E-50 M - Finished

[Ballardian]

 This is obviously a good time for those waiting for paper panzers, what with JTFM, Company B & Heer 46 all beginning to flesh out the range available & once again, many thanks to Brent at Commpany B for this particular monster.
 I'm going to go with partial skirts, a couple of panels a side & the plastic tube gun barrel is a placeholder while waiting for a Gaso.Line tuned metal one to arrive (I don't plan on slapping any paint on before then).
 As ever, all sage advice & (printable) opinion welcome


  

[rabenga]

Wow!  Good start!  How does it compare with the drawings in panzer tracts?

[Agis]

Looks good so far!

[Wyrmalla]

Ah, I see what you mean about the detailing. ...Much more effort than what I bothered with.

I take it you're leaving off painting it till the other bits show up? Just the barrel? What about spare tracks, or is waiting on Tamiya too much of a headache (I'm going on 4 weeks FYI ...I think the spares are coming from Japan)?

Have a scheme for it? ...I'm assuming some sort of Autumn one. Everyone paints their E-50s in Autumn schemes.

Wow!  Good start!  How does it compare with the drawings in panzer tracts?

Presumably not at all. This is a World of Tanks fictional variant of the E-50. The wiki page over on that site pretty much says all the changes are complete nonsense.

[Ballardian]

Cheers Wymalla & Agis, I'm enjoying this working on this model - there's so much speculation surrounding E-series vehicles that you're fairly free to pillage what you think looks good from across German tank design - & no one can say "it wasn't so" Yes, the paint'll have to wait till the barrel shows up - I imagine I'll have to drill out the mantlet a bit to fix it in (so maybe I'll start on the hull). I'm still undecided about track links, I might just leave them off for the moment (& pick up the plastic WG Tiger II & use the spares from that when they release it).
 I quite fancy another 'christmas tree' scheme for it, similar to the one I put on the Maus, but with larger 'daggers' of Dunkelgelb & Schokobraun . The detailing got a bit out of hand, the sort of coffee fueled into the early hours trip where you suddenly see the time & realize its not really worth going to bed. Scribing panel lines into the deck & turret roof was where I called an end to it - after having a heated argument with myself as to whether the large panel around the forward hatches found in later German tanks should be represented, given that it was for access to the final drive for the transmission that sits between driver & bow gunner in front drive vehicles - in a vehicle where it's situated at the back  - sanity returned & I went with no.
 Rabenga - as to it's accuracy... both Doyle & (the now sadly departed Jentz) deserve huge respect as historians of armoured vehicles, but I can't help but feel that, with regards to the E-series they're as in the dark as the rest of us (except they've got a torch). The E-50 has tended to be represented as essentially a 'simplified' (god knows in what way) Tiger II - the dimensions shown as almost identical, but for the greater rake on the glacis. The sponson sections of the hull are, like a Tiger II, deeper the further back you go in Panzertracts (& the Trumpeter model for instance) - but in the only E-series actually built, (the 100) the sponsons are the same depth all the way along - like Brent's (& the WoT) model. This doesn't necessarily get us anywhere, as I said at the beginning, because of the contradictory nature of the source materials - front drive, rear drive, schmalturm, turret with a bustle & a czech-designed auto-rammer, they are, as far as I'm concerned, all fair game for gaming  

[CompanyB]

Nice!

FYI, I just finished a German tool set last week and expected prints to arrive this week.  It will be available as a German accessory set, and be included with future German tanks.

Individual track links, Cable ends, tow hooks, Spare wheels and other pieces are also in progress.  The next beastie, the E75 will be fully packed.


-Brent

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice detailing.

I look forward to seeing it finished.

[Slayer]

oh very nice work...cant wait to get mine...

E 75....hell yes... then E100 hopefully...

[Wyrmalla]

The Warlord Tiger II's tracks are going to be too small for this thing, at least based on their existing resin kit. The 1/48th Tamiya ones are much better sized, and well cheaper to source as well.

Heh, aye I managed to build and paint one of mine in two days. Its been sitting since then awaiting some mud turning up.

No, this is not a race.

And yeah, Doyle's mentioning of the E-series a whole amounts to footnotes in his books, and the odd picture of the E-100. There's better books out there, but info's really sketchy. Recently I've been looking at post-war French tank design, which has a hell of a lot of nods to those though (not that I have an AMX sitting half built. Nope).

Personally I'd do whatever I wanted with the things. As they never would've been built, and most of us are using alt-history timelines then there's the justification to stick on whatever crap you feel like. ...Ah, though within the realms of reason.

...I'm now wondering if CompanyB's going to come out with some Konflikt 47 style weapon upgrades for the thing. A zombie catapult? Yeah, that's in the theme of that game...

Oh, and I believe Jeff at Die Waffenkammer has had musings about an E-100, but he has a lot on his plate. Just buy a 1/48th Panther and stick a Maus turret on it. Bit smaller than it should be though, so don't stick it next to these Ausf M things, as they're nearly the same size.

[Ballardian]

 If the plastic Tiger II track links do turn out too small , -  annoying, but if Brent is doing some seperate ones anyway I'll happily wait for those On the plus side, the turned metal barrel turned up today, so I anticipate firing some paint at it over the weekend.
 

Personally I'd do whatever I wanted with the things

I agree, the dearth of information, especially regarding what were supposed to be the two 'Standard Panzers' is rather freeing - I guess it's why we like weird/alt war scenarios.

[Ballardian]

 Despite a surfeit of exuberance on Saturday night & it's subsequent hangover I managed to get the base colour onto the tank. I'm going to largely steal a paintjob used by Adam Wilder (the of scale model renown - if you're in the market for an excellent book on painting tanks, his 'Adam's Armour Modelling Guide 2 Painting & Finishing' is well worth a look) on a 1/35 E-75. It's  another angular dagger scheme, not dissimilar to the one I put on my Maus & I think it will suit the model.
 It was at this point I noticed that I'd forgotten to scribe the armour mortice joins for the glacis/sides , but at this point I'm not going back to it. With a bit of luck I can get back to it tomorrow night & knock it out before the end of the week.

 

[Rich H]

Nice

[rabenga]

Very nice!  I wish I had time to work on my stuff.  4month old daughter in addition to the toddler is making free time mighty scarce these days!  Keep up the good work!

[Ballardian]

 Cheers Rich, unfortunately the weekend did not prove as productive as hoped, but I did get the camo on & modulated, plus a couple of coats of filter & a pin wash (the partial skirts now need to be added, before the chipping, streaking & pigments go on & I can call time on this one). Hopefully this week will prove better - I've got a pile of JTFM stuff that's been demanding attention (incidentally, do you know if your Centurion be appearing soon - I'm hoping the same time as Jeff's Challenger).
 Rabenga - many thanks & I trust the model building indoctrination has begun

  

[Ultravanillasmurf]

That is looking good.