Xmas and New Years Wishes – plus bonus E75 and T90 wip pics :)

Xmas and New Years Wishes ….

Firstly Xmas and New Years Wishes to both regular visitors and those who occasionally drop in or stumble in here by accident! I’d like to especially thank those who took the time to comment, I know it’s not easy to do so when browsing blogs and time is short but I do really appreciate it. Have fun over the next couple of weeks and equally importantly – stay safe, wherever you are located and especially if you are in harms way somewhere.

And yeah, same I guess to the ones I can’t shake off (family, friends close enough to insult me, pets and the Spawn of Flick (my kids) etc etc ).

It’s kinda fitting that the couple of pics posted are both Project ’46, which is a real passion that unfortunately I didn’t devote enough time to this year and 28mm Combined Arms Moderns, which has taken us in a new direction and at speed. The E-75 has had a few more details blue-tacked on and I crayoned some tac numbers onto the T90, both as a little xmas pressie to myself today.

Both of these projects should get a decent push next year along with some overdue customer stuff that my health very regrettably delayed for far too long and not to forget hopefully a few new/interesting projects thrown in also. So looking ahead 2017 should have a little something for everyone to look fwd too ……. have fun, stay safe and like and subscribe … oh wait … that’s utube ….

cheers
Brent / Q

Modelcollect E-75 zug – Project ’46 wip3 Motorpool hull conversion

Me day …..

While waiting for some bits to dry on the Perry AT Portee I decided to waste a day on myself and do a little work on my “so long ago it feels like it was abandoned” E-75 project.

I’d always been a little unhappy with the details on the engine decks, in fact it’s pretty mediocre, and had chased down some Motorpool replacements. The “conversion” kit is designed as a direct drop in replacement for the Modelcollect hull and comes with; a full replacement resin hull which features an improved rear deck (with corrected hatch locks and latches, sharper and better moulded vents screens, corrected fan covers), much improved armour mortice joints, optional ball mg mount, notek ight, drivers periscope rain cover, commanders mg mount and mg, IR scope, open driver and radio operators hatches, IR battery box and flame dampening exhausts.

So the main issue was to wrestle the Modelcollect upper hull off the chassis as I’d glued it down and with my usual generous quantity of cement. After many tense minutes of cutting and prising I managed to separate it without slipping and removing a finger in the process or damaging the already assembled running gear. The replacement upper hull was pretty much a neat fit and required no massaging, glueing straight in place.

All in all it looks very sharp, is a big improvement and I can’t wait to splash some paint on …..

Q

Modelcollect E-75 zug – Project ’46 and SABOT Tank vrs Tank gaming wip2

E-75 build action …

Some actual build progress this time. So what are my impressions? I’d have to say I’m both impressed and a little disappointed. The moulding is high quality and they build easily. The DS tracks are very easy to work with (although mine were a little long and I trimmed off a few links) and the brass gun barrel and PE really adds some bling to the kits. In other areas though they’re sort of an “almost” kit with simplified moulded on details.

The rear deck louvers for example are pretty poor and at odds with the rest of the crisp casting. They are covered by the supplied PE vent grilles however (something all German Tank kit manufacturers should supply) so maybe they cut a few corners thinking they weren’t going to be seen. The 3 access covers over the engine air-cleaners also have incorrectly positioned latches and handles, I think Modelcollect copied someone else’s effort/kit here without understanding how the hatches work lol

The suspension would be a little fiddly and fragile for some builders I suspect. The arms that most manufactures would have moulded solid are separate possibly due to moulding limitations. The weakness isn’t helped by the E75s (and E50s) single roadwheel configuration on the first and last suspension arm stations. One thing that niggles at me is when kit wheels don’t sit flat and pull up because they aren’t strong enough to support the tension of the track. So after building the first chassis I glued scrap sprue “stiffiners” underneath the suspension units making sure the first and last arms were braced. Once set solid they stayed firm when fitting tracks to the other three vehicles ….

All tools including the prominent tow ropes are moulded on. While crisp they are undersized and a but spindly. A slightly thicker moulding would have helped them stand out and allow them to be undercut with a scalpel blade. Basically for me this feature is a no-no and I removed the lot, to be replaced with wire and left overs from other kits. In a similar trend some other features seem a tad undersized but might not be noticeable under paint.

The spare track links for mounting on the turret have good detail on the side which wont be seen. The mounting lugs are moulded into the track link and look … basic. I’m going to try adding an external vertical piece (hard to explain but I’ll show what I mean in the next post) to make them look a little more “separate”. The drivers and radio operators hatches are moulded shut and this is another area where Modelcollect could have scored brownie points as I like ot have the option for open hatches, even if I end up gluing the dang things shut lol

So that’s my view on things. Nice kits which will really look the biz when painted but could have been so much more with just a small extra amount of effort. Oh almost forgot, there were a couple of minor moulding defects. The front edge of the 12.8cm mantle was short shot moulded on three of my four kits so may be quite common and the rear drive wheels on two kits had unusual stress bends which I think came from not ejecting from the mould properly. Minor niggles aside these are a must for any 1946/Paper Panzer builders and I’ll be getting a few more as I’ve a few conversions in mind ……. 🙂

Q

Modelcollect E-75 zug – Project ’46 and SABOT Tank vrs Tank gaming wip1

Gnarly E-75 zug . . .

And yes, more tanks. This time a Modelcollect E-75 platoon (or more correctly “zug”) of two 12.8cm vehicles and for a bit of variety two 8.8cm L/100 vehicles. Ever since Modelcollect announced it’s “E” series tanks (and there’s an E-100 on the way too) I’ve been wanting to get one to have a bash at it. Prompted by the SABOT game project, instead of one E-75 my brother “gifted” me a platoon of four to assemble!

Firstly a bit of history (yes I can hear the groans over the interwebs). So keeping it brief, the E series was a proposed streamlining of German tank design allowing more commonality of parts , simplified designs where possible with they goals of improving protection, armaments and streamlining production.

The proposals included;
1 E-5
2 E-10
3 E-25
4 E-50 Standardpanzer
5 E-75 Standardpanzer
6 E-100

The E-75 was to share as many components as was practical with the lighter E-50 and both designs were visually similar to the Tiger II. A unique feature as proposed was to have rear drive so as to reduce drive train vunerablity and improve both weight distribution and maintenance/access. This feature presented many technical difficulties and the Modelcollect E-75 uses the standard “Tiger II” front drive and automotive layout. This layout is most likely to have been used as an interim solution until the rear drive technical issues could be solved.

Interestingly French postwar tank design was heavily influenced by German designs and also assisted by German Engineers. The AMX50 utilised rear drive in a format very much like that envisioned for the E50/75 series tanks. The resulting design was longer at the rear to accommodate both the engine (a Maybach design) and the transmission. The few existing original German WWII era design proposals do not allow sufficient length to allow rear drive in practical terms and it is likely that the final E50/75 series may have looked significantly different from most designs found on the web today.

Another key feature was the adoption of externally mounted suspension, the resultant space gained by removal of the torsion bars used to increase internal storage, lower the vehicles and would have allowed for floor mounted escape hatches. The system proposed used “Bellville” or stacked conical washer like springs and was intended to reduce both the complexity and un-sprung suspension weight while retaining the load bearing qualities of the larger interleaved torsion bar system. The Belleville Spring Washer system was used on the post war Swiss designed Panzer61 and is still used in some Formula 1 suspension applications.

E-Series Belleville Conical Spring Washer suspension

E50 and E75 hull designs with rear drive.

Common impressions of what the Heavy E series tanks would have looked like.

And a teaser of the project