Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
Thank you my friend. I have been working on the Zimmeritt again today, and have covered more of the surface with it. Please take a look at my latest update.

It's coming right up.
Thanks again.

Today was spent at a few doctor office visits. Once the misses and I got back home, I disappeared in my hobby room, and mentally went to another time zone and distant far away land. While this happened, I was applying Zimmeritt on the Panther and watching the Military History Channel.

Here is what I got done.

I mixed up some Milliput and applied it on the left rear side sponson on the Panther. I rolled out the putty and got it as smooth as I could. I rolled on the pattern and added the vertical lines.
Then I let it sit for about 45 minutes.

While this was happening, I had enough leftover Milliput mixed up, so I rolled it onto one side of the turret.

The same procedure was done here. Roll the pattern on, then come back and add the vertical lines. Since I thought there were no holes or parts that would be attached here soon, it was easy to cover the entire side of the turret.

The instructions didn't mention anything, and there were no marks indicating that a part would eventually be glued in place on the sides of the turret.

Then I came back once more with the Zimmeritt pattern roller and went over the turret again. This helps to hide the vertical lines somewhat, and makes it look more like the real pattern does.

It was time to work on the back of the tank... this is where I wished this tank model had the Zimmeritt molded onto the plastic parts like some of the newer kits do... This was not going to be fun with all of the different cut out features that I had to avoid covering .

So I quit whining to myself mentally and got busy. Get to work Gardner ! No time for belly aching...get it in gear !
MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT ! That's what Dad would have said in his full on Drill Sergeant mode.

So I did. This is what I ended up with. I was pretty happy with myself afterwards.

Remember the small round engine access cover that has the tow pintle on it ? I had covered it a day or so ago.

Here it is. I purposefully changed the angle of the Zimmeritt pattern to make it stand out some. I think it looks pretty cool like this.


The engine access hatch was permanently glued in place. This is what the back half of the Panther looks like now. It's almost ready for the exhaust. Sweet !

By now the Milliput had dried enough to where I could remove the tape that was covered by the MIlliput on the left rear of the hull. I had taken measurements and photos of where the tape was exactly before covering it up. This time it worked like a charm... I got lucky and was spot on when I started cutting the putty. The tape came right off and we have the proper place for the tool mount bracket.

It's really starting to look cool. I really like Zimmeritt on the German tanks, and there are 9 or so different patterns to choose from. But you need to see what type of pattern was used on the tank you are building. This stuff was only used for two or so years, so that's something else you need to check on before you start applying it on your tank model.

The next step was to add the Zimmeritt on the front slope. I think it turned out pretty darn good here.

This is what it looked like before. What a huge improvement. This stuff is contagious. The more you do, the more you want to do... Maybe a better word would be addicting. Yes, the Surgeon General has determined that adding Zimmeritt to your WW2 German armor model is addicting, and can lead to purchasing more models, less room in your house, less money in your wallet, and if your wife is not in agreement with this, it can also cause marital problems, causing the one who is addicted to sleep on the couch... while the dog is taking your place in your former bed.

I am SO happy that my wife is understanding with this... seriously she really is. Those of you who have visited my house know this. She's a sweet heart, 1 in a million.

She must really love me or something. I don't know why, but she does and she puts up with a storage rack full of unbuilt 1/35 scale models in my hobby room. Oh yeah, I have another one coming soon. It's a 1/35 scale WW1 British Mk IV 'Male" tank. It's going to be a part of our soon to be upcoming "Great War" group build that will be starting in about three weeks, and lasting for over four, (yes I said four) years, following the exact dates of the WW1 war, only 110 years later.

Like I didn't already have enough kits cluttering up the house. I really did need this WW1 tank model. 😉
Like I need another hole in my head. OK I really Wanted this kit. That's better.

Enough gibberish, let's get back to the model shall we ?

Like before, I had some excess putty left over. So I added it to the other side of the turret. The modelling Gods must have been on my side today, because I had exactly enough to cover the other side of the turret... and guess what ?

Now the turret is done ! Yeah buddy ! OK lets get this guy away from the fumes...

Seriously though, now the turret is done.

Here is a good view showing both sides are covered.


Toying around, I placed the turret on the hull. It will come off again tomorrow.

This is what the Panther looks like right now.

As usual, comments are encouraged. Thank you for stopping by. and stay tuned for a future installment... probably tomorrow sometime.

Take care everyone. Good night.

Impressive work done, Louis @lgardner
I'm glad to hear that you can clear your mind entirely when entering your hobby room and fully focus on the build.

Here is what I got done yesterday. The Zimmeritt is now done. I managed to add it to everywhere it was done on the real tank. I actually had a lot of fun doing this, and can see myself doing this again soon, maybe with a Stug using a waffle pattern...

Meanwhile, here are some pictures that show what was done.

I started out by scratching some fairly deep lines into the plastic. This was done to help with adhesion of the Zimmeritt.

The putty was applied in a thin coat. I found out that using water on my fingers was the best method to smear it out to where it needed to be.

Then it was simply a matter of rolling the pattern onto the putty. In a short time, this is what I had accomplished.


This is a set of pictures showing the overall look of the driver side of the hull.

This shows the same driver side, but from a higher angle. It shows the Zimmeritt pattern on the side armor and upper front slope nicely.

This photo shows the same thing, but from the other side.




These pictures show the Zimmeritt from the side. I am very pleased with how this turned out.

Here we have the completed front slope. You can see both the upper and lower sections and how the pattern was applied to both areas.

This shows the rear of the hull. The exhaust mufflers will be glued to the areas where the putty was not applied. I have marked the locations.

This shows some of the turret parts. Here you can see the rear turret wall and also the loader's hatch.


These pictures show all of the parts that were covered with the Zimmeritt, and have now dried.

Once I post these photos showing the final Zimmeritt applications, I will start actually building the rest of the tank model. I will have to paint some things as the build progresses.

This shows us where the tank is now as the build progresses.

As always, comments are encouraged.

Thanks for stopping by.

Awesome looks, my friend @lgardner!

Here is what I have managed to get done with this Panther project last night and earlier today.

The road wheel arms were glued in place. The fit was spot on. Just to be safe I didn’t glue anything permanently until I had all of them in position and I was able to see that they were all level / even with the surface of the ground.

I have a few other Panther tank kits that have an articulated suspension that allows us to build the model as if it was posed on terrain that was uneven and bumpy.

I wanted mine to be flat / smooth / level. This is why I waited until I had all of the road wheel arms in place and could check it out before I applied the glue.

Once this was finished I started working on the road wheels.

Then I cut the road wheels from the plastic trees

and I assembled the middle sets.

The inner road wheels were prepped for painting by cleaning up the attachment points.

The outer road wheels received the same treatment.

I assembled the idler wheels, and the front sprockets. There’s a small wheel that is mounted on the final drive and is located just inboard the sprocket and close to the hull.

This wheel was deleted on a later version that was being built by what I think was the MNH factory. Going from my memory here so please don’t send me any death threats if I am not correct.

I do know that this was a late war attempt to speed up the production and that it was not done at all of the factories that built the Panther.

In place of the small idler wheel they used a steel shoe in its place. It was designed to make the track align with the sprocket when it was moving.

I glued the rear mufflers in place next. The Cologne Panther had a triple exhaust pipe system that was mounted on the left side in place of the single exhaust.

The parts were allowed to dry overnight. This morning I started the painting.

All of the road wheels are painted. The sprockets were done at the same time as were the idler wheels.

This photo shows the small details that were molded into the late design 24 bolt road wheels.

I have a resilient steel wheel Panther coming down the pipeline in the very near future. It will have the circular disc camouflage pattern on it too. This is also a tank that I have been wanting to make for many years.
Chuck A. Villanueva (@uscusn)
Thankfully Chuck Villanueva was kind enough to send me a set of decals to build up one of these circular disc Panthers.

Thanks again Chuck !

As a bonus the decals he sent me have a set of markings for a late war Jagdpanzer IV Lang that also use the circular disc pattern on it.

It just so happens that I have a very nice 1/35 Tamiya kit and a set of Uschi Van der Rosen circular disc pattern masks in the stash.

So please look for them to make an appearance hopefully soon.

The underside was painted

As was the rear of the hull and the exhaust system.

The front slope was also painted.

This last photo shows how everything looks as it is drying.

I’m super excited about how this is going.

As always comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe everyone.

Super progress and awesome looks so far, my friend @lgardner!