This is the build log for the 1/35 Amusing Hobby Kit Nr. 35A016 8.8cm Flakzwilling Flakpanzer E-100 which was released in May/June of this year.

I purchased this kit in the bundle offered by Modellbau-Koenig which included the Bar, Flakpanzer E-100, and the Rutscher Panzerkleinzerstörer. At the time, the Rutscher Panzerkleinzerstörer was only available through the special offer with Modellbau-Koenig.

Amusing Hobby has released a series of Paper Panzers since the Löwe Panzerkampfwagen VII first hit shelves in 2012. I have built the Lowe, the VK 72.01 (K), DB 32001(DB), and the Rutscher Panzerkleinzerstörer prior to starting this build, so I am familiar with the products from this company.

Since I have built some of their earlier kits already, I can say that the company has come a long way in the quality of the kits. Both Lowe and VK 72.01 (K) suffered from soft casting detail, terrible OVM tools, and extremely generic markings. The VK 3002(DB) kit included some unique markings but still suffered from the terribly molded tools. Although the molding was relatively void of flash, it was a very soft plastic. The Flak E-100 is molded in a more firm plastic, more like Trumpeter or Dragon. Amusing Hobby has paid more attention to the casting textures on several parts of the kit and I hope my accompanying pictures capture those details. The kit also comes with a colored profile guide with paint schemes featuring Ammo Of Mig colors. This colored profile guide looks similar to ones that come with some Takom kits and is a huge improvement over the older releases.

Until recently, Amusing Hobby has produced kits with nothing similar from the competitors. The E-100 is an AFV that has been produced by Dragon (in the 90's) and Trumpeter (CA 2008). I have built the E-100 from Dragon, and both the Jagd E-100 and regular E-100 from Trumpeter that has been collecting dust on the shelf as part of a resin conversion project. German-Master-Kit offers several resin conversions for the E-100, and I had purchased a 21 CM Bunker Buster conversion, only to find out it wouldn't seat right on the Trumpeter hull so the project lost steam. Ive included pictures of this build for reference. I will be finishing this project up along side the Flak E-100. German-Master-Kit also has a Flak Zwilling conversion available which is very similar to this kit.
As I progress with this Flak E-100 I will be comparing it to the Dragon and Trumpeter releases.













My stalled out Trumpeter E-100 hull with German-Master-Kit (GMKT) 21cm Bunker Buster conversion.

Ive completed Steps 1-10 in just a few days time. Step 2 is the assembly of the suspension which can be rendered workable if glue is applied correctly. The small spring coils are pretty delicate, but the whole assembly works really well. This is definitely a huge improvement over the suspension provided in the Trumpeter E-100 or the antiquated Dragon offering.












Wheels, drive sprockets, and return rollers can be carefully assembled to allow free spinning once mounted on the hull. I don't find this feature to be too beneficial on the road wheels, but having a free moving drive sprocket does help when affixing the tracks.



The kit only has a small PE fret with just the grille screens.



My only problems with Steps 1-10 surfaced in step 9. Step 9 includes the mounting of the drivers periscope (C5) and the periscope cover (C24). The part C5 fits into the appropriate slot just fine, however, the periscope cover does not fit over it as is. I had to make several cuts into C5 to make it sit low enough to allow C24 to actually cover the part.

Wow that suspension looks awesome! Can't wait to see how this goes.

Tell me you're planning on doing one of those two camouflage schemes... It should look amazing, such a big surface to paint it on.

Nice work so far Shawn. I have the Trump E-100 built up to about where you have, and I've stalled out too. The Amusing Hobby hull looks good, would the trumpeter turret fit on it?

Mike

Mathew,

There are two additional paint schemes offered up in the marking guide, which are below. I still haven't made up my mind on which scheme to go with, all of them are great.





Ive also considered painting the Flak E-100 to match an earlier project I did combining the Radar Turm from Paper Panzer Productions with a Dragon King Tiger chassis. It makes sense that a flak tank battery/platoon would have a radar tank with it.

(This is a work in progress pic of the radar tank, Ill post a picture of the completed tank later)

Cool!! Love the Paper Panzers/ What-ifs.
Personally, I'd go with one of the first two camo schemes, but I can see why you would want it to match the supporting tank.

BTW, where do you get the GMKT turret? Did you go through the Ebay store? I've been eyeing that kit as well.

Bill K.

Yes I purchased the G-M-K conversion from their Ebay international store. Ive provided a link below for those not familiar with the products GMK offers. They have numerous conversions for the E Series tanks and the Maus. They also offer up a few conversions for the Panther (Ceolian & Sturm Panther)



http://www.ebay.com/itm/GMK-Paper-Panzer-1-35-Conversions-Resin-World-War-II-German-Master-Kit-/192297593614?var=&hash=item2cc5d46b0e:m:mXoSHTboH18o2BC0x4aMs9g

These conversions might be a little too pricey for some out there, but the one I purchased seems to be worth it.

a few updates.

The Amusing Hobby instructions give credit to Chesapeake Model Designs for the Flak E-100 design. CMD had released the resin conversion kit in the late 90's and Im not sure how long it was in production. I attempted to contact the former owner of the now defunct company only to find out the email address was no longer valid.

Ive included some pictures of the original CMD conversion.






Ive completed the chassis for the Amusing Hobby E-100, and ive taken some comparison pictures with the Trumpeter offering. Ive also finished up adding details to the GMK turret. The turret rings are very different between the kits, and the turrets will not be interchangeable.




















Ive begun work on the tracks, and its taking longer than I anticipated. The Amusing Hobby kit comes with workable tracks, and I have the workable tracks offered by Trumpeter as a separate upgrade. I'm still in the process of cutting the tracks from the sprues and cleaning them. Ill post pictures of the tracks later.

The track assemblies took a lot longer than I had originally anticipated.

The Trumpeter E-100 kits come with one piece tracks that are often terribly warped. These one piece tracks are much better than the old link and length provided in the ancient Dragon kit, but hardly compete with the indy track options available today.

Trumpeter offers a set of workable tracks for the E-100 which is sold separately and what I used on my Trumpeter build. There are 5 separate pieces that must be put together to form one full link. All of these pieces had multiple injection points on the sprues, and it took a lot of time to cut and clean them all. The actual assembly wasn't that bad, but gluing the T1-2 onto the links is tricky. Part T1-2, if glued properly, wll allow you to actually have completely workable tracks.














The Amusing Hobby kit comes with workable tracks as well, although they are not nearly as functional as the Trumpeter set. There were only two parts for every link, and the pieces can be held in place by friction. Assembly of the links was much easier than the Trumpeter set, and once complete, I bathed them in the Testers liquid cement and affixed them to the E-100 once they sat for about 15 minutes.












I used the number of links according to the instructions, and it turned out to be too many. The tracks ended up being too slack, however, this was largely obscured by the fenders.

Even though the Trumpeter tracks required a lot of work to get hem cut and cleaned, they were by far better than the Amusing Hobby tracks.

The GMK resin turret suffers from a lot of surface imperfections and has required a lot of attention to correct them. The surfaces of the turret were pocked with holes, dimples, or resin flash. I finally wrapped up the restoration work and was able to prime both E-100's this weekend. Still trying to figure out what camo schemes to go with.

Yes, the Trump tracks look good and even in relation to each other, and also look nice and straight on that rear shot. The Amusing tracks look a little uneven in relation to each other, and perhaps not quite sitting square to the hull in that rear shot, though that might be the angle of the photo.



I'm now leaning (on your behalf) towards that last one you showed, the hard edge green over dark yellow; steer clear of red primer, it's been done to death... Up to you though of course!

BTW do the paint instructions say anything about the thing on the left of the back plate? I think that might be one of those rear tube lights that appear black when switched off, green when on - am I right?

Matthew,

Its not just the angle of the picture, the tracks on the Amusing Hobby E-100 are slightly canted and don't sit properly. I assume I made some alignment error during the assembly of the running gear but I'm not 100% sure of the cause.

That light bar you referred to is not referenced in the painting scheme, but, I'm glad you mentioned what color it should be.

And I agree with you, the red primer paint schemes have been done ad nauseum. I plan on doing a splinter scheme for the GMKT E-100 and that hard edge scheme you referenced on the Flak E-100.

Shawn, on the track / wheels not being aligned to the hull, you might try using a hair dryer to gently warm the axles until you can slightly bend the whole track / wheel assembly to the correct angle, maybe just by pushing it down on a flat surface until it's straight, then giving the heat underneath, then waiting for it to cool before taking the pressure off. I did this once, it was only an SdKfz 250, so much smaller track units, but it might work for you here.