Panzerkampfwagen E-50A2

[Mig Eater]

I'll be joining the GB with another of the German Entwicklung tanks, this time an E-50 upgraded with a new turret, engine and running gear to make a what-if 1950's version, or a "missing link" between the E-50 and the Leopard tank etc.

Last year in the kitbash GB I took the turret from a Flakpanzer E-50 kit and put it onto a Panther tank (still need to finish weathering that build!). Now I'm going to use up the hull of the Flakpanzer along with some resin parts from Paper Panzer Productions (RIP)






Paper Panzer Productions Einheitsturm "1947"




Paper Panzer Productions GT103 gas turbine engine. I cut out the original Maybach engine deck and added the new resin one about 5 years ago in anticipation of this build. The E-50's Maybach deck then ended up on an E-100 after I bunched it and need a replacement  




Lastly to give it an even more upgraded look I'll 3D print new suspension, wheels and tracks based on Porsche's B-PS 102 "Indian Panzer" concept from the 1950's. I'll need to spend a few days on the computer designing the parts first tho...

[Buzzbomb]

Oh yes... 

[Mig Eater]

I'm not the first to come up with this idea BTW, most of the time when I see this Paper Panzer Production turret its used on builds like this

[Claymore]

Nice! 

[Kerick]

Interesting!
That turret has a Soviet look to it.

[Mig Eater]

I made start on my build, I glued the upper and lower hull together along with a new resin rear plate. I had a bit of trouble fitting the hull together, I'd presumed the issue was the resin part but on closer inspection I found that the plastic hull was warped and the resin was perfectly straight After some sanding and clamps I managed to fit it together tho.

The hull is covered in locating holes for the various tools and tow cables, I plan to move the tools around to different locations tho so I filled them in with bits of leftover sprue. Looking a bit spiky at the moment but after cutting off the excess and a bit of sanding I should have a smooth surface to work from.       




I also made a 3D model of the new running, I used the Indien Panzer as inspiration but I had to modify the design a bit to make it fit the E-50 hull.   

[Buzzbomb]

Very nice. Got the proto-Leopard vibe as well. Like it 

[finsrin]

Am liking this 

[Old Wombat]

Very nice. Got the proto-Leopard vibe as well. Like it 

What this gentleman said! 

[Claymore]

Looking good! 

[Mig Eater]

The Paper Panzer Productions turret is very nicely cast with beautifully sharp details, the bottom of it however is an uneven mess (The raised edges are level but the center has sunk in during casting)




To fix this I used strips of plastic card and Milliput to fill in the rear, which I then vigorously sanded down creating a blizzard of plastic and resin dust in the processes, but I eventually got a nice flat surface.   




Another problem with this turret is that the rear sticks out quite a bit, which results in it colliding with vents and hatches etc as it rotates. So I added more plastic card this time to the front of the turret to raise up the rear, giving it enough clearance to now freely rotate 360. Lastly I 3D printed a new turret ring to keep it in place. 






I've had this turret for about 8 years, but every time I took it out of its box the gnarly looking bottom put me off building it, I'm glad to have finally gotten it done    

[Buzzbomb]

Sometimes you gotta do what you have gotta do. Especially with old school resin conversions. Sounds like you have it sorted.

[Mig Eater]

By the way, the sever that I host my photos on is having some technical difficulties (its being overloaded by bots) so the images might be working intermittently :/

[Mig Eater]

After working on the turret my attention returned to the hull and one of my favorite steps in the building process, adding texture.

This kit has quite pronounced interlocking joints on the front armour plates but no weld detail, so I used a micro chisel to scribe out channels for the welds. The front of the hull is missing the joints between the front and side plates too, I used some thin plastic card to fill in the corners and then scribed new weld lines.   

Before (I have several of these kits in the stash ) and after:



The kit is also missing the joints on the rear of the hull connecting the side and rear plate together. To help me scribe these welds I designed and 3D printed some templates that I could use to quickly chisel out a weld seam the same size and position on both sides of the hull.




After that I added some subtle surface texture by stippling Mr.Surfacer 500 on to the armoured plates. I then added some more texture to the model by making cut marks along the edges of the plates with the tip of a sharp hobby blade. Lastly I added the welds using green stuff two part putty, which was rolled up into strands, laid into the channels and then sculpted into a weld pattern.     







This can be quite a laborious step in the build process but I love how the added texture can make smooth plastic look like chonky armour. Now that prep work on both the hull and turret is complete I can start adding parts to them.

[Old Wombat]

Now that's some awesome attention to detail!   

[Buzzbomb]

Nicely done with getting that detail right.. as Guy said.. terrific attention to detail 

[Claymore]

 

[apophenia]

Now that's some awesome attention to detail!   

Yup! Gorgeous work 

[Mig Eater]

Thanks all for your kind works

While I was working on the hull my 3D printer was busy making the new running gear. Some people/companies like to print the running gear as a single part but I prefer to print them as separate parts and put them together after painting them. I used to 3D print individual workable track links, which looked great but took days or weeks to clean up and put together That got tedious really quickly, so now I like to print my tracks in preshaped upper and lower sections that can be cleaned up in minutes.   




The new suspension units are bolted/glued onto the hull and use a piston attached to the swing arm. It all compactly fits into the back side of the wheel rim, so they're barely visible once the wheels go on.




The wheels, sprockets and tracks dry fitted together. I'm really happy with the results and now pondering how it would look on a E-50/75 Jagdpanzer or Flakpanzer...

[Frank3k]

Wow - nice work! What resin are you using?

[Mig Eater]

What resin are you using?

I'm using AnyCubic standard resin in a AnyCubic Mono X printer.

[Mig Eater]

I've been slowing making progress on the build.

The rest of the resin parts were added to the engine deck and unusually for a garage kit photo-etch exhaust grills too.




There is also an engine access hatch on the rear plate that features cooling fins. Probably a good idea considering the exhaust gas on these early German turbine engines was purportedly 800°




The turret comes with a really nice fictional variant of the Panther Schmalturm cupola that features a rotating periscope. I "borrowed" the cupola for a different build a decade ago with the intention of fitting a spare Schmalturm cupola to this turret instead. With the power of 3D printing tho I can recreate the original cupola and print a replacement.

The blue smoke grenade launchers were originally 3D printed for a different build several years ago but they ended up on the spare parts box. I noticed that they perfectly match the curvature of this turret tho, its like they were destined for this build

Lastly I designed and 3D printed a bore evacuator for the middle of the gun barrel. German WW2 tanks used compressed air to clear the barrel after firing, negating the need for a bore evacuator but I like how it give the tank a more modern look.   




The turret came with a rain guard over the rear hatch but the resin was paper thin and broke off while handling it, so I replaced it with a strip of aluminum. I also added some grab handles to the rear of the turret for some extra detail and somewhere to hang some stowage later too. 




One of the last things left on the build is the question of side skirts. I can't decide if I should add some skirts of leave them off and If I do add them then what style should I go for, I could reuse the Tiger II skirts, make new ones based on the Leopard 1 or maybe something completely different...   








I plan to add some stowage to the tank and in keeping with the what-if theme I design and printed a StG45 assault rifle and a M44 helmet. The StG45 was a cheaper and lighter version of the StG44 assault rifle, only a few prototypes were built before WW2 ended but work on the design continued post-war and eventually led to the Heckler & Koch G3. The M44 was a prototype helmet that was undergoing tests when WW2 ended. Post-war the design was modified slightly and used by the East Germans as the M56.

[Claymore]

 Beautiful! 

[Buzzbomb]

Really like how that looks.. great work