Lucas: thanks for the info!! I will give that a try.

Matt: nice surgery! I like the contrast of how orderly your bench is compared to the detritus of your surgical gallery.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Ditto, Zon. I said "debris" because I couldn't spell "detritus".
Also, Matt, I'm very impressed with your paint selection.
Jeremy, don't be disappointed if I use UPS brown and not USPS red, white, and blue! I plan on lots of dust from the Southwestern US to tag into those guys' story.
-Sean.

Hey guys everybody has like mad crazy progress here it all looks great. I have been making some slow progress as well here is the lower hull of my JS-3
upper hull is almost complete and I may get some primer on it tomorrow depends on what time I get home in the morning

Sal, looking good on that Joe Stalin suspension.
Here's a brief update of my last 2 or 3 evenings' work...

I had Mr.Lowerhalf (a Tamiya M151 driver) test the fit and location of the driver seat relative to the floor and dashboard. I had prepainted some black to cover the variety of colors of plastic, since it may become harder to reach as the build goes on, especially underneath in the engine area (I only have an engine bottom).

Sure, this picture was mostly to test a temporary problem I had with uploads to Flickr, but since it's here I threw it on the forum.
I was fortunate that Italeri made the hood side details separate, so I was able to use them on my custom hood sides here. Also note a little more detail added inside.
thanks!
-Sean.
P.S. Did anyone else watch Rodan yesterday and think "Hey, are those Fury's used by the JASDF to fight Rodan (filmed in 1959)? I should build those! As if I didn't already have a list a mile long."

Sean......The bonnet looks the biz the way you've mounted it... great stuff!

Update for late Sat night/early Sun morning.





As you can see, I've gotten some progress made. Weather was too good today to stay inside, but had a couple of hours to get some ideas out of my head and onto the (now clean) workbench.

Starting with the turret, I looked around and found the Dragon King Tiger Ardennes kit in my closet, so I took the unused plastic barrel of the 88mm L71 gun and grafted it onto the Tiger I turret, replacing the 88mm L56 gun.



I have not decided on what type of "feet" this thing will have, hence the three designs shown here:



The top two are similar, just rounded at the edges and a bit thinner on the right side foot mock up. The bottom foot is designed for three sets of pads with a larger base pad at the back, but I can't decide on which one would be best suited for stability on this beast.

Speaking of footpads, I finally found a use for some old Italeri M109A6 rubber band tracks I never used after picking up the AFV set of tracks. I figured out they make GREAT track pads after messing around with the old Tiger I indy links that originally came with the kit. The only problem is that if you cut the connectors off before you glue them to the foot base, they come apart. The second photo shows a set of 10 links painstakingly glued back together after I figured that out.





The next step are the three joints for each of the legs. Again, "reallocation" of the numerous Tiger I roadwheels saved me a lot of work (sort of). Here is a shot of the three parts that make up each joint:



The plan is to use 3/32" aluminum rod to connect the center pieces to each other, like an Erector set. These will have a styrene rod friction fit through the center of the hub, to allow for some movement. The rod (like a small axle) will be glued to each of the inner sections of the two outer wheels. This is a general idea of what they would look like head on:



Finally, I am getting some of the hull mated up and I have the main drive axle mounted in the center of the hull:



The openings on the front and rear of the lower hull will be closed off, but I just haven't figured out what I'm going to do that with yet. I'm also adding some additional styrene where the engine compartment would likely be, behind the drive axle underneath the hull (so the exhausts don't look like they are just there), and hopefully that would counterbalance the long barrel and forward ammo storage.

I'm redoing the entire upper hull with styrene, and detailing it with some of the hatches, handles, and other pieces salvaged from the original kit:



That's about it for the update today. 2AM here and I have zoo trip promised to a three year old (my daughter) later this morning...

Matt .....Wow!!! your a 'PanzerKnacker' what a build! it's coming along great.

Managed to get a bit more done and firm up the turret layout on the Panther....



Still not too sure = I'm 'JellyFishing' a bit soooooooooo I'll see how I feel in a couple of days about it.

Regards Duncan.

Better view of rear of turret.....




Still early days as the turret extension will receive a storage box/sill up to the pencil line and towards the original turret, with this being as wide as the turret at its widest point? = if that makes sense? sort of mimicking the Merkava MK1
The hatch behind the cupola will be cut and shut a bit and the ventilator shroud will go to make way for the M60 style rangefinder/sighting system......

Working on the storage and mantlet over the next couple of nights so will post up when done with those.

Happy modeling all.

As promised here's my upgrade on the E-25
First the wrong instructions on the suspension, see earlier post,







Now the kit itself, and the progress so far:







Today I expect to do the wheels and will start to plan the ERA blocks and Slat Armour... stay tuned.

This is my first campaign on Armorama so please be gentle!

My project, as proposed, is to make a "realistic" rendition of the E-50/E-75 family as boxed by Trumpeter. One of my pet peeves of the what-if E-50 kit is the schmalturm armed with the 8.8 cm KwK. In an unmodified form, the 8.8 L/71 is a LONG gun with a long barrel and a long (and large) breech assembly. This is why the King Tiger turret is so... well... big. Squeezing it into a Panther tank sized turret would be difficult; balancing the turret even more so.

The model I am going to build will be a prototype of the E-50/E-75 family with the E-50 chassis and suspension assembly and a "Porsche" King Tiger turret. My back story will be that the vehicle is a test bed for family's the new suspension system; to see if the suspension intended for the E-50 could carry the added mass of the King Tiger turret (as opposed to only the schmalturm). The assembled vehicle would then test the ability of the suspension to withstand the shock of the 8.8 cm gun recoil.

To make the story fit in with actual WWII history, I propose an earlier scrapping of the E-100 and Maus projects. Instead, tank research was focused on finding a common point between the Tiger I, Panther and King Tiger vehicles. The Panther II was given higher priority and it evolved from a "Panther like" vehicle to something more sleek, incorporating elements of the King Tiger with combat experience but around the 50 to 60 tons range.

The armament ideally was to be an 8.8 cm gun, just like the King Tiger. Debate was on-going on whether the vehicle should adopt the proven King Tiger turret or the schmalturm with either a hyper velocity 7.5 cm KwK or the proven 8.8 cm L/71 gun. As the King Tiger was intended to be a limited production platform, and that the Soviets were fielding heavier and heavier tanks, the decision was made to focus on the 8.8 cm instead in the next generation "universal tank".

This is where my model comes in. The E-50 chassis was built and tested. The desire was to save resources and cut down on the time it takes to machine a complete tank hull. Hence, preferably, six modular bogeys per side were designed. On paper, the six bogeys could withstand the added 15 tons of the King Tiger turret (over the schmalturm). This is what such a hypothetical vehicle would look like... .

Now onto the model:

I like the sleeker look of the E-50. I happen to have a spare E-50 Flak tank and decided to build it as the prototype vehicle that I described. The Flak turret will be saved for a future build.



Please excuse the poor quality of this first shot. I am only showing the box-art, which everyone have seen before by now.

I also had a spare "Porsche" King Tiger turret that I bought from E-Bay. Some work has started on it prior to the campaign as it was intended for another model. Notice the resin turret has cast-on zimmerit.



There were a couple of prototype "Porsche" turret King Tigers retained on proving grounds instead of being expanded on the front. Hence, my vehicle would have inherited the turret from a donor prototype tank. This would be my explanation for the zimmerit on the turret but not on the hull.

Speaking of the hull... the resin "Porsche" turret ring was too big for the opening on the Trumpeter kit. This was rectified by scribing out the existing turret ring to the new diameter. I opted to keep the old turret ring as an adapter for the original E-50 flak turret, should I decided to use it on this model later on.



An old Jordi Rubio turned metal barrel is used for this project. I never noticed but the barrel seems to be too long and that the muzzle brake is a tad oversized.



Piecing everything together for a preview shot, this is what I envision the prototype to look like!



Well... that is it for now. I will update as I make more progress.

Cheers!
+Y.C.

Sal: You are making more progress than me bud

Sean: Looking better with each post, I can almost see it finished now!
As Duncan aptly said, "the bonnet looks the biz"

Matt: That L71 looks great! And I would go for the upper left "square" feet.

Duncan: The turret looks really good the way you have it set up. I'd be hard pressed to change the overall shape, but it's certainly going to look good either way.

John: Interesting...

Y.C.: I like it! Should be interesting

Sunday progress:
- Working on the extras for the E-25:
Zimmerit,
Home made Slat Armour,
side skirts,
ERA blocks (that didn't work well...),
search lights,
added 3 0.5 MG (Israeli style).

All this will be in an urban camo.
Will post some pics in the next few days of the progress so far and also add my background story...

Stay tuned...

Wow. This group is really doing cool stuff. I really like your detailed, logical backstory, Y.C., and John, you've got some excellent ideas there!
I'm poking along. Here's some progress of mine...

Here I posed it on the wheels, to see how she's looking so far. (Please pardon the dark picture-- I'm still working out the best way. I've since clamped a 75 Watt incandescent bulb to augment my regular fluorescent work light for workbench photos.)

The photo above mostly shows how I braced the partition wall all around.

Here's how it stands after last night's push. Most of the cab details are in-- seat belt for the driver, a jump seat for a passenger, divider door detailing, roof bracing. The rear wall is started, but the roll door isn't built yet. Likewise, I cut side doors, but haven't built them out with ballistic glass yet. I have to keep reminding myself that I have to paint the inside first, before adding the side doors. Remind me if you see that in a later photo!
Also, I haven't entirely ruled out making an attempt to sculpt a driver for this one. I'm curious to see what I can do, relying on library books and internet step-by-steps. If nothing else, it'll give me a better appreciation of the professionals' skill.
thanks,
Sean.

A little more progress here on the hull

And then the whole thing completed and ready for primer
typical Tamiya build here no fit problems and a quick build. I may have to shift gears here a bit and work on some campaigns that are not as long as this 1

Sean, inspiring build man, really inspiring!

Sal, what a beast that is. Don't go away too long now.

I have completed the interior and it is primed. No pics yet, I'll post some after the base color goes on. I'm too am working on making some additional armor for the hull and turret so stay tuned.

G

Ok I have a few pics of my work.

Here's the interior all primed and ready.





Here we are painted, and washed.







I used a Folk Art color called "Italian Sage", which in my eye is a real close match for the interior green currently used. It took a bit of trial and error to thin it correctly, but it went on well and is holding up to the oils and enamels.

I plan on leaving most of the hatches open so I wanted a bit more detail and color in there.

G

John: Photos!

Sean: Are you going to leave the cargo bay open when you are done?

Sal: Looking good! Can't wait to see you get into the crazy side of this campaign And don't worry about it, that's why I set up the campaign the way I did so that everyone will have a chance to enjoy it at their own pace as time allows

G: I am curious as to how you thinned out the FolkArt paint? I've tried it before with water but was never able to get the texture to smooth out properly.

Trial and error, mostly error.........................

Water, and some Winsor and Newton "Acrylic Flow Improver".

I found that if you thin it like other acrylics, ie milk like, it is way too thin. I used less water and more AFI resulting in a thicker mixture. Dialing up the PSI to about 30 did the trick from a siphon feed Badger 155. You have to stay back a bit and "fog" it on.

Not recommended for intricate detail work like camo, but in this instance it worked fine.

Oh and I don't think it will work without some form of flat finish primer. Don't ask.......................

G

Alright, I'll take your word for it G

It's been awhile since I checked in .We have been very busy,Son's High School Graduation,Daughter's having babies,you know ,small stuff Will be ordering my Dragon Wagon to haul the Panther F to Caens this weekend.I see in another thread it took a builder 7 months to build his.Looks like my winter is booked Thinking about O.D. Green for the hauler with AK's weathering set .What do you guys think? Oh yah,I haven't been fishing yet either

Ok another update...



This is the small turret on the E-25, scraped the original gun and added a .50 cal, added some extra protection for the turret against grenades, small arms etc.. also added a search light .





Here there's some zimmerit, extra hull protection, some homemade slat armour (on the field protection), and you can also see 2 of the 4 MG mounts, still missing the wiring for the MG remote stations and the front searchlight and a bunch of other details...



This is another little extra I want to add, still have to check the dimensions, width of the hull and also if the tracks don't get in the way..

Stay tuned...

Wow: some really great work going on here. Too much for individual comments, but everything seems cool and interesting.

G: did the interior come with the guardian, or did you create it?

I'm on my way to China for 2 1/2 weeks, so no bench time for me

Keep up the great work everyone!!

Happy Modelling, -zon

Zon,
The interior came with the kit. There's just enough of it to make it interesting if you leave the hatches open. I plan on adding some detail as well.

Hey stock up on DML kits while you're there!

G

G: thanks for the info, and I was planning to do exactly that! Brought an extra duffle in high hopes.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Small update,
I started painting the wheels.
I will plan an urban 3 tone camo, using Life color paints:
- RLM 78 Hellblau
- RLM75 Grauviolett
- RLM70 Black Green

Stay tuned...
Background story will be posted later this evening.. also with pics from the wheels and latest improvments