Already posted this in another thread, but I thought it deserved it's own thread:
Unfortunately, my U-2C has fallen by the wayside, to be superseded by my inexplicable fascination for German armor; I have recently undertaken a Trumpeter 1/35th-scale E-100 Super Heavy Tank (excellent model!), a Testors (nee: Italeri) Leopard IA4 (yes, the '80's version), AND a DML German Super Tank Maus.
The E-100 is fascinating; without going into too much detail, towards the end of the War, the German armaments industry proposed standardizing tank production into three classes: the E-50 series (essentially, light tanks), the E-75 series (medium tanks), and the E-100 series (heavy, or "super", tanks). The only series that got anywhere was the E-100; by the end of the War, an E-100 chassis had actually been assembled, minus the suspension and the turret. The British captured the chassis at Paderborn, along with the meter-wide tracks it would've used. The original plan was to mount the 'Maus' turret (12.8cm main gun, 75cm coaxial gun) on the E-100 chassis, but the factory was overrun before that could happen. IMO, the 'Maus' turret would've been too heavy for the E-100 chassis anyway; all up, the 'Maus' turret, by itself, weighed more than a standard PzKpfw IV. However, there were a couple of alternative E-100 turrets on the drawing board in 1945, both of which weighed less than the 'Maus' turret. One turret, which is the subject of the Trumpeter kit, was basically a scaled-up Tiger II turret, with a 12.8 cm gun (the KwK 44 L/55) in place of the 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71; this version would've been known as the Ausfuhrung L (versus Ausfuhrung S for the Maus-turreted version). If the German armaments industry HAD survived until 1946, I have no doubt that it would've been a very formidable tank. In any case, here is what the Trumpeter kit I am currently building looked like BEFORE I started in on it:
It is an excellent kit, and Trumpeter has come a long ways in a short time towards satisfying some of us modelers with interesting and different kits; the E-100 is no exception.
I had originally had some problem nailing down the "official" German RAL (in German: Reichsausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherung) colors for this tank; there has been a lot of debate and discussion over the years as to what are the "correct" German WWII RAL colors. The bottom line is, there is no "correct" interpretation of German wartime colors; they varied considerably from theater to theater, and even from year to year. First of all, I DON'T have an airbrush (yes, you read that correctly), so I'm fairly limited as to which colors I can spray on; in this case, after reading all of the available information, I settled on using Testors Model Master Medium Green, FS 34102. The "official" color is Olivegrun, which roughly equates to FS 34094, but the closest match is Medium Green (Dark Green, FS 34079, is too dark). In any case, there was considerable variation in the field anyway and, besides, we're talking about a tank that didn't really exist, so I'd say we're within reason here.
I will attempt to post some "in progress" pictures as soon as possible, for all three Panzers, but don't hold your breath!
P.S. To make things even more complicated, I'm also in the process of rebuilding a Konigstiger (King Tiger) I built about 25 years ago. Keep you posted!
Unfortunately, my U-2C has fallen by the wayside, to be superseded by my inexplicable fascination for German armor; I have recently undertaken a Trumpeter 1/35th-scale E-100 Super Heavy Tank (excellent model!), a Testors (nee: Italeri) Leopard IA4 (yes, the '80's version), AND a DML German Super Tank Maus.
The E-100 is fascinating; without going into too much detail, towards the end of the War, the German armaments industry proposed standardizing tank production into three classes: the E-50 series (essentially, light tanks), the E-75 series (medium tanks), and the E-100 series (heavy, or "super", tanks). The only series that got anywhere was the E-100; by the end of the War, an E-100 chassis had actually been assembled, minus the suspension and the turret. The British captured the chassis at Paderborn, along with the meter-wide tracks it would've used. The original plan was to mount the 'Maus' turret (12.8cm main gun, 75cm coaxial gun) on the E-100 chassis, but the factory was overrun before that could happen. IMO, the 'Maus' turret would've been too heavy for the E-100 chassis anyway; all up, the 'Maus' turret, by itself, weighed more than a standard PzKpfw IV. However, there were a couple of alternative E-100 turrets on the drawing board in 1945, both of which weighed less than the 'Maus' turret. One turret, which is the subject of the Trumpeter kit, was basically a scaled-up Tiger II turret, with a 12.8 cm gun (the KwK 44 L/55) in place of the 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71; this version would've been known as the Ausfuhrung L (versus Ausfuhrung S for the Maus-turreted version). If the German armaments industry HAD survived until 1946, I have no doubt that it would've been a very formidable tank. In any case, here is what the Trumpeter kit I am currently building looked like BEFORE I started in on it:
It is an excellent kit, and Trumpeter has come a long ways in a short time towards satisfying some of us modelers with interesting and different kits; the E-100 is no exception.
I had originally had some problem nailing down the "official" German RAL (in German: Reichsausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherung) colors for this tank; there has been a lot of debate and discussion over the years as to what are the "correct" German WWII RAL colors. The bottom line is, there is no "correct" interpretation of German wartime colors; they varied considerably from theater to theater, and even from year to year. First of all, I DON'T have an airbrush (yes, you read that correctly), so I'm fairly limited as to which colors I can spray on; in this case, after reading all of the available information, I settled on using Testors Model Master Medium Green, FS 34102. The "official" color is Olivegrun, which roughly equates to FS 34094, but the closest match is Medium Green (Dark Green, FS 34079, is too dark). In any case, there was considerable variation in the field anyway and, besides, we're talking about a tank that didn't really exist, so I'd say we're within reason here.
I will attempt to post some "in progress" pictures as soon as possible, for all three Panzers, but don't hold your breath!
P.S. To make things even more complicated, I'm also in the process of rebuilding a Konigstiger (King Tiger) I built about 25 years ago. Keep you posted!
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