Daniel;
No stupid questions here! I posted in the AF forum last night and felt totally out of place, so I know where you're coming from.
As monrad said, zimmerit was an anti magnetic paste. It was trowled on to the tanks for a few years to prevent Russian infantry from attaching magnetic mines to the vertical sides of the tank. I've read that it was discontinued because the crews reported that it caught fire, but this was unsubstanciated.
I think what you were refering to as "panzerfaust" may be shurzen. These were thin metal plates attached to the outside of some tanks. Some were big squarish plates that covered the wheels, others were long and wrapped around the turret. Their purpose in life was to take the initial impact of a shell and explode it a short distance from the tank surface. Thereby disapating the charge before the round got up against the main armor where the force of the explosion could penetrate the hull.
Tamiya makes some terrific kits. Probably the best fitting and easiest to build. Comparable to their aircraft kits. However, they also still sell some that were designed bace in the 70's. These are their cheeper ($20 and less) kits, for the most part, and usually have some fit and accuracy problems. Still, they can make for a nice build. The PzII in my sig below is one of them (under $10, in fact) but it wasn't built oob, either. It was my first armor kit in many years and my first attempt to put am detail on anything. Their Tigers and Panther G kits (not the Panther A) are all terrific kits. If you like Allied armor, their Shermans and T34s are supposed to be great, too.
Dragon makes a lot of super kits. Most of my stable of unbuilt kits are from Dragon. They are very well detailed, fairly accurate, and less expensive than a comparable Tamiya kit. Down sides are that they can have a few fit problems, their instruction sheets often have errors in them, and they have independent link tracks. This can be good or bad, depending on if you're willing to deal with them. (I love them, for the most part, myself). But for your first armor kit, I wouldn't recommend them.
Academy has some fairly nice kits out as well as some dogs. Their Tigers and M3's with interior are pretty nice builds, from all reports. They have a new series of kits, M36 Jackson, Russian Sherman, and duckbill to name just a few, that are supposed to be good, too. Their prices are pretty reasonable for what you get. Many of their kits include both one piece (rubber band) tracks and independent link tracks. That way, you can try the indies and if you don't like them or they turn out bad, you can go with the rubber band tracks. You'd be best off to ask about a specific kit you're interested in here on the forum and let the guys tell you about it.
AFV Club makes some nice stuff you might not find elsewhere. They are priced kind of between Dragon and Tamiya.
Lastly (not that their aren't a bunch of other manufactures, especially from the Russia, etc.), Trumpeter has quite a bit out there. They are releasing more all the time. And, just like in aircraft, are starting to release some large scale stuff (in armor, read that as 1/16!). I've only gotten one of their 1/35 scale kits of an M1A2 Abrams and don't care for it much. The plastic seems to be kind of brittle and there is a lot more seam cleanup than I'm used to with either Dragon or Tamiya. Not flash, just parting seams, but it seems excessive to me. I've heard the same comment from others here on the forum.
This has been kind of wordy, but I hope it helps. Please feel free to add to any posts and ask any questions. We're all here to help! Welcome to the dark side.