Trumpeter's 1/35 German E-50 [50-75 Tons]/Standardpanzer
By Eric Christianson
E-50 [50-75 tons] StandardPanzer
Trumpeter Kit # 01536
1/35 scale MSRP $49.95
294 Soft Plastic Parts on 6 sprues
Upper and lower hulls, as well as the turret packaged separately
'Sturdy' Plastic Vinyl Tracks
Photo-etch Sheet for the engine grilles and optional pioneer tool clasps
Twisted copper wire for tow cables
Background
Early in 1943, the Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapons Department) of the German Army accepted a program conceived by Dipl Ing Heinrich Ernst Kniekamp, Chief Engineer of Waffenpruefamt 6, called the (Entwicklung, or E) program.
The E Program was designed to produce a series of six standardized armored vehicles and tanks for use by the Wehrmacht from 1945 onwards. The vehicles were to employ standardized components making their production, maintenance and service easier and cheaper. Even though the program was cut back in 1944 and ended with the end of the war, several of the key aspects of the E-Series were used later on in the French AMX family of armored vehicles.
The E-Series, which was in various stages ranging from blueprints to prototypes when the war ended, has been the subject of several recent releases by Trumpeter. Following the E-10 JagdPanzer, Trumpeter has released both the E-50 (the Panther replacement) and the E-75 (the King Tiger replacement).
The Kit
The Trumpeter E-50, as kitted, can best be described as a King Tiger with a Panther turret sitting on about 1/3 the number of bogies. Oh yes – there is a nifty infra-red sights system thrown in for good measure.
For more information about what is in the box, please refer to the In-Box review I wrote on the E-50.
The Build
After reviewing the instructions I found that I could paint and weather the hull, turret and tracks separately – very handy. I kept this in mind as I worked through the seventeen steps of the project.
The first six steps of the build involve assembly of the main hull and chassis – no surprise there. There are three cantilever assemblies per side, eight pieces in each assembly. While there are guide stubs and holes for most of the parts, the fit is loose and will result in crooked components if you don't fuss with them after gluing. I would suggest using a slow-drying adhesive such as Testor's to allow time to align each part as it is added.
In Step Three, the six assemblies are sided – meaning that there are three for the left-hand side of the tank and three for the right. Rather than provide a unique design for the parts to prevent mistakes, all the parts for each side are identical, including the guide holes. This makes it very easy to attach parts A8 and A10 (and A9/A11) backwards – a mistake that doesn't become apparent until later when you try to glue them to the lower hull in Step 4. Go slowly here – the images Trumpeter provides in the instructions are somewhat inaccurate and easy to misinterpret (or at least they were for me!) I had to go back and reverse two parts on each Left assembly – again – using Testors Cement here saved me a bunch of trouble.
In Step Four, the rear posts for the idler wheels are inserted into plain-old holes – the orientation is left up to the modeler – I assume this is so we can adjust for the 'droop' of the track. But these tracks are made of very thick material and I doubt they will yield much droop unless they are actually glued to the wheels. This assumption proved correct (see 'The Tracks', below). Disregard the instructions and position these idler wheels as low as they can go.
In Step Five the bogies are attached. Again, the fit is loose and I had to fiddle with the wheels constantly while the glue dried to make sure they were aligned.
Assembling and attaching Tow Cables
For each cable:
Glue any brackets that will hold the cable onto the hull sides. (See image) Let these dry completely. Carefully drill out the two eyelets using a twist drill. Twist one of the ends of the twisted wire so that it is as tight as it can be and coat it with very thin Super Glue ('pink' Zap-a-Gap' works well here). Dip the coated end into super glue accelerator to cure the glue. Dry off any excess accelerator. When the accelerator has completely evaporated, re-dip the twisted wire end into thin super glue. Insert the glued wire into the eyelet and apply accelerator to cure the glue. Test fit the cable on the tank hull to find out where to cut the wire for the other end. Make sure you leave enough length after compensating for the length of wire inside the eyelet, and under the brackets that hold the barrel cleaning rods.
On this particular tank, after drilling out about half-way down the eyelets, the two pieces of twisted wire came out to be eight and a half inches in length, each. Tip: For some reason, the twisted wire cuts much cleaner if you first wrap the area you want to cut with masking tape.
Follow steps 2-5 for the other end of the cable.
Attach the eyelets at the ends of the cable to the side of the hull using plastic cement and secure them with masking tape while they dry. This leaves some play in the wire so the cable can be properly strung beneath the assembly holding the assorted cleaning rods and other equipment.
Once the eyelets are rock-solid, touch super-glue to the wire cable where needed to finish.
Step Eleven is where you get to decide about side skirts and mud flaps. The big German Tigers and Panthers are always a question. Rarely did the mud-flaps and side-skirts remain as installed – usually there was some damage, and many times these parts were all but non-existent on the vehicles in the field.
I decided to leave the skirts (and associated mud-flaps) off for two reasons: First, if I wanted to show any missing sections or battle-damage, the parts from Trumpeter are too thick and would have needed to either be thinned or replaced with lead foil and plastic latticework.
More importantly, however, with such a big body and such a relatively small turret, the vehicle looks a little 'pin-headish'. I used some tape to set up one side of the vehicle with skirts and the other side without. The side with skirts simply looked odd – I decided to leave the skirts (and associated mud-flaps) off. The flaps are single-piece affairs that span the mud guard area and the front of the side skirt, so if you choose to leave them on without the skirts, a little surgery will be in order.
That said, there is excellent detail on both sides of the flaps. If you want to flip the front of the flap up and over to expose the detailed underside, you will need to clean up four ejector pin marks.
Unfortunately, had I known beforehand what the tracks would end up looking like, I probably would have left the side skirts on...
The Tracks
There were several minor annoyances with building this kit, but they were easily overcome with a little work. The tracks supplied with the kit, however, were a disappointment. The detail is excellent, but the thickness of the track, the single line of bogies on the E-50, and the design of the attachment points proved to be difficult to work with.
First, the tracks are attached with a tab that extends and connects to the other side of the run, but the width of the tab only covers about a half of the width of the track. This means that both inner and outer edges of the track have no means of being attached to one another except by using staples. I glued the tabs with super-glue and touched them with accelerator. The tabs seemed sturdy enough to hold so I moved on.
After fitting the track loop onto the vehicle, the thickness of the track created a outward bow that was reminiscent of the old rubber-band tracks from the mid-70's Lindberg kits. I ended up drilling holes, inserting toothpicks and, using copious amounts of Testor's black-bottle cement and clamps to attach the track to the 2nd and 5th bogies on each side of the tank. This effort managed to make everything line up, sort of.
Since I earlier attached the idler wheels according to the instructions, the end result gives the entire affair the look of the Porsche Tiger I prototype, later converted to the Ferdinand/Elephant vehicles. I contemplated breaking off the idler wheels and re-attaching them, but the weak design of how the wheels themselves are attached precluded that approach.
Finally, because there is only a single line of bogies on each side of the E-50, three directly on either side of the centerline of the track, the tension in the track caused the inner and outer edges to bend up slightly. The model does not sit correctly on a table top. It wobbles.
In summary, if you want to enter this model in any kind of competition I would strongly recommend using an after market set of link and length track or white-metal track to replace what is provided by Trumpeter.
Moving on; Step Thirteen is where the infrared sights are assembled. After putting the well-designed assembly together, I set it aside to paint separately. It is so delicate that I thought I would attach it after I painted and weathered the rest of the vehicle.
Step Fifteen and Sixteen is where you decide what main armament to include. I ended up choosing Option 2 for two reasons: First, a purely personal reason; I liked the look of the additional detail and the slightly larger diameter of the barrel. Second, after assembling both barrels, the fit of Option 2 is far better. Option 1, no matter how you work it, is loose and wobbly. To get a true and straight barrel I would have had to hold the assembly and fiddle with it until the glue dried.... a common theme with this kit.
Photo-Etch
Trumpeter included a small sheet of photo-etch covered by a thin layer of sticky plastic-wrap, which was new to me. The clear plastic allowed me to cut right on the edge of the pieces without worrying about launching them into the great abyss. When you peel off the plastic the cut parts come with it, all secure and ready to use. What a great (and simple) idea!
The parts include covers for the exhaust vents as well as details for the rear exhaust pipes and assorted hinges and other turret details. Parts PE-2 and PE-5 are not used, or at least not called out in the instructions. Parts PE-4 are shown bent upwards in the instructions when actually they will be bent downwards. The fit for all of these parts was excellent.
Painting
The 'Painting and Marking Guide' shows a camouflage pattern using German 'Sandy Brown' and 'Red Brown' and contains call-outs for Gunze Mr. Hobby Aqueous acrylics, Gunze Mr. Color Lacquers, Vallejo acrylics, Model Master enamels, Tamiya acrylics and Humbrol enamels.
I decided to use these same colors but alter the scheme so I could put in a little practice with a new airbrush.
I started with a primer coat of XF-69 NATO Black over the entire model, including the superstructure and turret. The tracks are already jet-black from the box. This primer coat will give the tank a 'dark' look that (in my opinion) is appropriate for armor. I concentrated on the nooks and crannies – complete coverage. I sprayed the parts I left off as well and let everything dry for at least 24 hours.
I used Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red on the two strips of superstructure where the side-skirts would have been attached and covered these areas with Tamiya tape.
I sprayed the tracks with a mixture of XF-68 NATO Brown and Hull Red, making sure to leave some of the original black color showing through. I followed this with a random coat of Tamiya NATO Black and Tamiya NATO Brown, leaning toward the black.
For the superstructure, I followed the black primer coat with a base coat made from a mixture of Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow and Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan. Over that I sprayed a camouflage pattern mixing Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown and Dark Yellow, heavy on the brown side. After the camouflage coat was down I over-sprayed the entire tank with a mist of the brown/yellow mixture to blend the colors together.
I brush-painted the lenses of the infra-red sights Tamiya X-23 Clear Blue. While I was finishing that I somehow (!!) managed to DROP the entire sights assembly INTO the bottle of paint. Trying to fish it out with tweezers, I ended up totally immersing the assembly in gooey blue paint. I quickly swished it around in Isopropyl alcohol which removed the wet blue paint but also a little of the cured base coat, revealing the black primer coat.
The last step in the painting process involved a dusting of Tamiya Light Earth. I removed the tape from the sides where the skirts would have been attached and, working from the bottom up, simulated road grime – toning down the (now-exposed) Hull-Red areas.
Finish
I applied a generous coat of Future floor polish to the entire vehicle to prepare it for an oil wash (no markings are included in the Trumpeter kit or present in any of the drawings). After the Future had dried for 48 hours, I mixed Mig Abt110 Black and Mig Abt080 Wash Brown oils with Mona Lisa Paint Thinner and gave the entire model a wash, concentrating on the bogies, pioneer tools and other various bulges and protrusions. I then brush-painted a little Wash Brown straight from the tube onto the wooden handles of the pioneer tools – just a thin stripe along the edges of the clamps that held the tools to the vehicle surface. Using a clean brush I blended the oil back away from the clamps into the remainder of the stock – giving the surface of the tools a little depth. I then applied a little Tensocrom TSC-207 Oil to various places here and there to represent oil leaks.
Once the oil wash was dry I gave the entire vehicle a coat of thinned Testor's Dullcoat. This dulled up the surface and prepped it for dry Mig powders.
I highlighted the tracks with a dry 'loose' mix of MIG PO25 Standard Rust and MIG PO23 Black Smoke pigment powders using an old trashed set of brushes and a box I keep specifically for this kind of work.
The last step involved mixing up a thin slurry of Mig European Dust and Mona Lisa Thinner, and applying that to the vehicle, working from the bottom up and concentrating on the back end, where road dust would have been kicked up. Once this was dry I blended it into the background finish using a soft-bristled brush
When everything looked the way I wanted, I carefully assembled the hull parts and attached the infra-red sighting system to the top of the turret.
Looking at this kit I cannot help but feel that Trumpeter has taken the same approach that the German Heereswaffenamt took – to produce a heavy combat vehicle (or in this case, a kit) with only half the complexity. The twelve lonely bogies, lack of markings and lack of other assorted bumps and protuberances found on nearly every other German armored vehicle make this tank a little underwhelming at best.
In its favor, the lines look accurate against the few drawings I could find on the internet and the engineering on many of the parts is excellent. The loose guide holes encountered during assembly, as well as the unfortunate choice of materials and design of the tracks, however, take away from what otherwise would have been a fun build.
On the other hand, with a good finish (and maybe some aftermarket tracks!) this kit can still be built up into an impressive facsimile of, well, a tank that never existed!
I recommend this kit to anyone who likes to build and finish the big German cats – with this single box you get to combine a King Tiger with a Panther – our favorites!
I would like to thank Stevens International for providing this sample for review, and to Internet Modeler for giving me the opportunity to build this kit.