" tanks in Operation Crusader era Caunter camo.  I took photos along the way and we'll look at them at some point in the future.

Ready to stroll around the blue!

Finally, the release of the Grey Wolf and Red Bear source books for Flames of War got me looking at the Eastern Front with renewed interest.  I picked up a few boxes of Plastic Soldier Company StuG III to form a Begleit StuG Battery and that really forms the basis for today's article.  If your interested, I did a review on the StuG kit over at Mighty Miniatures.

I want the StuGs to be multi-purpose so they can be just as easily used as a Panzer Battalion equipped with StuG IIIG or as a Normandy era StuG Battery, neither of which have tanks riders.  Now, I could just ignore the tank escorts when appropriate and leave them as a permanently fixed part of the tank, but that would be far too simple (as well as confusing if I don't upgrade all the platoons in the company to have Begleit).  Instead, I want to magnetize the the riders and the tank to make them removable.

The main issue with this approach is the Begleit StuG riders.  They come as a set of separate figures, rather than as a clump of figures (as the Russian equivalent do/did).  Whilst this makes for a more versatile figure it does complicate the magnetisation process!

To get around this I decided to use a central piece of stowage to take the magnet, and then mount the figures from this, daisy chaining them if necceary.  This would allow me to disperse the figures around the back of the tank whilst still keeping them as a single whole that could be lifted off as required.

Placing the magnet on the tank side was simplicity itself.  A Ø1.5mm rare earth magnet (I used Modifix) would sit in between the engine covers of the StuG so the magnet on the tank would need to correspond to this location.

Almost made to measure!

The plastic is thin enough to be semi-transparent.  Holding the upper hull of the StuG up to a bright light, I scribed the corresponding point on the underside of the hull between the engine deck blisters and used this to glue a magnet in place.

Stealth Mode Initiated!

 It's important to keep all the magnets pointing the right way so I glued a magnet to a piece of stowage first and held that in place on the hull when gluing the one on the underside.  The magnet on the underside will, when dropped into place, self locate AND make sure its pointing the right way.

If you look closely you can see where the magnet dragged itself into place

That done, I completed the construction of the StuG's (an article in itself, maybe next week).  The magnet on the tank is now completely out of sight.

The next stage is to play around with some blue tac and find a good pose for the tank riders.  I use three or four of the Begleit models for each tank, positioning them around a crate, oil drum or other convenient piece of stowage that will accommodate a 1.5mm magnet.
Once happy, I use a 3mm drill bit in a dremel to drill a hole to locate the magnet.  I then place the magnet on the hull (to ensure its up the right way), added a dab of super glue and then put the drilled stowage onto it.  Keep moving the two bits so they can't get stuck to the hull!

It's obviously important to make sure that  the stowage is bigger than a 3mm hole...

It's now a case of pinning the Begleit to the stowage.  Take one of the Begleit and dab a bit of bright paint (I use red) on it then push it against the stowage to transfer the paint over.  This lets you work out where you should drill if its difficult to judge.

Now, use a 0.5mm/0.75mm drill to place a hole on both the Begleit and the stowage.

You now need a piece of metal wire to pin the two bits together.  I use sandwich bag tie wraps as they tend to be about 0.5mm thick.  Cut off an plastic covering and stick one end into one piece with some superglue.  Once dry, cut to length and stick into the other piece.

The very definition of "being pinned"

A similar technique can be used to attach a Begleit to a Begleit already attached to the stowage ("daisy-chaining").

Oooh, nasty!

As can be seen, a similar technique can be used for 0.50 cal exit wounds...

<sing>"here I am, stuck in the middle with you"</sing>

Once this is dry it should leave a cluster of Begleit and stowage that lifts clear of the hull like so:

All ready to keep them damn ruskies off the StuG

"Stealth Mode Ini.. wait.  What do you mean it doesn't work on the escorts?"

The next stage will be to go back and add some green stuff tarps and bed rolls to hide the pins where I've needed to use long ones and also add some more stowage so it really looks like the Escorts are having to find somewhere to sit.

Of course, the magnet in the hull would also allow us to make "destroyed" smoke plumes or clusters of stowage (so the rear hull doesn't look empty without riders).

So there we go.  Next update will either look at the finishing work on the escorts or tips on building the StuG kit depending how much work I get done!  I'll try and get back into weekly updates too.

Hear me talk nonsense!

No real update this week.  Will hopefully be starting the A13 this week.

In the meantime, the All Along the Watchtower podcast asked me to come along and talk Flames of War whilst Matt got his move on.  

During the pod cast we talk about "Hellfire and Back", the finer points of Sherman tank design (in response to the rather tasty Plastic Soldier Company) and the SMLE.  There's also some non-flames stuff too!

Let's talk about the Sherman kits.  I was worried about monopolizing the whole podcast on a subject most people don't care about so I want to use this blog post to cover some of the minute detail of the Sherman and how the kits relate to it

Firstly, I like the look of the CAD sculpts and hopefully I don't come off as too negative on the pod cast.  These Shermans look pretty sweet and my only complaint with regards to the sculpt, as I discuss on the podcast, is the bow machine gun.  The .30 cal barrel looks a little fat and under-detailed compared to the rest of the kit.  It's something that can easily be fixed courtesy of a bit of pinning and some Skytrex .30 cals but it seems a bit of a slip on the sculptors part.

Bow MG on a British Sherman III

Okay, so lets look at each kit and what it can do straight out of the box and what we can possibly make it do!

M4A1 Sherman II 75mm Dry Hull

The Sherman II made its operational debut with 8th Army in the El Alamein battles.  The Sherman II had a cast hull and a petrol engine.  It was used by the British throughout Africa, into Tunisia and then on to Italy.  The M4A1 saw its debut with the US in Operation Torch and was used throughout the ETO from that point onwards.

(The 'Dry' hull / 'Wet' hull denotes the ammo protection.  The later 'wet' hull adds bigger hatches for escape and water protection around the ammo).

From Plastic Soldier Company

Okay, the PSC kit comes with the 75mm gun.  The 76mm and 105mm gun aren't used with this hull so we can put them in the bits box.  

For doing a Sherman M4A1 in US service from late '43 onwards (so mainland Italy and Normandy) we can take the model straight out of the box. The applique armour started appearing from summer '43.  Strictly there should be two extra plates in front of the driver and co-driver position (you can see them in the bow MG photo above).  They can be added quite easily with a bit of plasticard.  The cast one piece hull could be used for a later production example but the bolted three piece nose is more common early on.  Don't forget to add stowage!

For doing a 1942-early '43 Op Torch era Sherman we're going to need to file the applique armour off.  The appliqué armour was added to the 'dry' hull to add protection in the areas where ammo is stowed and this started to appear in the summer of 1943 as crews realised why they were brewing up (nothing to do with the petrol engine).
I'm thinking a Dremel should do the trick, working from the centre of each plate outwards.  Nose should be the three piece option (as shown on the CAD sculpt) and Sand Shields should be fitted.

The British Shermans are a bit trickier.  For the most part they will look like their US equivalent for the period but the Brits welded a round edged stowage bin onto the rear of the turret.  This is missing from the kit and will require a bit of plasti-card work to replicate.  I plan to do a full squadron of 16 tanks so the dremel and plasticard will be getting some heavy use.

Sherman II in North Africa.  Note stowage bin and lack of appliqué armour

M4A1 Sherman II 76mm Wet Hull

This kit is pretty good out of the box.  It's used by the US mainly but the UK and other commonwealth/free armies (South Africa, Poland) did use them (2nd Armoured Brigade in Italy).  Looking around for photos, it looks like the UK didn't find any need to fit stowage bins.  Nose should be the cast one piece option (no three piece transmission covers where used on the late production).

From Plastic Soldier Company

The 76mm gun should be the only one fitted to this hull and will appear from mid 44 onwards in places like Normandy and then later in Italy (late 44).

M4A1 Sherman IIA (76mm Wet Hull) in UK service.

M4A2 Sherman III 75mm Dry Hull

This version of the Sherman, a diesel powered welded hull, was used by the Lend-Lease forces (UK and USSR) and USMC.  It's also pretty similar in looks to the gasoline powered Sherman I (M4) and Sherman IV (M4A3), differing mostly in the engine deck detail, which gives it more utility for the US players.

From Plastic Soldier Company

The model uses the original 'dry' hull so strictly is only used with a 75mm gun and turret.

This variant made its debut with British forces in North Africa around about El Alamein.  It also appeared in large numbers with the Soviets.

A UK example pre-43 should have the Sand Shields on and the appliqué armour filed off.  It should have a stowage bin on the turret rear.  Late 43 (Italy and Normandy) then the appliqué armour can stay on.  Hopefully the scale will be good enough to allow it to be matched up with a Battlefront Sherman VC for a Normandy troop.

A USSR example should be fairly easy to achieve out of the box.  Factory fitted appliqué armour should be a feature of late-war ones as deliveries were made.  Initial deliveries should be reflected by filing applique armour off.  No Russian commander which is a shame but most Russian players probably have a bag of them spare anyway and they are easily sourced elsewhere. As mentioned, the hull is incorrect for a 76mm armed example, but given the number of tanks a Russian player needs to buy, I'd be inclined to turn a blind eye to that!

Finally, the US ones should follow similar lines to the UK, less stowage bins.  If being used as a stand in for a Sherman I (M4) in Operation Torch then the armour should be filed off.  Otherwise, your good to go.

Conclusion

So, out of the box, these kits are great for doing late 43 onwards example of the Shermans and I really recommend looking into them.  It would have been great if the appliqué armour had been left separate and a stowage box offered as an option but these are all fairly easy things to fix if your so inclined.  The vast majority of players will probably say a 'Sherman is a Sherman' and leave it at that which is fair enough.  But spending a bit of time getting the tank looking right for the period will pay dividends in terms of theming a force.

Now, all I need is some cash to buy three boxes of Sherman II for my desert army and some more plasti card!