Zimi Model

[Mossie]

A new name for large models in 1/32, 1/35 and 1/48 scale.  Many of the products look to be Panda Hobby and Kitty Hawk kits, reading about this may be a rebrand to bring several different lines under the same label.
https://www.zimimodel.com

That being said, a few new kits have been announced, a 1/35 ZSU-23-4 M2/M4 Shilka and a 1/35 USN Quad 40mm Bofors (hoping they or Takom do an 8 barrel Pom Pom at some time). There's more new items that may have been announced under Kitty Hawk, including a 1/48 F6U Pirate, F7U Cutlass and SEPECAT Jaguar in French and British single and two seat variants .

[NARSES2]

Interesting. Cheers Mossie 

[Old Wombat]

Some of the aircraft are definitely ex-Kitty Hawk right down to the box art.

Same goes for some of the AFV's being Panda right down to the artwork.


I actually have these kits in Kitty Hawk boxings with this artwork in the stash:





I've built this one:



I have this Panda boxing in the stash:



But they don't have all of either company's product range advertised - nor should they, even if they have them, they have to enter the market, yet.

This image in their "Repair" category may give the game away, slightly;

[Mossie]

Here's their 1/35 quad bofors mount which is now available. I believe this is an original Zimi product.
https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/products/zimi-model-53001-us-navy-40mm-quad-bofors-aa-gun-mount-1-35-model-kit?_kx=NLaxcVFAQCiXilL0ZnruZbE19k1E6gFaTclb98TI-SI.Wn7bvw

The obvious question is what could it be mounted on???

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[Mossie]

Hitler had several personal 88mm flak units mounted on a Vomag bus chassis. Maybe something similar for FDR?

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[jcf]

The USN Quad-mounts were heavy.
Mk. 2 (w/out shields):
23,200 - 23,800 lbs.

Mk. 4 (w/out shields):
22,795 - 24,553 lbs.

The quad was basically two twin mounts on a new base, but the twin is also no lightweight.
Mk. 1 (w/out shields):
9,800 - 13,000 lbs.


All twin and quad-mounts used
water-cooled Mark 1 and Mark 2
guns.

The quad is far to large and heavy
for a standard vehicle of the period, wheels or tracks. You'd need a very large machine, probably a tractor and trailer setup, but any way you go it'd be unwieldy and have very limited mobility. Then, of course there's the issue of the ammo, the generator(s) to supply the current for the gunmount motor, the water pumps for the gun cooling etc.

[Mossie]

Hmm, unweildly and heavy. A prime mover either heavilly modified or specially designed for this purpose.  Big, very expensive, technically challenging and doomed to failure, someone's white elephant of a project. Sounds like a plan. 

[Wardukw]

Any truck with a payload of 12 tons or more would handle those guns without issue ,, there's plenty of large military trucks with payloads of well over 12 tons .,,set it up with say a 8x8 or 10x10 trucks which are dedicated cargo carriers so you'll already have the heavy frame to build off and go from there .. water cooling can be done with pumps which are electric water pumps which again are easy to install and set up ..you can get as technical  with the cooling system as ya want too ..a couple of large truck radiators with electric cooling fans would be a good start with a water tank to further help with cooling the water .. it'd take some work for sure but nothing is impossible when it's thought out .     

[Weaver]

Presumably that weight includes the gun shields, both the moving one on the mounting and the VERY big circular shield (with ammo racks) that bolts to the deck around it. Delete those (they're irrelevent to a land-bsed gun) and you'd save a significant chunk of weight.

The quad mount is still a very wide, unwieldy thing to mount on a vehicle though. Don't forget the 40mm Bofors is a clip-feed, so this thing needs a crew of a dozen, all with somewhere to stand and move, whatever bearing it's rotated to. The diameter of the fixed shield gives you some idea of just how big the platform would have to be if the whole thing was firing from the back of a truck. Since all the fire-control and ammo supply would be off-mount anyway, it's hard to see why you wouldn't just have two twins, on smaller and more manageable platforms, using the same set of support vehicles.

This is Zimi's illustration of the gun fully crewed and firing:




This is a single 40mm mount on a WWII truck. Look how crowded it is. Now you can certainly get a truck with a much greater weight capacity than that one, but you can't make it much wider and still have it be practical on 1944 roads:

[Rheged]

From the point of view of practicality,  two twins would be more use.  You would need more crew, but you'd lose less if/when the opposition strafe the device.................but this is whiffworld  and imaginations are encouraged to run riot.

[jcf]

Presumably that weight includes the gun shields, both the moving one on the mounting and the VERY big circular shield (with ammo racks) that bolts to the deck around it. Delete those (they're irrelevent to a land-bsed gun) and you'd save a significant chunk of weight.

The quad mount is still a very wide, unwieldy thing to mount on a vehicle though. Don't forget the 40mm Bofors is a clip-feed, so this thing needs a crew of a dozen, all with somewhere to stand and move, whatever bearing it's rotated to. The diameter of the fixed shield gives you some idea of just how big the platform would have to be if the whole thing was firing from the back of a truck. Since all the fire-control and ammo supply would be off-mount anyway, it's hard to see why you wouldn't just have two twins, on smaller and more manageable platforms, using the same set of support vehicles.

This is Zimi's illustration of the gun fully crewed and firing:




This is a single 40mm mount on a WWII truck. Look how crowded it is. Now you can certainly get a truck with a much greater weight capacity than that one, but you can't make it much wider and still have it be practical on 1944 roads:

The weights are without the shields.

[jcf]

Any truck with a payload of 12 tons or more would handle those guns without issue ,, there's plenty of large military trucks with payloads of well over 12 tons .,,set it up with say a 8x8 or 10x10 trucks which are dedicated cargo carriers so you'll already have the heavy frame to build off and go from there .. water cooling can be done with pumps which are electric water pumps which again are easy to install and set up ..you can get as technical  with the cooling system as ya want too ..a couple of large truck radiators with electric cooling fans would be a good start with a water tank to further help with cooling the water .. it'd take some work for sure but nothing is impossible when it's thought out .   

The cooling system was an open total loss system, trying to do that with a closed system of water pumps, radiators and cooling fans would be very challenging, to say the least, because it wouldn't take long until you were just continually circulating hot water, even with a tank. Water to air heat exchangers are not very efficient. Which doesn't matter in a car or truck but matters very much in regards to cooling a quick-firing gun.

Sure there are trucks that can carry that kind of weight, but it's rarely concentrated in one area
that small in relation to the vehicle length, it's spread out the length of the trailer/body. Vehicles
that do carry concentrated, heavy loads are designed for the purpose and don't exactly shine in
terms of manueverability or off-road capabilities. You can forget rapid response or firing on the
move. 

[jcf]

Hmm, unweildly and heavy. A prime mover either heavilly modified or specially designed for this purpose.  Big, very expensive, technically challenging and doomed to failure, someone's white elephant of a project. Sounds like a plan. 

Designed and built by The Research Foundation of the Armour Institute of Technology,
the folks who brought you that miracle of technology the Antarctic Snow Cruiser.

[Weaver]

The weights are without the shields.

Oops - didn't notice that. 

Is it without BOTH the shields or just without the big static round one?

[Mossie]

Hmm, unweildly and heavy. A prime mover either heavilly modified or specially designed for this purpose.  Big, very expensive, technically challenging and doomed to failure, someone's white elephant of a project. Sounds like a plan. 

Designed and built by The Research Foundation of the Armour Institute of Technology,
the folks who brought you that miracle of technology the Antarctic Snow Cruiser.

Knew you'd be thinking of that one. 

The bad idea GB was along these lines, but sometimes when we're all thinking of whiff ideas there's a tendency to make them all singing & dancing. Spectacular failures make for very interstellar projects.