Zimmerit: Is it worth the trouble?

Sgt. Stryker · Post by **Sgt. Stryker** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:53 pm

From late Dec. 1943 to early Sept. 1944 the Germans pasted zimmerit on all of their production medium and heavy tanks. I imagine many panzers that were already built and close to German borders were also retrofitted with zimmerit.
During that 9 month run, the Allies landed at Anzio, captured Rome, then landed at Normandy, and proceed to entrap the bulk of German forces in the Falaise pocket. This constitutes a critical period of WWII.
The question is, does it matter to most enthusiasts if the models of German panzers do not include zimmerit, when historically the tanks would have the coating?
Zimmerit does significantly alter the look of a tank, and there are over a dozen patterns to choose from.
I think the Dragon 1:72 zimmerit looks well done and very realistic. However the pattern seems to be the same on all vehicles, and at that small scale, I prefer the model to be die-cast (i.e. CDC), not plastic.
The FOV 1:32 zimmerit looks ugly, and again, the pattern for every type of tank is the same, whether its Tiger II Nomandy 1944 or Tiger II Germany 1945.
Minichamps 1:35 is probally the ultimate in armor die-cast, and they will never model zimmerit coating, which makes all 4 of the Jagdpanthers series inaccurate.

hworth18 · Post by **hworth18** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:28 pm

IMHO, it matters to me if a tank had zimmerit, it should be produced with zimmerit.. Nothing bugs me more than to see a zimmerit-less Late Tiger I..

And if you look at Dragons upcoming issues, the Jagdpanthers have cross-line-style zimmerit pattern, not like the rest..

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:41 pm

It doesn't really bother me, simply as accuate looking zimmermit would be difficult to produce and where it has been (say your FOV example) it can indeed look bad. In this photo I took of an actual Jadpanther at the Imperial War Museum, London, you can make out how small and delicate the Zimmermit pattern is - so imagine trying to replicate it on a 1:32, 1:72 or even 1:18 tank! I would rather the tank surface be left smooth than to have a botched attempt that messes up the accurate texture:

... but then I'm not a stickler for complete accuracy. As long as the general features of the vehicle - the right shape, hatches, protrusions, stowage, armament, and paintjob - are on the tank then I am happy.