Hi,

I would like to get myself a nice German WWII super-heavy tank - the E-100. However, I'm having problems with deciding which one would be "best" overall. I'm interested in 1/35 scale (unless there are bigger ones...?) and so far I have found the Dragon with Maus turret and Trumpeter with Henschel turret. Could anyone shed some light on which one of those is considered "better" (cast quality and detail being the factors I care about)? I know the Dragon is more expensive but Trumpeter is newer... It's hard to decide...

Please, help!

PS. Dragon normally costs ~ £42 but this e-store sells it half price...

http://www.themodeller.com/products/German-E-100-Heavy-Tank-Nachtjandauml-ger---1-35-Plastic-Model-Kit__DRA-6011X.aspx

I wonder why... Could this be a different model? or perhaps a scam...

The DML isn't a bad kit, I like it. The trumpeter kits are pretty good as well. A lot of the sites have reviews of the kits.

DML E-100 kit is good for its age. Will take some work and refinement as its molds are a few years old.

Trumpeter kit is completely paper. Based on a hypothetical model built by someone (I do not remember who). It was certainly possible that this could have been the design, and it looks more practical than the DML E-100, but ....Details are nice, but there may need to be some work done on this as well, depending on your AMS level.

I say build both. And no scams, the older DML kit can be found fairly cheap, as can the Trumpeter E-100 if you look well. Got both of mine at half price over the years by being patient.

Some time ago I build E-100 Stug using New Connections conversion set and DML kit. Shortly after I purchased Trumpeter's E-100 and thought that it would have been better base for that conversion (of course now we have E-100 Stug in plastic...). So my choice would be Trumpeter. As turret goes, if my memory serves me right there should be aftermarket replacement which is "correct" style (whatever that is...)made by Krupp. Don't remember manufacturer but I guess with swift googling does that trick.

Darek .. I have built and still have both of Dragons Maus and the E100 ..both are pretty clean kits and easy to build ..I have Trumpeters E100 as well and you can clearly see the difference in age here but Trumpeters tracks are almost as stiff are steel and are of the old style rubber type tracks ,Dragons are the norm for today .pretty damn easy to work with too .
If i had to choose one , the Trumpeter kit would be the one ..but i here you say the turret is wrong ..well heres the facts .. the Dragon turret from all reports is the one which was going to be used on the E100 but as we all know it was never fitted .
Jacques is 100% right on Trumpeters turret .some dude made his own version up and Trumpeter liked it so much they used his one . in my opinion the Trumpeter one looks much better with the lowness of the hull ( if you can call it low ) than Dragons one .
Either way its a nice kit and very nice to build . hope this helps ya out .

Phill

Dragon's kit is the more "real" accurate -- the hull only needs minor work to make it accurate to the prototype found in 1945. The E-100 turret never left the first drawings as it was found that an imbalance in the gun mount would have made it un-workable .... so the vehicle was to be made into an SP -- Trumpeter's Krokodil is a realistic rendition.

I've seen an E-100 hull made into a V2-launcher too -- consider it a WW2 ICBM "Scud" vehicle

To be fair, the Dragon kit has the Maus turret and not the turret that was planned (whether it would have ever been fit is a different matter I suppose) for the hull, as seen in Jentz's recent Panzertracts. So, if you're a carrier of AMS like I am, the turret is going to get replaced whichever one you want. In that case, I'd go with the Trumpeter one although the Dragon version still holds up pretty well and does have link-to-link tracks.

Matt

It's a bit of a minefield trying to build an accurate E-100, even though there was a hull at the wars end, but the Cammett (resin) turret is the way to go, it's supposed to be the most accurate having been taking off some recently discovered blueprints.

@mangaroca – Darek,

Welcome to Armorama, hope you enjoy your time here and hoping to see you post and share some of your work with all of us too!

Here’s a link to John Osselaer’s aka ‘John_O’ E100 according to Panzertracts build log that may be of some use to you in deciding which E100 kit you may wish to purchase? The build log was started back in the summer of 2009 and has yet to be painted. All of the photographs are still there for viewing. Good luck with your build.

Hope this helps?
~ Eddy

a company caled German Master Kit does a few resin turrets with big (flak) guns that look good but expensive 90euro each ... maybe alter a Dragon turret ??
http://www.german-master-kit.com/Shop/
look at the "best sellers" list on the right of page.

Thank you all for your replies! Well, I'll get both kits... In fact the Dragon kit has already arrived... I am planning to build 3 turrets: Krupp, Henschel and Maus and exchange them every now and then.

One thing is certain - I will need an "accurate" (LOL) chassis! I have found Atelier Infinite parts to upgrade and fix it but encountered a problem. The company mentioned above released two upper hull upgrade kits. The first one is (discontinued?) 35-0021 and the second is 35-0055. I have a pdf file describing the first but I have no clue on what the second one improves... I think it will be better than the first one because it's older and currently available but knowing the differences would be nice. Could anybody help here?

Thaks!

You can find both kits on this list:
http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/R10/R10gelinkscale.html

Manufacturer: Atelier Infinite
Scale: 1/35
Keyword: E-100

PS. I am considering getting an Atelier Infinite Functional Suspension for my E-100. Has anybody tried this? Is this a good upgrade? How much will "realism" and the original idea of the spring suspension suffer if I install this?