Ludwig/ Heng Long King Tiger E-100 build

[chris3]

moin

the tracks of the T-55 and Elefant are from Kenny Kong, if the E-100 will come some day from Hooben. Kenny will make them too but it seems that Hooben will never bring the E-100 because of its bad experience with the T-55 and Elefant sales.

But we shall will see about the plastic tracks of the Hooben E-100 I have asked them a lot but they only have this prototype

Of course if we get some people together Kenny will make them for us. But it's not so easy to arrange a group sale.

cu Christian

[mustclime]

Well, time to give this beastie a turret.....so its time to cut up the king.....











not sure this looks right.....



ok, the plan is to use the hl turret treverse and guides as the are tough to screw up.....





a test fit before I glue the hl turret base to the e100 base...



and the turret base is mounted....



Well, I have to get the pool ready to close.....so I will not get much done today

[Koubiak]

your turret base,is some high,no?

Why kenny does not make their E100 plastic tracks in metal for parts ?They could be do some money with tracks for the scratchbuilders...They made a expensive prototyp for nothing!The same thing with their Maus....

[mustclime]

your turret base,is some high,no?

Because the turret is so dam big, it needs to be high enough to clear the front vent fan housing , hatch handles and the rear air intake housing when it turns....I have though about notching the turret corners in the front( like the king tiger turret) and making the rear "stepup" higher for clearance..but that is not how the turret is drawn....I am not the first modeler to notice this....I first saw this problem here....

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op= ... _id=172494

Its interesting that this was the second Krupp turret design for the super heavy contract....it was the light weight design, it only weighed 35 tons. The Maus turret was the first design and it weighed 45-48 tons. I think about it like this, Krupp design 1 = a KV-1 ontop of your tank, Krupp design 2 = T-34/85 ontop of your tank.

[chris3]

moin

Because they "wasted" a lot of money into the T-55 and Elefant and these two tanks are more popular than a more expensive Mous and E-100 Kit. Just my opinion but i think hooben is going to leave the rc tank sector.

About the tracks I have discussed this a lot with Kenny, but at the moment the risk is to high to create a "wrong track".

The track must be fit on the Hooben tank if not a lot of money will be lost that's one part of the problem.

But I'm sure a track will come for the E-100.

cu christian

[Koubiak]

Thanks Eastern front.We can wait some years i think.....

[mustclime]

wow, that would be something.....interesting, some saying ark model is getting out of the tank bisness and some are saying they are going to release the e100 shortly.....since the only luck I have been having these days is bad, my guess would be on a completely correct and really nice e-100 kit before xmas....

As far as my kit goes, looks like I going to have to notch the lower front corners of the turret so they will clear the hatches and vent fan cover when the turret turns....The only other option would be to raze the turret up about a scale 8 inches for clearance. Looks dumb imo so notches it is, the trick is to do it so it does not look like a drunk monkey did it.....note to self, no drinking today.....

[mustclime]

Ok, time for another update.....here is a issue....turret to hull clearance....









lots of smoking plastic is in the cards....
While I think about it, time for some more chopping on the king tiger....





Oh no! What have I done!!!!



Now some time with the sand paper...





more pics after I rub all the skin off my finger tips....

[mustclime]

Spent some more time on the tiger mouse again last night.....hull deck bolts, I tried 1mm from scale hardware. Didn't look right and cost way to much so I got some hex plastic stock in 2mm and slice cut about 200 of them for bolt heads....



then I used a larger drill bit and ran the drill backward to couter sint the bolt holes....





here is what it ended up looking like....





got done sanding all the extra stock off the king tiger peaces...



and used the driver parascope to hold the hull down....



OK, now I have to figure out the turret....with this as a base...





been looking at models and drawing....











not sure why the the turret crew had so little vision of the out side world.....

[mustclime]

The fact that the turret does not allow the commander any vision really bothers me.....the upright para scope is over the gunner and I do not think he could use it....why no para scope for the loader? They gave one to late tiger 1 and tiger 2....Panzertracts 6.3 states that a tiger 2 style commanders hatch was not to be used as they could be shot off!!!??? It just does not make sense to me, When you think about German tanks, all that was carried over in tank design from them was the commanders station where he could view 360 degrees while directing the tank on the battle field. I am really thinking about a panther f commanders hatch for this tank. It may have to be higher to allow the commander see over the flat turret roof. Still thinking...what do you guys think?