Hi Jeff, yeh you're right about my E50, I couldn't resist adding extra armour and the night fighting equipment.

Hi John, the turret is the only detailed part of the kit and it's not too difficult to deal with. The best thing is you build backwards i.e. you take the main part and work outwards to the smallest, here's a pic follow the red arrows:-



now for todays progress, this part was the most difficult to now. There are some very strange directions on the instruction sheet , but I think I´ve got right









HB has got almost all of the detail in there but they missed
the pistons from the recoil recuperators, strange eh! So you'll need to add two pieces of brass rod or similar with 1.2 and 0.8mm Ø to the ends of the piston chambers.
That's all till Sunday or maybe monday, I´m going to get .



Paul

Making tiny progress:



In the end, it will look the way I believe it should look like.





~ Jeff

Not much more to say as I am spending way too much time with the turret, but I want it right.

The rear hatch didn't fit into the turret so I beveled the opening some to get it to look more even/flat with the surface.





Needed to work on the overlapping plates so they were seamless:



And then tried my hand at making a cast surface, using Plastruct Cement:





It may need another application, what do you think? I have never done this before but it looks like I may have to to build up the uneven surface that I want.


Out of all of the 1/35th kits I have built, this is truly the one I want the most in 1/16th scale and then RC it.



Jeff

Jeff you can also try with Mr.Surfacer mixed with Acetone, or add a few coats of Tamyia glue.
I prefer the Mr.Surfacer with a old brush, mixing with Acetone to get more or less thickness.

So far the turret is looking great.

The E-50 is quite a nice kit !!
If my workbench was ready I'd jump on my E-75...

That's true John... Mr. Surfacer is the way to go. But which formula? Ah HAH! That's the problem... too many to have to buy to get what results you want.

I want to make due with what stuff I have right HERE, then spend the money on AM or new kits.

Just an FYI, it took 3 applications of the Plastruct Plastic Weld (the orange label) and a tooth brush to get it how I thought it should look. Since I use Ambroid Pro Weld to assemble these kits it's expendable.



Jeff

Jeff, I usually get a thick Mr.Surfacer and dilute it w/ Acetone as needed. Or I apply several coats until I get the desired effect.
But I agree with you, I prefer spending money on kits

Hello Jeff and John,
I'm also like you two and prefer to spend money on kits.
What I use for textured surface is Revells´ putty thinned with their Contacta cement.

The stuff stinks, but it's cheap and gets the job done. You can add it with trowel, brush, finger, piece of scrap plastic card or whatever, let it dry and sand it off a bit and that's it.



Paul

Awesome techniques guys!

I'll pick up some of that John when I run out of the Ambroid, which looks like it will be pretty soon. I just remember reading somewhere about the liquid cement and a stiff brush... and it worked!



Jeff

Extension Granted as Requested.

August 31st, 2013

Have fun guys ! Great builds so far !!

What an extension , I just spent 3 hours cleaning and glueing the tracks so I can get my Porsche Tiger into the paint shop tomorrow. Never mind then, I can go sit in the sun and have a few of these and then get in a sweat on the 29th of August
Thanks, I think I might just use the extra time anyhow



Paul

Hi there,
just got back from the garden, the sun has gone and I have no more there. Here's a couple of shots of the Tiger P, now I have some more time I added a couple of weld beads
that were missing:-
hope you like it







I'll still go to the paint shop tomorrow, even only if it's the primer.



Paul

I omitted using parts D5 and D6 and epoxied the RB aluminum barrel directly (with a small amount of enlarging needed) into the parts C22 and C23.



This will give me the perfect overall length for the mantlet and due to the weight of the barrel I may loose the elevation feature so fixing it solidly inside the turret housing will have to happen.



I have some more sanding to do and detailed parts on the turret while I wait for my tracks to arrive! Thanks to John for the extension!

Later!



Jeff

Hi Jeff,
you could be running into a problem with your E 50.
For some reason I cut the locating tabs off of the bottom
of the turret on mine , I think there was a fit problem with the hull. If that is the case, and you have damned heavy gun barrel on it, then your turret will need some weights in the back. Just a word of warning as you don't need stress at this stage, I hope I'm wrong.

My Porsche Tiger has been primed today, I'll get some pics up tomorrow.



Paul

Thanks for the heads up and the warning, but I have already fitted the turret ring to the upper hull, left the tabs intact and will use a counterweight in the back of the turret (like I do in all my 1/16th tank builds) but don't plan to change the turret direction much.

I have really... fallen in love with this tank, the build and the kit. So much so, I will get another to build another version and possibly even as a 1/16th build too as Panthers and Shermans are my main interest.

Same as with King Tigers and SP guns!



Jeff

I understand you Jeff.. when Trumpeter came out with the PaperPanzer series, I got the E-10 & E-25 right away, then the massive E-100 and finally I got the E-50 & E-75.
I still need to build the E-75, all the others are finished.

That turret is looking good Jeff !

@Paul
The metal gun barrel came with the HobbyBoss kit ?

Jeff no problem my friend, always glad to help.

Hi John, no the Barrel is from RB (35B20), you need to drill the mantlet out a bit to get a good fit but that's all.

Paul

Looks great !

I am using the 35B68... 8.8CM KwK 44 L/71.

The 35B20 barrel is for the Tiger B Initial Turret.


Jeff

Hi there,
well this is where I'm at after a 2 hour painting session:-
Primer was Humbrol H67.
Then came hairspray.
Then Tam. XF60.
Stripes are Tam. XF67 and redbraun.
Inside the turret was a mix of Tam. white/buff/dark yellow/deck tan and clear:-

here's the pics























I'm trying to capture the look of a new tank hull with an old school vet turret. I'll start the scratching on the hull now and see how far I get.



Paul

Nice and great idea!

I have that in mind with my BA little E-50!



Jeff

Making some progress:







My tracks arrived already in the mail so there's no delay in finishing this. I am already shopping for another kit as I have some ideas how the next one will be built.

It's been fun so far!



Jeff

I really liked the way this E-50 turned out:



I found it on eBay for sale. The color of the barrel intrigues me... does that look okay to you guys? What color do you think I should use to try to replicate it?

My effort will be slightly different than this as the side skirts have been omitted, transport tracks will be used instead of the combat width shown in the picture and some unique camo as this vehicle is screaming for it. Maybe an Octopus camo scheme?

What ya think?



Jeff

Maybe Tamyia Dark Iron XF84 w/ some filters.

you can also try Steel from Humbrol, but it's too dark for that tone.

For a more metallic tones maybeAlclad

I'd try some Tamyia dark Iron, depending on the look you want to give..

Hi Jeff,
I thought from your last post you had overtaken me there

I think the barrel is painted with possibly Tam. XF 63, I have
done this also a few times. I let it dry and then carefully polish the barrel with `freakin' bifocal´ cleaning cloth.
After that I add a little dust (pigments) and done. If you look
close to the mantlet and the muzzle you can still see some original paint without the dust.

Any way I didn't like my turret so I painted it again just now with lightened Humbrol H84 and my groovy green mix from the StuG campaign. It will get some rotbraun, but I'm going to try something new for that:-



What do you guys think?

I like it.



Paul

Looks pretty cool, to me!

German big-gun manufacturing featured a routine application of black hi-temp enamel onto completed barrels (no, barrels were not typically painted rot-oxide primer - a finish applied to rolled plate goods and onto heavy bulk objects, such as tank hulls assembled from welded or rivetted plates. As many of us panzer interior modelers have learned, equipment - even heavy trannies and such in tanks - did not come in rot-oxide - they came in those satin black and dark green industrial enamel finishes. Gun barrels are in that "ball-park" - finely-machined finished goods. And were built and probably finished as such.)

So... From this, I would suppose that the builder was attempting to portray such a factory gun which was installed into a pre-painted turret and never received any camo after installation. IF the gun was in place when the turret was painted, it, too, would most likely get painted (why skip painting the barrel?).

IF this is what was being portrayed, that gun barrel should have arrived at the tank assembly area as a black enameled item - plausibly this could be a newer satin black finish (new production) or a gun left out in the yard exposed and somewhat dulled and faded (grayed). I would imagine that the latter would work well with a dark gray (I've used Floquil "weathered black" - a nicely "pre-faded" dark gray "black" for this sort of appl.). I would avoid any sort of metallic or metalized finish or any naked steel look. Maybe an older "yard" gun could have developed a few small rust spots from poor later-war finishing or being banged around the yard?

Dust of course would be a great add-on, I think!

Just my opines, of course, and suggestion: Dark gray, maybe a few tiny rusted dings, some dusty pigments. Voila! Late war panzer!

Bob