AMMO- Zimmerit: The Ultimate Modeling Guide

This new publication from Ammo by Mig is the companion reference book to a new series of tools for creating zimmerit on your models of German Army vehicles from the Second World War.  Or maybe the tools are the companion for this extensive research book about a subject that any modeler or military vehicle enthusiast of WW2 German vehicles will enjoy.  This is a limited edition release from Ammo by Mig.  To be sure, as included in this book, the subject of zimmerit draws much more attention than one would think for a relatively low tech solution to a near non-existent problem.  Ammo by Mig have done an excellent work of researching the background, formulas, and usage of zimmerit along with creating new tools for producing scale versions of the paste on your models.  When I received this box from the AMPS reviews coordinator, I was excited to see that in addition to this beautiful hard cover book, there was a set of 3D printed tools (available in 1/16, 1/35, 1/48, and 1/72 scales), a set of photo etch tools, and a tube of paste designed specifically for creating zimmerit in scale.  This review will focus on the reference book, but I’ll be doing a further review where I use the provided tools on an actual project.  

What was zimmerit?  Read this book if you want to know the full in depth explanation of how it was developed and its formulas, but essentially, it was an anti-magnetic paste that was applied to German armored fighting vehicles (not wheeled or soft skinned tracked vehicles, with a few scarce exceptions) produced from approximately July 1943 to September 1944.  It was meant to combat the usage of magnetic mines by preventing them from sticking to the vehicle.  The issue is, Germany was the only combatant in Europe that was using anti armor magnetic mines at that time so it was an answer to a non-existent problem.  The German military realized that magnetic mines had become obsolete with the development of anti-tank launcher weapons such as the bazooka, PIAT, panzerfaust and panzerschreck, so its usage was discontinued.  

The volume is hard cover and consists of 208 pages printed on quality luster paper in color and black and white.  As someone who appreciates a quality printed book, this one made an impression on me.  I was only able to find a few instances where the proofreader might have done a better job, but overall the text is accurate and well written.  If nothing else, the interested person should buy this book simply for the reference photos.  The volume contains numerous high quality period photos of German vehicles along with color instances of museum vehicles in addition to example photos in the modeling section that help the modeler understand the processes of various zimmerit application types.  The period photos include many that I personally have not seen before and will definitely use in my hobby.  

The chapters are broken into the following:

1. Zimmerit History and Riddles
2. Reference Photos of Real Zimmerit
3. How to Apply Zimmerit
4. Painting Zimmerit
5. Weathering and Dirt Effects on Zimmerit
6. Gallery

Zimmerit History and Riddles goes extensively into the reasons why it was developed, the processes and formulas used, application techniques in real life, and then answers the most common questions about zimmerit.  The authors even took the time to create their own experiment of mixing zimmerit from the most common original formula and applying it to both primed and bare metal.  Including all of this was surprisingly interesting for what could be a mundane read.  Talk about geeking out!

Chapter 2 is all about color photos of real zimmerit and the vehicles that are in museums around Europe.  They are close up and high quality so can be used for other purposes as well.

Our next Chapter gets into the modeling aspects of zimmerit by covering the various types of applications in scale.  Zimmerit adhesives decals, photoetch, resin, and putty by hand are all covered.  Having used several of these on my own projects, I was left thinking I wish I had this book as a reference when I was making those models.

Next is painting zimmerit and this covers the aspects of creating the different variants between field applied and zimmerit applied at the factory, modulation effects, winter camouflage, drybrushing (oh no!), and applying decals over zimmerit which can be a challenge due to the relief of the surfaces.  

Weathering vehicles with zimmerit is covered next.  This completely makes sense as Ammo makes products to weather our vehicles so they’d naturally want to show off their products.  Besides, an AFV needs weathering right?  Washes in particular can be a challenge when weathering a vehicle that has zimmerit and the particulars of various techniques are covered.  

Finally is the gallery with quality photos of projects created by expert modelers that will inspire you to create your own project with zimmerit.

Reading through this book was very easy considering this is a rather minor part of the modeling hobby in the grand scale of things.  But it gathers a lot of attention (and some trepidation) from those who are interested in building these vehicle types.  Hopefully after reading this book, you’ll be inspired to try your own zimmerit.

Highly Recommended for Beginner to Advanced builders.

Thanks goes out to Ammo by Mig for this review sample.

Reviewed by Ron Hoague

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