Pz.Kpfw. E-100. Legend

Alternative history is a genre of science fiction limited by historical frameworks, but no less free and fertile for creativity. Let us turn to our creativity, scale modeling, within which the original and popular Panzerwaffe'46 direction has been steadily formed, asking the question "what if the Second World War stepped into 1946?" What if in July 1944 Hitler did not give the order to stop work on super-heavy tanks? What if the Allies had not broken through to the Henschel proving grounds in Haustenbeck in May 1945? What if the ever-memorable, gloomy Teutonic genius had been given at least one more year, 1946, to realize his flight of engineering thought? What if the famous, myth-shrouded German E-series had been accepted into service in whole or in part, and its land flagship, indexed "100", had gone into production?

Let's let our imagination run wild and see what happens if the course of history deviates a couple of degrees from its established course.

Working on a prototype

In 2023, the market offers four E-100 kits in 1/35 scale, if we talk about the only existing concept of a tank embodied in metal, and leave out other self-propelled guns and anti-aircraft guns of varying degrees of fantasy. We have a kit from Dragon, two kits with different turrets from Trumpeter and a kit from Amusing Hobby. And if we approach it from the point of view of compliance with the original and history, then the kit from Amusing Hobby, in my opinion, is the only one that meets the request. A whole separate article is required for argumentation, another time.

Having decided on the source, we will try to bring it to the state of a prototype, “clean up” after the manufacturer, clean up the bloopers. You will need three tools: perseverance, attentiveness and enthusiasm. Along with the obvious stages of assembly and painting, the optional stage of immersion in historical data is a separate kind of pleasure from the hobby. Although not all colleagues share this opinion and have the right to do so.

The barrel of the twin gun is straight, and as we see in the drawings, it should be tapered. No wonder, because this is a 7.5 cm KwK 37 L / 24. You can carefully grind down the proposed option, but it is easier to simply replace it with a turned barrel, in my case RB Model 35B131. The muzzle brake of the main gun is from a 15 cm monster, and our caliber is 12.8. How did it get here? Obviously, the legacy of a well-known game: the manufacturer simply copied the 3D model. For this reason alone, the muzzle brake is ejected, and neither of the two vehicles (Maus and Jagdtiger), which had a 12.8 PaK 44, had a muzzle brake at all. The barrel can be left from the kit or replaced with a turned one, for example, on the RB Model 35B16.

There are keys sticking out along the entire perimeter of the turret. But they were used on armor no thinner than 150 mm, or even more. In a sheet less than 150 mm thick, there is simply no place for the key to fit. Of these sheets, we have an obvious frontal one at 200 mm and a standard borderline aft one, 150 mm. Accordingly, all keys, except for the end ones for the frontal part (those that pass the side armor at the junction with the frontal one) should be filled. As for the aft part, it is questionable, to personal taste. I got so carried away that I filled everything, my mistake.

The fan casings on the turret roof (part A3) should have a conical section, not a rectangular one. It is quite easy to grind down. Similar ones are installed on the only Maus turret, and a photo of its roof allows you to verify this.

For some unknown reason, the MTO was initially cast with crooked holes for the ventilation covers. It looks like a trifle, but the covers have a characteristic straight cut on the inside and if you install them by the recesses, their crooked position is visible to the naked eye. It is necessary to cut off all the stumps from the back side of the lids and glue them, setting them evenly.

In addition, the hooks next to the lids are clearly too far from them. It is worth moving them a couple of millimeters towards the ventilation.

The engine air filter armor caps from the kit come with through holes. This is a misconception based on photos of the incomplete E-100 hull. There should be covers, which are easily made with a punch from a thin sheet of any suitable plastic.

The reverse slope of the turret rear is made too low, when turning it touches the armor caps of the engine compartment. Kit error. I recommend grinding the slope slightly, 0.5 mm will be enough.

Let's move on to the front of the hull. Note the lack of ventilation for the driver and radio operator. German tanks, starting with the first Tiger, have ventilation with a characteristic armor cap. And Amusing Hobby does not consider it necessary to have it. It is not in the instructions and the place for installation is not cast. It is ironic that the third armor cap itself (the other two are for the engine hatch) is on the sprue! We install it in the position between the driver and radio operator hatches. Theoretically, it could have been positioned in the corner, like on the Jagdtiger, but historical photos show that there is no corresponding opening in the corners. And here a new unexpected circumstance arises: the turret cannot turn without resting against this very armored cap. Moreover, even if it could, it would not be able to make a full turn, because it rests against both the hooks and, further, the armored caps on the stern. And if the ventilation in the front can still be called a debatable issue (there are no corresponding photos), then there were definitely air ducts in the back. The only, and quite viable option, is the beveled corners of the lower part of the turret. Everything indicates that if it were implemented, we would see exactly this solution. Everything is quite simple: we saw off the corners in the lower part of the turret, and glue triangular plugs made of sheet plastic into the opened holes in the turret itself. Now the turret can make a full turn, bypassing both the front and rear armored caps, without losing protection and design.

The driver's triplex, if you look closely, is categorically oversized in height. No German tank had such a size, but that's not even the point: how will the driver's hatch open? The hatch traditionally opens forward (the turret is at the back), it passes over the triplex and drops slightly behind it, fixing itself. The triplex asks to be radically shortened.

The side screens require the removal of the sockets for the bolts on the bulges above the pins for attaching the screens to the hull. In these sockets, in early drawings, it was implied to screw rings for removing the screens through the blocks. In historical photos, it is clear that the sockets are missing, and through holes have been added nearby for these purposes. The holes in the set are not through, only their edging is cast. A drill will help.

There are quite a lot of forgotten welds on the stern part of the hull and the lower frontal part, they need to be laid. And some joints, on the contrary, need to be hidden. Two-component and regular putty will help with both tasks. And the trace of gas cutting on the end of the lower plate can be made with a modeling knife, having previously softened the part with modeling glue.

The outlet of the exhaust pipes on the stern is raised too high, they need to be moved lower.

There are "horns" at the bottom of the right armor. They are located in the wrong place, they should be moved to the lower edge. And on the left armor we completely remove them.

These "horns" actually lost another element - the eye. Because in general this design is for a crooked starter, which passes the eye and goes into the depths of the engine compartment through a diamond-shaped hatch. Manufacturers often make this mount broken, focusing on photographs of museum equipment, and not historical photos and drawings. We make the eye ourselves and glue it in place.

The engine access hatch under the exhaust pipes is made incorrectly. It was used to hang a mechanized engine starter with a power take-off from a Kübelwagen. Accordingly, there should be a characteristic hatch in the middle, where the starter shaft entered, and next to it two pins for its fastening. The parts are not complicated, it is quite possible to make them yourself.

When assembling the two halves of the drive sprockets, the teeth are categorically not parallel, forcing correction. The holes for the axles in the support rollers are also cast crookedly, almost everything will have to be drilled out in order to put the rollers strictly perpendicular to the ground and mutually even.

The path to the conveyor

Somewhere in one of the parallel branches of the metauniverse, at the end of 1945, after successful tests, the Tank Commission, with the personal participation of Heinrich Kniepkamp, ​​adopted the project of the super-heavy tank E-100. What would it look like leaving the gates of the Henschel assembly shops? Time to imagine the train of thought of engineers and borrow solutions from related machines. And such were, first of all, the Tiger II. After all, the E-100 project itself was initially initiated as a plan "B" regarding the "Maus", presenting an alternative to a lighter machine with maximum unification of existing elements and units of the Tiger II, against the expensive and innovative hybrid "Maus".

A serial and fresh combat vehicle reveals itself first of all in its completeness. All this heap of tools, fasteners, spare parts, storage places, equipment, external devices - always adds life to prototypes and projects, otherwise the models look naked. At this stage, we will need two other tools: logic and common sense, with a pinch of imagination.

At the time of work on the model, there was no photo etching specifically for this kit. But for the E-100 from Trumpeter, there was photo etching - Voyager PE35245. And, looking ahead, this option is universally suitable for the brainchild of Amusing Hobby too, with minor adjustments.

Let's start with the entrenching tool and the fire extinguisher. It's funny that the kit comes with a sprue with a tool, but there is no mention in the instructions where to put it. The Japanese manufacturer hints at assembling the model not in the form of a historical prototype, but as a working machine. Well, I'm all for it. The German practice of placing the tool on the sides is not applicable here because of the removable side screens. But a similar practice of placing it on the roof of the hull is very much so. So I scattered it over the fighting compartment and the engine compartment. Due to lack of space, it is logical to place the shovel on the VLD. There is also a headlight replacement and photo-etched detailing. The headlight that comes with the kit is very strange and small. I recommend cutting off the wiring to the headlight marked in the hull and replacing it with wire.

In a voluntaristic decision, I added a kugelblende ball mount for the Tiger II machine gun to the front with a turned barrel of the MG-34T tank machine gun from Model Point (MP35100). I laid a weld around it. Formally, this socket was missing on the only existing prototype hull and on the drawings. Nevertheless, on related and heavy vehicles, such as the Tiger II, Jagdtiger, there is a socket. Yes, they have a 150 mm thick frontal part versus 200 mm for the E-100, but the kugelblende device assumes installation in almost any thickness. I did not find any clear justifications for why this is impossible for myself and installed it for the sake of an effective look.

Let's go back to the stern, specifically the engine compartment. The etched ventilation grids from the kit are disgusting, the perforation has nothing to do with reality. And here again, the brass from Voyager helps, here the grids have a similar pattern and small, neat detailing. But the size is not right. This is easy to fix. Along the perimeter of the Amusing Hobby grids, using them as a mask, we cut out the grids for Trumpeter with a knife and glue them into the groove of the grid frames cast in the hull. This design corresponds to the photographs of both the E-100 and the Tiger II and closes the issue.

The engine air duct for deep wading in the kit is covered with a plug. In fairness, this happened occasionally, but I decided to make a more expressive and frequent version with a hole and a grid, focusing on the Tiger II and other machines. The grid is also in the photo-etched kit.

I added two tubes: the larger one stores the gun's swab; the smaller one stores additional sections of the FuG-8 antenna. And here it is appropriate to dwell on the radio stations in more detail. My plans included making a tank commander of a unit. Such a tank can have a set of two to three radio stations. Three antennas look redundant, I settled on two: a FuG-5 radio station for communication with each other, installed on each tank, and a FuG-8 "umbrella" for long-distance communication between units, inherent in command vehicles. The FuG-8 antenna input is installed in an armored casing on the stern, I used resin from the Voyager kit. The FuG-5 antenna input is installed in the corner of the turret roof. In accordance with similar in design equipment. In the process, we carefully calculate the size of the antennas, converting to 1/35.

The stern sheet. We add towing hooks, a mount for a convoy flashlight, a reflector and a storage box for the FG 1250 night vision device in logical positions. The latter requires a locking handle and a loop on top to be made independently. Everything is available in the Voyager photo-etching.

Thin exhaust pipes give way to impressive flame arresters copied from the Panther. They suit this steel monster. Flame arresters are historically acceptable, there is a famous photograph of a Tiger II with them deployed horizontally. The fasteners can be made from photo-etching scraps, simulating welding with putty.

The exhaust armor eyes deserve more detail and independent manufacture.

Also, the towing earrings, of which there are 6 pieces around, deserve more detail. Namely, an adequate image of fingers, which is a turned aftermarket.

The E-100 looks equally impressive with the side screens on and off. I didn't want to choose, so it was especially important to make the screens removable. At first I wanted to follow the familiar path from the past and make them magnets, but there was nowhere to hide them, and I didn't want to spoil the look. And then I came to a seemingly obvious approach - to make an imitation of the pins as it was intended for the real prototype. I made the pins from thick wire, adjusted them, and it turned out that they fit perfectly, hold the screens well and allow you to freely remove them. I think this has become one of the key features of the model.

The issue of getting the crew into the tank, if you think about it, is quite serious. For example, they climbed into the Maus using a stepladder. True, only during testing. In combat mode, they would have come up with a quick way to access it. The E-100 is also huge, like no other. The sides are sloping, you can't walk past the turret along the side. The bow is inconvenient, but using towing lugs the driver and radio operator will be able to climb. The best option for the remaining four crew members is from the stern, where I added a handrail. This is enough to climb onto the hull using various stern parts. But how to climb onto the turret, because it is chest-high, even if you are standing on the engine deck. I made an improvised ladder out of wire. It is located on the hatch in the stern of the turret, but there is nothing to worry about, since the hatch is not installed on a loop, but on a complex hinge, the kinematics of which will not allow these handrails to rest against anything when opening the hatch.

We have quietly moved to the turret, and we will continue with it. On the sides of the ladder I added two homemade boxes for personal belongings, similar ones were on the Jagdpanther on the stern of the wheelhouse. The top of the lid has hinges (Aber R-22) and latches for them (Aber 35 A93).

A noticeable and important decision in my opinion was the addition of a commander's cupola. I don't understand how there can be a commander with a complete lack of observation devices, as Amusing Hobby suggests. There is not even a periscope, which the Maus has. When choosing between a cupola from a Tiger II or a Panther, I settled on the latter. Because the Tiger II cupola is much lower and the rangefinder protruding in front will block the entire frontal viewing angle. Perhaps the question arises, why on the right and not on the left? I am sure that this is the only possible option. According to German regulations, any gun over 100 mm was supposed to have two loaders, try to pull a shot with one person, albeit separate, but with a total weight of almost 30 kg. Usually on all German vehicles the commander's cupola is on the left, including the Tiger II, but it has an 88 mm gun. But the serial self-propelled gun Jagdtiger had a gun larger than 100 mm, namely 128. Exactly the same as the Maus and E-100. And it is the Jagdtiger that has a commander's cupola on the right, like the commander's periscope on the Maus, otherwise it would not be possible to accommodate a crew with two loaders. There is also a reason for choosing a cupola instead of a periscope, like the Maus. The fact is that the Maus abandoned it because of the thick side of the turret of 200 mm. Either move it closer to the center, which is impossible because of the gun, or make a bead in the side, like the Tiger II, but in a unique sheet of 200 mm. Let's remember that the E-100 has a lightweight turret that is as much as 160 mm thinner in the side, which gives enough space for the commander's cupola.

I added spare tracks along the sides of the turret in the image of the Tiger II. I made their fasteners and axle locks myself.

The cranes for removing the side screens obviously require a cargo block, at least one. I used Aber R-09n and RB Model 134 01 chains.

In the front of the turret there is an opening for, apparently, a MG-34T machine gun. The machined barrel of the machine gun is installed.

Finally, I replaced the handrails on all the available hatches with wire.

Harsh beauty

I share the popular opinion that the Wehrmacht's deforming paint schemes are not an applied process, but real creativity. Of course, during the war there was no time for art, this is a view exclusively from the abstract level of a hobby. Such richness and diversity that the Germans allowed themselves during the Second World War did not happen in any other historical period. The French and some exotic countries can argue with individual "works", but the breadth of choice is not the same. Wehrmacht camouflage is not the only, but one of the key reasons for the popularity of German equipment among modelers.

I have already used some of the hit designs in my previous models without repeating myself. This time I got around to the three-color scheme with dots, reliably used by the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion in December 1944 in the Ardennes. I have wanted to do it for a long time.

As for the markings, we are talking about the 504th Heavy Tank Battalion, 6th company, 1st platoon, command vehicle and, accordingly, number 611.

Hunting for a "Big German Armored Troika"

This is how my version of the Panzerkampfwagen E-100 turned out, as if it went into production. Complete and ready for battle. But, objectively speaking, even in a parallel reality, this project would hardly have overcome the "valley of death" of testing and competition. The power of the planned engine was catastrophically insufficient even according to theoretical calculations. The expected more powerful engine never even reached the prototype stage. And if it had, then in the course of work the E-100 lost all its competitive advantages in the form of unification of units with the Tiger II and, as a result, the speed and cheapness of development. Most of the Tiger II solutions did not withstand the pressure in the literal and figurative sense of 130-140 tons of the predicted weight. At the same time, the Panzerkampfwagen VIII "Maus" by this time had already undergone running tests in the amount of two pieces, had many turret blanks and, at least in terms of mobility and controllability, received the most flattering reviews.

The E-100 had absolutely no advantages over it. However, for a modeler who views his hobby as a form of creativity, this tank has its own undeniable charisma. Especially in the version with working cranes, a block and removable screens, allowing you to play out the scene of their disassembly.

In hunting, there is a well-known concept - the "big African five", a particularly revered list of trophy animals. Among the projects of German super-heavy tanks, three stand out: the "Maus", which was brought to a working prototype; the E-100, the hull and chassis of which were practically assembled and only a little time was missing before the first tests; and the "Lion" (Pz.Kpfw. Löwe), which, although it did not go beyond the drawings, stands out qualitatively on the basis of all the "paper tanks" with its numerous drawings, iterations and presentations to various commissions. With the end of the E-100, I ended my personal hunt for a large German armored vehicle, because the Maus and Löwe were already finished and were waiting for their super-heavy brother on the display shelf.

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