Hi everyone,

For the What If campaign I'm going to try to build the E-100 as close to the Panzertracts plans as I can. This will involve some major surgery, but I'm motivated to give it a go. I'll try to post my progress, but keep in mind that I'm not such a fast builder...

I'll be working with this:
Dragon E-100


Panzer Tracts 6-3; Krupp turret from Cammets, Upgrade from Voyager:


Cheers,

John

Ok John,
What's the model number of the mixing board in photo #2? Your personal studio?

Anyways, Looks good. Hope the build goes well for you.

Hehehe, it's a Yamaha 01X, which is an audio and midi mixier in one, going over an MLAN (Firewire) cable. I'm not doing much with it at the moment, it's my soundcard. But I used to fiddle around with music production a bit before I picked up modelling again.

Thanks for the support!

Cheers,

John

Good luck on your project. Hopefully you won't use the kit barrel as making the muzzle brake is a major PIA

Are you gonna use the infrared too? Or go without it...

Rich

The modified Maus II turret intended for the E-100 didn't use the 150mm gun--it mounted the 128mm from the Jagdtiger and a coaxial 75 mm for "minor" targets.

Hi John ... One thing that really needs to be changed are the front hatch plate ..They've got it on backwards ...I cut out the hatch plate from a Tamiya KT kit and fit it in the right way around ..the fit is almost perfect..(well it would have if I had been a bit more careful ,but it worked out in the end )



Rick

I'll be watching your build also. I am curious as to how well the Camett Maus II turrett is. I've concidered buying one but can't find a review on it .Let us know . TIA, Don M.

Rick, yes, I'm gonna change the hatches and the whole front section since it is pretty wrong in the Dragon kit. I've already measured things up!
I'm also redoing the plate with the ventilator on the engine compartment.

Don, the Cammets turret is an absolute beauty. Get it, you won't be disappointed. I actually also have the Atelier Infinite Maus II turret which is close but no sigar and nowhere near the quality of the Cammets one.

Cheers,

John

So, as pointed out, the hatches are reversed in the Dragon kit. The whole front section with the hatches is off to be honest so some major surgery is needed here. Check the pics...





John

By the way, the drawings in the older Panzer Tracts heavy tanks title showed the complete drivers' hatch module from a King Tiger, including the central dome ventilator. You can swipe the ventilator from a Dragon King Tiger (you get a spare in the "Porsche" KT kit). There are also extra driver's periscope panel inserts in the Dragon KT kits which can be used to reposition and correct the Dragon E-100 (the periscope mounting plate is mispositioned and undersized). Doyle seems to have been of two minds regarding the shape of the armored covers for the exhaust pipes. In the older Panzer Tracts, he shows the King Tiger style with the horizontal top edge, while the more recent version shows a cover with an edge that angles down at right angles to the tail plate. The armored covers don't appear in the factory photos of the captured chassis, so apparently there is no definitive answer. Personally, I'd go with the King Tiger style, as the other would tend to trap projectiles that came in over the edge (again, the Dragon King Tiger and Jagdtiger kits include two sets of covers--lots of useful bits there). The Dragon E-100 exhaust pipes are fatter than those on the King Tiger, but this matches the photos. If you want a comprehensive set of photos of the captured prototype, the new Schiffer English language edition of Walter Spielberger's book, "Special Panzer Variants: Development - Production - Operations (The Spielberger German Armor and Military Vehicle Series)" has pretty much every shot available, as well as Hilary Louis Doyle's original drawings. It's available discounted through Amazon. I don't know if the German edition is still in print.

John, thanks for the heads up on the Cammett turret, I wiil probably go ahead and pick one up. I may us it on an E-100, or do it as a MAUS II. not sure. Good luck with your project. Good to know about the hatches, too. Don M.

looking forward to seeing your build log progress
Cheers,
Mat

I just received my order of Cammett E100 Radiators and Fan Housings so I'll be doing a small review of them. They do look nice and should fill in those blank spots under the grills on the E100.

Gary.

John. Good luck with this great build. Its nice to see you've done your homework. Its great when you find all the missing pieces to a build and get the correction right to make the vehicle spot on. Much respect, you Teckno Friend G

John,

I sure will be following this build log closely as I also would like to model an E100 as close as possible to the Panzertracts prints / photos just as you mention you will be doing here. I however will be using the Trumpeter kit for my build but with the same assortment of add-ons that you are using on your build (not purchased as of yet).

Just a small suggestion; Having the Cammett E100 resin turret kit and VoyagerModel photo-etch set at hand for your build could you possibly consider doing a review of these add-ons as a part of your build log and link the reviews of them here?

-Eddy

Eddy, using the Trumpeter E-100 was my plan too initially. However about everything in this kit is wrong dimensionwise. You could say it's a 1/32 kit instead of 1/35 since everyting is too large. The only thing that is spot on is the location of the attachment points for the side skirts. Those will be my biggest challenge in the Dragon kit. So if you plan on follow the PT plans stick with the Dragon kit.
I'll see what I can do reviewwise. I lost my job recently and am probably in my last days here at work. Finding a new job is my top priority, but I'll probably have some time for a review of some sort.

Geraint, thanks for the support buddy!

Cheers,

John

John Sorry to hear about you job, we are both in the same boat I got made redundant from the steel work too. Hope you find something soon, I'm still looking. heavy industry has taken a real bashing in these tough times. Only thing to do is keep looking. got more time to model, but it dont pay the bills Keep + Geraint. looking Forward to seeing the paint job on this huge monster. Are you modelling it on one of the original 100's or is it going to be a "What IF"

Tomorrow is my last day here. I worked as a project manager in an internet company. I'll be looking for a job preferably in a bigger company now, with the main focus on communication, editorial work and translations. I won't be easy, lots of these profiles got the sack in recent months. And I do have bills to pay and a daughter to raise so I'm up for temporary work too...

It's gonna take me several weeks/months to finish this build so I haven't decided on the paint job yet, but it's probably going to be the octopus scheme. Olive green will most definitely be the main color.

John

To get things on topic again a pic of boring work part I: wheels. I would recommend filling the sinkholes in the drive sprocket, but those in the other wheels you probably can't see anyway. It's just me who's retarded enough to do them anyway... The sink holes in the idler are a bit more difficult to tackle so I haven't done those yet.



I know Atelier Infinite has a replacement drive sprocket and part of the idler, but I'm not sure they are that much better or different.

Cheers,

John

Hi John, good 2 C you're building da ultimate E-100 ! We've been talking 'bout it long enough ! So go 4 it buddy ! I still don't know what 2 build 4 the campaign ... Guess it's getting time 2 make up my mind ! 2 Many ideas maybe ? Grtz Eddy

John,

Thanks for the heads up on the Trumpeter kit . . . will have to save that one for a fantasy build! Got the Dragon kit on order along with the other items that you mentioned that you would be using on yours.

I have a set of the Atelier Infinite replacement resin drive sprocket and idler wheels and will check them against the prints / photos and kit parts to see if they are better detailed and dimentionally correct. Will let you know how they compare and post pics as soon as I can get my camera back from my wife . . .

Sorry to hear about your job situation! Hang in there John and Geraint.

-Eddy

Well, I took the plunge. I ordered the Cammett turret and the radiator/ fans. Sprue Brothers had both in stock and they are on their way. I will probaably use the radiator kit on the Trump E-100 and the turret on a MAUS II.There are several good drawings and references in a couple of the Panzer Tracks books, so look for a build blog soon. Nice progress on your project so far, looking forward to seeing more. Don M.

For those of you with an interest in the Cammet turret, here's some detail pics of it.







If anyone would like them one size bigger hit me with a PM.

Eddy N.: cool, I'm really looking forward to that comparison! And thanks for the kind words!

John

In the meantime I worked a bit on the King Tiger upper hull I got sent by Alex B, one of our younger forum members and also an E-100 lover. Thanks again for that Alex!



And I also checked the rear plate of the Dragon kit against the PT drawings. My advice is fill all the holes in the rear plate and remove the pins on the other parts so you can move them freely. As far as I can see (it's a bit hard to be 100% correct because of the angle) things aren't really in the right place.



I'm still not sure which exhaust covers I'm going to use. The rounded ones from the E-100 kit or the King Tiger ones. Somebody mentionned older drawings of the E-100 are different from the new plans drawn up by Doyle in PT??

I don't know how well you can see it, but I also drilled out the exhausts a bit and put a piece of sheet metal in there to replicate the anti-grenade protection...



Cheers,

John

Nice, Nice work John-
really nice work. So much gets posted on this site that this escaped me. I am glad that you posted a link from the "What- If" thread.

Very Cool!