Monday, July 10, 2017

Guest post by Ian Gittins: Trumpeter E-100 "paper panzer" tank

Today we have another Guest Post by my friend and fellow modeller Ian Gittins. You may remember his cool Dragon VK.45.02(P)H tank build a while back. Here he talks about his latest build and the various ups and downs involved.


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Trumpeter E-100 "Paper Panzer"


Trumpeter make excellent no fuss, no frills kits. Moulds are always good and crisp, they are relatively cheap and have a great variety to choose from. The E100 is part of the "paper panzer" range, and the thing I like most about them is that they can allow you to use your imagination in terms of camo schemes, add-ons or whatever you feel like coming up with.

The kit is really easy to build and takes no time at all. It fits together really well with no gaps, very little flash, and only required some minor sanding. Most Trumpeter kits usually come equipped with a colour painting guide plus photo etched parts.

The only downsides to the kit are the rather weak rear idler wheel arms, and the rubber tracks don't take glue or paint  at all well. So, the idler wheel arms had to be superglued and the tracks required a couple of staples. With rubber tracks I usually stretch them a little before painting and that gives you plenty of slack and that all-important sag! The tracks were painted with Tamiya acrylics, but it came off in places once I started putting them onto the wheels which was a bit annoying, but that can be fixed with a bit more pigment here and there. Maybe enamel paints would adhere better to the rubber?

Trumpeter 1/35 E.100 tank


I added a ball turret which is from my spares box, and the machine gun in the turret is a chopped-in-half MG42. As always, i managed to snap off each of the machine guns, but this time I went to a new level by breaking each gun off TWICE each, so from now on I'm going to put machine guns on last or invest in some metal ones.

For the painting I used the hairspray technique and Tamiya acrylics. The damage/dents were inflicted with a Dremel tool, and for the weathering I used a multitude of stuff including wood glue, soil, Wilder washes (which are really good), Vallejo washes, AK Streaking stuff, oil paints and salt technique ... just about everything really.

I really wanted to do a rather beat-up look for this kit... you know, the missing fenders, rusty red panels, etc etc, but it's been done so often by modellers I couldn't bring myself to go that far because it's nothing new or unique, so I held back a bit.

Trumpeter 1/35 E.100 tank
That battle damage is just spot on - Dave.

Trumpeter 1/35 E.100 tank
I love that red primer hatch. Nice touch - Dave


Trumpeter 1/35 E.100 tank


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Thanks Ian, that is a great build. I really, really love the battle damage and ricochet marks - that metal underneath is just perfect to my eye.

What a monster of a tank the E-100 would have been. 140 tonnes (at its heaviest the Sherman was 38 tonnes, even the Tiger I was only 54 tonnes!). A 128mm main gun, or 149mm according to the original blueprints.


Pictured: Allied tankers' worst nightmare.


More info on this monstrous paper panzer here if you're interested: Panzerkampfwagen E-100 tank.

Incidentally, if any of my readers are interested in submitting a guest blog post, please do just get in touch, I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Dave




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