The 'Aves apoxy' was once more spread upon the roughened/sanded hull plates (Glacis, and hull side plates) with an artists palette knife, after pushing 'pea sized' lumps of the putty into the area you are pasting, to a depth of ideally 5-7mm. I have found that wetting the surface slightly aids the final smoothing process (you can leave the spread epoxy putty to cure for half an hour or so, thus aiding it's adhesion to the styrene, and removing some of it's 'softness' that will not aid the pattern being applied!), prior to the imprinting of the smaller ridges with the 'Lion Roar Zimmerit tool'. Take you time on this as, the pattern is generally uniform, with some narrower vertical columns where an obstacle has been encountered, or a correction in the angle slightly, to keep the rows fairly straight to the vertical aspects.
1: Pea sized lumps of putty applied.
2: Roughly applied with thumb and fingers!
3: Smoothed with Spatula/Palette knife.
4: Zimmerit applied with 'Lion Roar Tool'
Now the Glacis plate upon a lot of 'Royal Tigers' had these curious vertical 'tramlines' running down the plate, sometimes a couple and and occasionally four. It has been suggested that this was because of the need for ladders, so that the 'staff' could reach all of the Glacis Plate, when applying the Zimmerit. I am not altogether convinced on this, surely the fitting platforms and gantries could have been used, perhaps? But the one thing that leads my train of thought away from this view, is the actual pattern itself. When you look closely at this 'occurrence' on quite a few Konigstiger, you will see that the 'rolled' pattern of ridges have been 'dissected' with the applied vertical lines, and matches laterally to itself, and neighbouring columns. Rather than being re-applied over any 'missing' or flattened areas... Though in theory a ladder could have been used, if it was fitted with 'stand off' plates or vanes, that disrupted the pattern with minimal effect... But! When you look at the 'KT's' with four of these 'tramlines' they are seldom very regular in their placement... Different sized ladders maybe?(perhaps that is just an illusion or my 'tired' old eyes?) Or 'channels' to aid 'dispersion' of 'atmospherics' such as rain and melting snow, that could undermine any damage to the pattern, causing it to come away in huge chunks, (as can be seen on many Tiger 1's stationed on the 'Ostfront') aiding a field re-application, within a smaller area? ...Well whatever they are, you can apply them by 'cutting' into the cured Zimmerit pattern with a blade, or impress them into the wet putty, if you did not forget to do so... Unlike myself!
Once again study the pattern of the vehicle you are aiming to represent, and with a little time,practice and patience, I can guarantee you will get the look and feel that you desire. Think logically how the 'worker' when applying the Zimmerit in the factories, would have got around, obstacles etc... As I don't believe quality control were all that bothered with the aesthetics of the finished pattern, as long as it met the order for it's application.
Well I had best get cracking on with the final pattern to be applied. This 'spatula' applied pattern was fount upon the Mantlet, the majority of the Rear Hull Plate, Kugelblende, and the Turret's Rear Plate, and Hatch!
Thanks... Phil.
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