Panther Zimmerit Design Question

...the vertical-ridged zimm was typical of those Panthers produced at the MAN factories (Sometimes this pattern was cross-hatched as well); the flat-scored type was typical of cats produced at the Damlier-Benz plants...horizontally-ridged patterns were seen but according to my refs these were rare...

...don't even get me started on field-applied patterns

Byrne0ut wrote:

so your saying i should go vertical zimm with it..

If you want to do ridge, I would...or you can go with the flat, cross-hatched...the horizontal, IMO, would not be a good choice... 

I've got 2 pictures of a Panther hull on the assembly line, not sure which factory though. The zimmerit is freshly applied and not painted yet.

Note the difference in the pattern between the repaired patch in the middle and the rest of the front.

TMN1 wrote:

I've got 2 pictures of a Panther hull on the assembly line, not sure which factory though. The zimmerit is freshly applied and not painted yet. Note the difference in the pattern between the repaired patch in the middle and the rest of the front.

...that lighter patch of zimm is not a repair, but rather where a set of metal steps laid on the front hull during most of the assembly process for easy walking access...probably the zimm was applied around it and after all but that area was done, the steps were removed and the area filled in where they rested...it is probably still wet and that is why it is a different color...often it was blow-torched to decrease drying time...

Mansteins revenge wrote:

TMN1 wrote: I've got 2 pictures of a Panther hull on the assembly line, not sure which factory though. The zimmerit is freshly applied and not painted yet. Note the difference in the pattern between the repaired patch in the middle and the rest of the front.     That pattern is the scored/cross-hatched vertical ridged pattern...sometimes the scoring was done in a diagonal pattern... ...that lighter patch of zimm is not a repair, but rather where a set of metal steps laid on the front hull during most of the assembly process for easy walking access...probably the zimm was applied around it and after all but that area was done, the steps were removed and the area filled in where they rested...it is probably still wet and that is why it is a different color...often it was blow-torched to decrease drying time...

Manny, thanks for the tidbit on the differences betwen factory finishes, I never knew that. What did they use to make the patterns? Did they have something like an enlarged version of the Tamiya zimm tool?

Manny, do you care to tell us what field applied zimm is made of??

Erik