The Panzerkampfwagen E-100, Part 5

By the start of October assembly of the hull was well under way. I did take more pictures in between the end of August and here, but most of them are poor quality and not worth posting here.

There was some oversight in how the hull sections fit together. Firstly, the floor at the rear of the tank refused to sit flush. I really should have seen to add some tabs at the back to ensure it would like I did in the middle, but it's nothing some putty and sanding won't fix. Secondly, I had to cut some tabs off the rear panel in order to fit it due to the order I had assembled things. Third, the lower glacis conflicted with the gearbox I had ordered. Luckily that problem I did catch before it was glued in place, and a modified version was fitted.

Something I modified mid-build was how the suspension units are mounted to the hull. Originally it was going to slot into the hull and be glued there permanently- you can see the holes in the picture above. Erring on the side of caution, I decided to change this so that it screws on instead so that I can remove it should the need arise. The slots in the hull were filled in and the model altered accordingly.

 While the hull was printing, I returned to my CAD program to work on the gun. 12.8, 15, and 17 centimetre calibre guns were all considered for the E-100 in real life, but I ended up going with a 15cm L/48 cannon. Really speaking it's closer to a 17cm calibre gun (should be 9.4mm barrel diameter not 10.3mm), but at this scale you really can't tell the difference so it's whatever I say it is.

 

 

It took a while to get the mantlet right- I wasn't happy with it here.The block I made here to roughly approximate the breech has since been replaced with something more sophisticated.

 

 

Bonus picture showing my incomplete Maus along side the E-100 for scale, as well as the very unfinished Maus II turret. Neither have been work on much since this picture, but the Maus is fairly high on my to-do list. I got stuck on the mantlet, Sketchup really isn't a good program for making part like that.

The Panzerkampfwagen E-100, Part 4

 The following month I began work on one of the more tedious parts of the model, the suspension. 

Thankfully, the E-100 has relatively straightforward external spring suspension that isn't even very visible when everything is put together, especially with the track guards fitted.

Below is a pic of an early draft, I quickly decided to drop the bolt details for both the aforementioned reasons and the sake of simplicity.

Close up look at the suspension development. 

The red cylinders pictured above are stand-ins for springs, and the other red parts represent 45mm and 25mm hex bolts respectively. (I ordered 30mm bolts instead of 25mm initially but found them to be too long.) Also visible are the old track links, which look alright here but ended up being a bit of a mess due to constant readjustment, so I later scrapped them and started over.

Here is a good shot showing the preliminary engine deck detailing as well as the outline for the driver and radio operator hatch panel, which hasn't really been touched since this pic was taken. I'll have to get onto that.

Bonus picture with an early version of my E-50/75 model. I've been working on it sporadically since then, I might start printing it after the E-100 is done so it can have a friend.

The Panzerkampfwagen E-100, Part 3

As I'm writing this, the final tube sections for the barrel are printing. The sound of my machine whirring away is a bit distracting, but I hope to have a new dedicated workspace again soon and will no longer have to share a room with it. Running out of filament, but I should have enough to finish it off.

But back to the story.

By the end of August, I had gotten to the point where parts of the tank were ready to print. I started with the turret, and it became the first piece of the project to take physical form. The one year anniversary of this event is coming up in a few days on the 31st, in fact.

 

 

I made my first mistakes here; the most obvious being those layer lines on the turret cheek panel. This was remedied with a copious amount of sanding, but future versions will have the rangefinders printed as a separate piece so that it can be printed with the external side flat on print bed. (I'd like to have removable, interchangeable versions but we'll see how it pans out.)

The less obvious mistake is that the holes I modeled to attach the large Heng Long turret ring gear aren't really in the right places as my measurements were bad. This didn't matter in the long run since I ended up printing a separate turret ring piece to fit between the two, which allowed me to rectify this.

 Lacking the dimensions for loader's hatch, the roof remains unprinted for the time being. I still need to order a number of parts, including including the metal königstiger hatch made by Mato I intend to use. Also on the list is metal exhaust pipes and a cannon smoke & flash unit, as I don't plan on fitting a bb unit.