1/35 Trumpeter's - E100 Heavy Tank (Part 1)

Having used the last of my primer and waiting for my eBay order of paint to arrive, all current projects are on hold. So, feeling bored I excitedly grabbed another kit from my stash - the E100 Super Heavy Tank!

Beautiful artwork..........Okay, so the word 'beautiful' hardly fits such a scene of destruction but you have to admit, the art does a fabulous job of selling the kit and making Paper Panzer enthusiasts want to built it.  

Photo above for reference purposes only.
This kit is based partly on reality, at least the lower hull existed anyway.

There are lots of road wheels to clean so it took me two boring sessions to get them sanded and cleaned to my satisfaction. 

Photo etch grilles are included with the kit - nice!   

With a 1/35 tanker standing in the hull we can get an idea of this beast's size.

Photo above for reference purposes only.
In the reference photo above we can see the hull minus track guards - I may or may not have them installed on my kit. 

And with the turret (which I believe is fictional) loosely placed on the hull we can see how she'll look a little later.  In the background is one of two attractive colour schemes supplied by Trumpeter. I will probably use a scheme of my own.

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1/35 Academy Jagdpanzer 38(t) 'Hetzer' (Part 2 - primer and base coat)

With grey primer on the hull I'm able to address any problems that didn't show up before hand, and believe me, there are ALWAYS some!  

My little modifications also begin to 'pop' when the primer's added - exciting! 

Okay, so I have my grey primer down and my fixes are completed.  There are no photos of the next stage but it was just the addition of airbrushing a pre-shade along panel lines. Next up was to add my base coat which is a delicious interpretation of red-oxide.

This paint decision will probably aggravate purists, but I'm building this Hetzer using what I view as a perfectly acceptable philosophy to the late-war situation (plus this is a fun hobby to escape the confines presented by everyday life - not that I need an excuse to do as I wish with my kit! haha.

I'm glad I damaged the rear mud guards/fenders.  In reality they were very thin and most period photos show that they were normally pretty bent of out shape. Like I previously mentioned, I sanded the fenders down so they were pretty thin, and thus easy to manipulate.

The brackets that hold on the skirts bent and broke more times than I care to mention during this build. Maybe it's a good idea to add them nearer the end...................

Hey, someone in the factory found a green road wheel from another Hetzer, and  of course, they immediately fitted it to my machine, just to break up the monotony of red. Notice I have used the later 4-hole idler wheel (Academy kindly supplies this with their kit; in fact they supply 3 different types!). 

Hetzers sporting 4-holed idler wheels were produced and saw action during  WWII - see photos above.  I went on a mammoth photo hunt mid-build and found enough evidence that this was the case (not that it really matters when I'm building a red-oxide Hetzer......ha!).

See part 3 HERE

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