Hi friends, Dragon is a piece of s… for me after this!!!. I´m really pissed of with Dragon and I promise miself never buy anything else from them. It´s a crappy brand.
I´m opening this thread because I´m suffering this terrible kit. And the incredible part is that I´ve read nice comment in this forum about it.
The zimmeritz is completely innacurate as is applyed in areas without it, like the front casemate!
I´ve checked 2 books about the elephant and many photos over the internet and there is no zimmerit in the front part of the casemate like the kit has. Even you can check the picture in the box and comes without zimmerit in that part!!! So this is a real scam. This is not a little mistake, this is something that makes you step on your model because is unnaceptable!!! Incredible!!
There are few tanks that has a small “triangle” of zimmerit in that part but some af them don´t have any, and the kit comes with zimmerit at the same high on all of the 4 sides of the casemate.
Could anoyone please give some light about this issue? Maybe there is some elephants with zimerrit in that part but I really doubt it as I´ve checked many publications and all the photos at my reach over the internet.
I´ve added a photo of the model and two of the real model
Your Dragon Elephant is looking very nice and seems to be coming along well. It’s unfortunate the kit proved disappointing is some aspects.
The Dragon Elephant was originally released in 2000 and was an overall nice kit for its era. There about eight variations of the kit. Which one do you have?
Dragon updated and upgraded with new parts several times over the last ~23 years. Some degree of inaccuracy goes without saying for kits of that era. Most folks won’t notice the inaccuracy with rhe Zimmerit. If the kit Zimmerit really bothers you, maybe the coated areas that shouldn’t be coated can be sanded flat or filled and then sanded flat.
BTW - I’m definitely not a Dragon fan boy by any stretch of the imagination. For what its worth, when folks say an older kit from ~2005 roughly is a good kit, they usually mean it went together with few or no issues. I wouldn’t take that to automatically imply the kit is detail accurate or won’t require improvements to be detail accurate.
The early kit had no Zimmerit; you had to make your own although I used the Eduard set for the Dragon kit which fit okay for the most part.
The Zimmerit is on the casemate front for that set as well. It comes down at an angle to meet the bottom edge but does not continue across to meet the Zimmerit on the other side. I believe it is applied to just enough of the front where someone on foot could reach.
If you look at the front of this Elefant you can see what I think Dragon is duplicating; like the Zimmerit was a long sheet they slapped on the side and then folded the ends over the corners.
ADDED: Weird that they decided to later extend it. I have not looked at any of the kits that had the Zimmerit added on so I wondered when this error came into play?
Just looked and I see only one and that was released in 2009; I can see it going full across in the box art, which is not the original. I also see in the Armorama review of the kit that the venerable Bill Cross did not notice the error in the Zimmerit. He gave the kit a 90%.
Because I was just building the kit without specting such a huge error. I may expect vertical instead of horizontal zimmerit or similar small miskaes, but not this.
You can´t expect something done on purpose and added to the kit as a brand new feature is such a mistake.
I mainly start to check the photos close to the painting where I want to be accurate with the markings and sizes of the color areas
As I´m not able to detach the casemate now this model is over, I don´t know what to do. But a villain has born, I´m going to spread hate over Dragon everywhere hehehehe
Afraid you never convince me; I’ve built 38 of their kits so far and have another 89 to go plus 4 of their aircraft. Hell, I’m building the Bf109-E4 kit now which is considered one of the best E4’s on the market.
Dragon gets a bad rep, more so than any other kit maker, and I often think undeserved. Is that zimmerit an error, sure. Is it a deal breaker?! Absolutely not. As stated it could have been sanded off earlier and the rolled armor texture remade.
Dragon kits are complicated and fiddly and the instructions can be a bit confusing, but they are often very detailed, have nice features, and build up well! They also offer the best in class for many subjects like the SdKfz 7/1
That was a poor design decision and not a reflection of the kits overall. Replace the tracks if you weren’t fortunate to get a version that had Magic Tracks; I use RFM’s PZ III/IV workable tracks to replace the DS. They are cheaper than the tracks made by most other companies.
Again, many people replace kit tracks with metal or resin/3D ones so harping on DS is a non-argument when discussing the merits of the kit in other respects. Likewise with the instructions as I have found bad instructions from numerous manufacturers besides Dragon.
Dragon has a lot of vehicles other manufacturers have still not tackled so your loss if you refuse to build them.
This is a big factor to me. Dragon does a lot of vehicles, especially German, that either no one has tackled, or dragon is still the best game in town.
Having built 30+ Dragon kits, I would be very reluctant to ever use the word best with a Dragon designed and manufactured kit. Dragon usually screws up something like the instructions etc. Nearly all of which can be worked around with diligence. However, Dragon does provide a lot of excellent subject matter and their kits have a lot of excellent features and points going for them especially ~2005 and newer.
If that Elephant was mine, I’d finish the model. Detail accuracy is greatly over blown regarding what makes a good model in my opinion. Quality basic construction is what really matters. Your model looks sharp in the picture.
Dragon’s #6001 Nashorn (1992) is a total pile. The kit was such an epic goof up in basic dimensions and details that the owner of Dragon fired the designer/draftsman. Dragon totally redesigned the kit for the later releases. So despite goofing up Dragon does make an effort to provide a quality product to modelers.
When I built the goof ball #6001 Nashorn - it still looks like a Nashorn even with the multitude of errors. In about a dozen model contests, all of which my #6001 Nashorn placed and won trophies, not a single person or judge ever seemed to notice the designed in inaccuracy or errors. Great Details are nice but I wouldn’t totally write off a proven manufacturer like Dragon over a few errors. Trying to say, don’t write Dragon off as a manufacturer if you like the subject matter. They do many very good to excellent kits. I would read several reviews before purchasing a given Dragon kit if I was unfamiliar with it in most cases.
So again, I’d finish that sweet looking Elephant of your!
I agree with what’s been said about Dragon, fallible but still provided us with a correctable excellent range of kits.
I also agree this Elefant is salvageable – take off the brass guttering and sand it flat. Ridiculous the front plate needed zim in the first place, it was so thick anyway.
I guess it must also be said, a lesson to learn - always do thorough research before starting the build…
