Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret finished

YAY! The first model of the year finished (yeah I know it was started in July 2016).

For this model I used Paper Panzer Productions E-50/75 exhausts, wheels and of course their Heimdall turret. The idea behind this particular vehicle is that it would be a radar and rangefinder for a battery of E-50 Flakpanzers in case you were wondering.
I've tried adding some visual interest with the rusty panels over the engine intakes and the MG post on the engine deck painted in the lighter shade of dunkelgelb as though it was taken from another vehicle. I decided on a splinter scheme early on but the two greens just did'nt look 'right' to me so I went for a white winter finish scheme in a splinter pattern to match.
I'm not THAT keen on the amount of dirt on it but I keep getting told off for not weathering my tanks enough :o)

Different is'nt it? I know some people out there HATE the whole 'what-if/ paper panzer/ 1946' thing and at one point that included me but these days I just like the freedom that the subject brings as I don't get bogged down in researching a particular vehicle built on a Friday afternoon that was missing a bolt on the third roadwheel.

Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdal turret

Many of my projects tend to stall due to one reason or another, usually boredom but the main reason with this one was the camo scheme as I did'nt really know where to go with it after it was done so it went onto the Shelf-Of-Doom.
I did'nt want to repaint it totally so I decided on a winter scheme but in a splinter pattern to match the vehicles camouflage. The crosses used were rub down ones from Archer then carefully masked so that the tape would'nt pull them up.
I wanted the white to be on the hull and turret sides only so a pattern was thought out and masked off. Then hairspray was applied to the model and when dry Tamiya XF-2 White with a drop or two of grey thrown in was sprayed on. After that the masking tape was removed then the white was attacked with warm water and an old tooth brush to portray a worn finish. It needs some touching up in places as the tape removed some of the base colours plus where the hairspray pooled some areas are too regular and need respraying, other than that I'm quite pleased with the results so far;

Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret

I've started painting the E-50 after giving it a coat of primer;

 The base coat is a mix of Tamiya olive green, cockpit green, yellow and white but please don't ask what the ratios were as it was just all mixed in until I achieved the shade of green I wanted. The darker green was actually hand painted using Vallejo olive green as I could'nt face masking off the splinter camouflage, plus I used this method before on my M728 CEV and it worked out OK (for once);

I did'nt paint the darker green on the uppersurfaces (just because so there) and I'm toying with the idea of adding a sandy colour in places to add some light to a dark scheme but we'll see.
Light green was actually used as a basecoat on some late-war panzers and I wanted to carry this over to my paper panzer with the outline broken up by a splinter camouflage scheme. The MG mount on the rear deck will be painted in another colour yet to be decided as though it was taken from another vehicle.

Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret

Since the last update I tweaked the model a bit by removing the front mudguards altogether, adding spare track links to the turret side and scratch building an anti-aircraft gun mount and adding it to the engine deck.
I managed to get a coat of black primer on the model so with a bit of luck the painting and weathering can start soon;

Just to add a personal touch to the model I left off the thinner cable on the right hull but added the cable mounts (cut from the cable ends), the gun cleaning rods were left off (cos there is no point of them being there) and the jack and wooden block were left of and the holes for them filled in. This added some realism to the model as these were actually deleted on later builds of King Tigers.

Trumpeter E-50

After fitting the Heimdall turret it soon became apparent that with the mods done to the engine deck the turret would'nt turn completely...BUGGER!
SO the two plates over the front grills needed altering for a start and this was done using a compass cutter, making a mark where the turret collided with the plates beforehand. The grab handle I added had to be moved to the other side of the engine access panel and the holes filled in and finally the armoured cover for the air cleaner had to be cut back. NOW the bleedin' turret turns!

I'm in the process of scratch building a mount for an anti-aircraft gun to be fitted on the rear deck, just because I can so some pics will follow soon.

Edit; I've added the AA gun mount now (with apologies for the quality of the pic)

Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret

The construction is now finished apart from adding the tow cables and this will be done after painting, a lesson learned after the E-25 as I managed to get metallic powder all over the sides of the model and it was a bugger to remove. Anyway the E-50 will get a clean down in preparation for painting;

The four air intakes did'nt look that good on the kit so I hid them with styrene sheets mounted on rods 2mm above the grills. This was actually done on panzers late on in the war to protect the engine from air attack as those big intakes were vulnerable to shell and splinter damage.
The pictures show the front mudguards in place which I actually spent an hour or two cutting down and enhancing the hinge detail, however looking at it this morning I decided the model did'nt look right with them so off they came. The exhausts are temporarily in place for photographic purposes and will be painted separately.

E-50 with Heimdall turret

Work continues at my usual glacial pace and the past two days have been spent assembling and fitting the tracks. The kit supplied tracks are of the 'rubber band' type and pretty horrid so I ordered some Hobbyboss King Tiger/ E-50/E-75 individual track links, mainly because they were very cheap compared to Fruil metal tracks (which are nice but expensive for this project).
The tracks are the 'late' type being just one link as opposed to the earlier ones which had two different links and they actually scrub up quite well with very little flash and just the one pin mark in the centre of each link that is easily removed with the edge of a modelling knife. The tracks are 'handed' left and right and fit around  the Trumpeter drive sprocket nicely. There is another part on the sprues (part number 3) but I have'nt a clue what they are for so I've left them.
So to start off the track assembly I began on the right side by gluing 25 links together for the bottom run (using liquid polystyrene glue) and while that was setting I glued together a further 60 links and left these for about 30 minutes or so, this gives the tracks time to bond but still flexible enough to wrap around the running gear. Once I've done the assembly the hull will be put aside for a day or so for the tracks to set, this way they can be removed as a sub-assembly for painting later on.

I'm using Paper Panzer Productions wheels instead of the kit ones and the difference between them is very noticeable (the kit supplied wheels are on the right in this picture);

The turret is built so there is only the upper hull to add bits to although I may embellish it a bit with some add on parts.

Trumpeter E-50 and Paper Panzer Productions Heimdall turret

After I received the Heimdall turret from Paper Panzer Productions a Trumpeter E-50 miraculously turned up via Evil Bay at more or less the same time (coincidences eh?). Even though I have other stuff on the go I thought "bugger it lets build this one" so it's all on the bench.

The turret goes together very well with just a couple of moulding lugs to get rid of via a razor saw and the detail is great. I added a few grab handles on the hatches and turret rear as I figured with the height of it the crew would require a few to clamber up onto the roof. Three turret lifting rings were added using the wire supplied in the kit.
Here's the progress so far;

The Trumpeter hull fits very well although there are a couple of sink marks at the rear on both sides that need filling. The two large boxes in the foreground will sit on the rear hull, the idea behind them is that the Heimdall turreted E-50 would be relaying height and range information to a battery of E-50 Flakpanzers and these would be connected via cable to these boxes on the Heimdall to provide co-ordinated fire on the target.
Again this is well into the 'What-if' category and never existed, for me it's just a bit of fun to lighten my modelling mood.