Truly distressing!

Hello again friends!

I have managed to get a smidgin' of time working on the slowly deteriorating '211' Doppelganger. I have added some more weld seams and 'tag' joints, by using some bright coloured stretched sprue, softened with Tamiya Extra Thin, and given a rippled and pitted relief to represent the texture of the welding. You will notice that I have also added some 'sprue' welding joints to the spare track clamps lower lugs. This is because the area is devoid of any Zimmerit due to the fire, and it will give the possibility of adding a very bright silver weld to mix of the melted paint, charred Zimmerit and heated, rusted armour plate.

One shadowy area of Zimmerit that I have not pasted onto the Tiger yet is the Bow Glacis Apron! "BGA"? I hear you say, well do you know that unlabelled piece of plate that adjoins the Bow plate, and the Glacis plate, that also forms the roof for the transmission? ... That's the BGA, or for want of an 'official term' what I call it.

One major headache for modellers wanting to depict a Tiger 1 during it's production period that was 'covered' by Zimmerit application... Is to paste this area or not! Take a look at this collage of images that appear to show Zimmerit in place, or give a clear indication of an application of the ridged pattern. I personally believe that on the majority of Mid and Late Tiger 1's, that Zimmerit was applied here, and one of the main reasons that it can be difficult to observe, is due to the levels of overhead saturated light that would create difficulties in a period image being clear enough to discern whether, or whether not Zimmerit was applied. Allied also with acculmulated dirt and dust, and the passage of the crew over the easiest mounting point of the Tiger 1. 

Tricky eh? For this area I have experimented with a few various mediums and methods of applying the ridges. For this particular Tiger, I have dabbled with using good old 'Mr Surfacer' the modern wonder of the Armour Modelling world.
 I used the 1000' grade Mr Surfacer in a couple of coats that were 'flow' applied with a medium flat brush. This was then left to cure, for around ten-fifteen minutes, before the pattern of the smaller ridges with the indomitable Lion Roar Zimmerit Applicator tool. Surprisingly at no point did the Mr Surfacer stick to the rollers die. And in my opinion looks to be a fair representation of the Zimmerit on this much queried area of the Tiger.

So that is where we are up to on this dishevelled Tiger, the next logical step is to add the impact hits on the Mantlet and Glacis, along with the remnants of external fittings to the hull and turret.

 Thank you for taking the time to visit... Back real soon. Cheers Phil.