Post by alexb on Nov 3, 2019 16:52:32 GMT
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
So I've spoken previously about my dislike for this Trumpeter E-50. Trumpeter has chosen to have it mount the Schmaltürme which really looks too small for the E-50 chassis. The E-50 chassis is essentially a Tiger II chassis...sort of. The Schmaltürme was designed to go on the Panther ausf. F, which is a simplified Panther chassis. The Panther F never got beyond a few examples built for experimental purposes.
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
So I've spoken previously about my dislike for this Trumpeter E-50. Trumpeter has chosen to have it mount the Schmaltürme which really looks too small for the E-50 chassis. The E-50 chassis is essentially a Tiger II chassis...sort of. The Schmaltürme was designed to go on the Panther ausf. F, which is a simplified Panther chassis. The Panther F never got beyond a few examples built for experimental purposes.
The actual E-50 was designed to be a simplified chassis to ease production. It was supposed to mount a turret that looks similar to a King Tiger's.
So the plan was to use the Schmaltürme on a Panther chassis. A Tiger II turret would be used on the E-50 chassis. I had a deal set up to acquire a turret but it fell through. The guy had a Tamiya kit he had never finished and was going to let me have it for a $20 shipped. He couldn't find it. They had had some flooding and he thought it had been thrown out during the clean-up. So I ended up getting a Revell (ICM) Tiger II kit.
For the Panther chassis, I had two Panthers I'd decided to offer up to the kitbash gods. One was a Revell (ICM) BergePanther ausf. D. The other one was a Zvezda Panther ausf. D. Ideally, I'd use a ausf. G since the Panther F was late war. But I figured a test-bed panzer or maybe a remanufactured Panther with late variant parts would work too.
For the Panther chassis, I had two Panthers I'd decided to offer up to the kitbash gods. One was a Revell (ICM) BergePanther ausf. D. The other one was a Zvezda Panther ausf. D. Ideally, I'd use a ausf. G since the Panther F was late war. But I figured a test-bed panzer or maybe a remanufactured Panther with late variant parts would work too.
So I started breaking down the Bergepanther. The ICM bergepanther is the initial version based on the D chassis. It lacks the winch and is essentially a tow vehicle. The turret ring cover, crane assembly, and maintenance details were put away for possible later use.
The Schmaltürme fit in the turret opening. I had the rear stowage boxes and some other leftover parts for the kit in my spares. The Academy Panther G comes with several extra sets of late and final exhausts. And I had an extra hull MG blister. So I was pretty giddy as this one seemed to fall into place. I thought I had an extra storage tube for a cleaning rod but, I couldn't find it. I ended up combining two cleaning rods and slapping it on the side. A bergepanther doesn't have one.
And then I noticed a screw-up. The ICM Bergepanther is based on the D. It has the early roadwheels with the fewer rivets. These were too weak and failed. They were replaced with reinforced wheels with more rivets. There's no way a set of the early wheels would have survived to the end of the war.
So I grabbed the Zvezda Panther. It's an early/initial D but has the replacement roadwheels. I looked over the rest of it and it all checked out. I was able to remove the changed on the bergepanther chassis. I decided the bergepanther chassis woud be built as a Panther D using the Zvezda turret....but more on that later.
So I grabbed the Zvezda Panther. It's an early/initial D but has the replacement roadwheels. I looked over the rest of it and it all checked out. I was able to remove the changed on the bergepanther chassis. I decided the bergepanther chassis woud be built as a Panther D using the Zvezda turret....but more on that later.
I was able to get the added parts off the bergepanther and moved them to the Zvezda Panther. I had to widen the turret opening and the tracks will need to be fixed. By the way, the Zvezda tracks are very nice. They have open guide teeth and can be assembled workable if you are super, super, super, careful and lucky with the cement. They send well above what you need so I had extras in the spares.
And now paint. I shot a base coat of sand. I masked a few small places and then sprayed dark green. I then added more masking and sprayed it grey. And yeah I see the piece of tape I missed. Roadwheels were sprayed grey as well. It's a little different looking but I think it fits with a what-if theme. It's a test scheme that I might use again at some point.
One kittie down...sort of. Still a bit of finishing paint and touch-up left to do.
The second kittie is the ausf. D using the ICM chassis. It was pretty easy. I added a gun travel rest from the Zvezda Panther. I was able to go back to the original exhausts. I did have to use the Zvezda's gun cleaning rod storage tube and make some mount brackets for it.
The rest was just shooting a coat of dark yellow to make the chassis and turret uniform in overall color. It still needs just about all of its finishing work.
The second kittie is the ausf. D using the ICM chassis. It was pretty easy. I added a gun travel rest from the Zvezda Panther. I was able to go back to the original exhausts. I did have to use the Zvezda's gun cleaning rod storage tube and make some mount brackets for it.
The rest was just shooting a coat of dark yellow to make the chassis and turret uniform in overall color. It still needs just about all of its finishing work.
Kittie number three started as the E-50 chassis with the Tiger II turret....the whole driving idea behind this project. So let's start with the Tiger II kit. It's really nice looking. It's a Revell boxing of the ICM kit. There's a full interior version available. This one doesn't have any PE. It has part of the gun breech. Some of the floor and all the torsion bars. The tracks are vinyl and come in four sections...two per side. The side skirts are molded to the upper hull.
The turret and gun went together pretty well. They give just enough coer what might be seen through a hatch. The rear turret hatch is very nice, even though most of the latch mechanism is covered with a cover plate.
Let's see what it looks like on the E50 chassis. Not as good as I expected.
So, you may notice I posted above "kittie three started as the E-50 chassis with the Tiger II turret". Change of plans...I'm going to build the Tiger II chassis and use the turret with it. It looks to be the better build. And let's face it, the Tiger II chassis is limited to a KT and a Jagdtiger and if I want to build a Jagdtiger I'll buy a kit before I try to convert the Tiger II chassis. Plus, I figure the E50 chassis would be more what-if friendly.
So kittie number three will be a King Tiger aka Doom Kittie. The E50 might become a Jagdpanther II. I figure full IR NVG, long 88, etc. It should be fun.
So kittie number three will be a King Tiger aka Doom Kittie. The E50 might become a Jagdpanther II. I figure full IR NVG, long 88, etc. It should be fun.
