E-50 ausf B

I am taking a short break on the E-79 to avoid "burn out".
So in the meantime I am working on my E-50 ausf B.
I needed a Upper Hull to start with.....
So Molded an Upper hull from MC and when I had a cast of that ,
I detailed it out by hanging the engine deck for mine,
removing the fenders, and opening the hatches.



I then wanted to replicate this engine deck



so I started by cutting out the engine deck, then the roof where the turret ring is.
I moved the turret ring forward, and started modifying the engine deck.
I made the cuts to the front vents, added strip styrene, and added sheet styrene to the back.
once this was all detailed, I glued it all together.





I then turned my attention to making the turret
I took a cast of my Teufels Amboss turret sand away the details and the sides to get the general shape.
Once this started to take shape I laid it on the upper hull to see how it looked.





I then began adding the details

















I then turned my attention to the choice of guns for it











after this I decided to give the turret a coat of primer to bring out any flaws before molding.











I decided that if I keep handling the "master part" of the turret, as I worked on the rest of the tank......
the chances grew each day that I could screw it up.
So I molded and cast the turret, this will stand up to the constant handling better than the master would.











now... the upper hull is also quite a fragile thing as well.....
so I decided to mate it up to a lower hull and make it solid.
first I built a box around the spot where the Driver and Radio Operator go,
then I plated over the turret ring.
glued in the rear plate, and glued them all together.
once that dried I cut a hole in the bottom and poured in resin.
This makes the whole thing "solid" and it can then stand up to the constant handling.



now the rear end needed some details



as well as the front



with this all done, I started on the tracks





I am still working out many of the finer details
but here is where I am for now.

Looks like a baby King tiger.

when you look at it from above......
the turret reminds of a "Snake's Head"
so I am thinking of calling it the Adder

So slick !

Could you throw in a few pics of the turret casting ?
I'm quite curious to see how you construct the mold to acquire such fantastic results .

Do you also turn the barrel masters ? Or are those AM items ?

I believe it is the barrel included in ModelCollect's E-50 kit.

I am sorry I do not understand....
there are pictures f the turret casting in the post above.

I don't "turn" the metal barrels,
if I find a good one in a it I save it and mold it

you are correct sir, that is "one" of the barrels I used.

Ah -- Sorry - Excuse me , I forget that the mold can be just torn away .
I have only done castings using reinforced concrete so my mind is centered around constructing molds that are re-used and must be assembled in a way that of course allows you to get the thing out
I've never done any resin casting and I'm very impressed with your results

Ken, AMAZING work!!! (I'd go with the bigger main gun.)

I don't know if "torn away" is the correct useage here.....
the molds can be "flexed" and the parts "poped" out.
When the molds tear..... much saddness insues

Yes , " pulled away " is a better description .
I'm conditioned to everything being rigid and VERY unforgiving .

Do the castings come out as cleanly as shown or do you need to do a fair amount of clean-up ?

Yes, unfortunately there is "clean up".......
sometimes it is a easy as just taking a scrape with a knife blade.
Sometimes a toothbrush works very well......
but there are time that I have to actually cut with a #11 knife.

Doing the tracks is a Fail
when I tried to mold them......
I had to destroy the tracks (masters) pulling them from the rubber.
Even though that is an accepted outcome, it resulted in the same for any resin casts.



I reassembled one set to show how "Ideally" they should look when placed on the hull





so for the past 2 1/2 days I have been trying to "re-engineer" the masters,
to improve the casting and allow for easier pulling from a mold.

they will be molded in sections like this.



to easy assembly the bottom will will have holes for locking pins



and the bottom run of the track will have the "locking pins"



when assembled they will look like this



I pushed myself kinda hard doing this part......
was awake for 48 hours making them work.
Ended up sleeping for 12 hours after that.

have been working so hard on this.......
here is how the tracks have come out.

the top set (left side) are assembled,
the bottom set (right side)are not yet assembled.



here is how they look on the tank with the drive sprocket, idler sprocket and the "inner" wheel hubs.
i did this in two shades of resin so you can see the different parts.



I decided from the beginning that the front hatches would be open hatches,
So I made that area in the hull as an open space



I molded the plate with the hatch openings, and cast it.
here it is without the hatches



here it is with the hatches



here it is with a fig



I made it quite deep to allow different figs



now....for the front....
there are two different "schools of thought" as to weather or not there should be a bow / hull MG
so I added the parts for the model builder to exercise his options
here it is as a plain hull



here it is with the ball mount in place.



That's where I am for now.

Love this work, but I have to ask why there is such a large gap between the edge of the plate holding the two drivers' hatches and the surrounding hull roof? In real life that would be 3-4 cm and a structural weak point. Unless there was a real reason needed for the gap I can't see it being there on a "real" tank.

Sorry, it's just the engineer in me asking.

Paul

Could not be helped
as I cut the opening
I kept trying to "line it up right"....
as one side got it right, the other didn't


I finally just had to "stop" before I completely screwed it up

OK....this is "finally" done...
it is currently in the Paint Booth
Once the painting is done I will post the finished model






















Boy this took a while

Nice done. Ready to see some paint on it.

here you go

Here it is painted and finished























now ack to work on the E-79

Really nice result and very cool process.

Thanks for sharing

My idea behind the paint scheme is that from a distance.....
you might (mistakenly) think it is a Burned out tank,
then once you're in range....."Wham"!!!