Maus, E-100, and other super heavy tanks

[sagallacci]

Having both the Trumpeter and Dragon 1/35 E-100 kits, and a fair amount of real research, I've got several build scenarios coming up. One would be an E-100 test hull, all opened up with a GT102 gas turbine installation and an empty Maus turret fitted simply as a test wieght. Anthony L. Kay's book on German jet and gas turbines has drawings of the installation in a Panther hull, and I've got a bunch of data on the E-100 interiour both proposed and as built. Another build using the new Trumpeter kit with the new (and likely ficticious) turret would be an action scene on the Eastern front. Lots of fun.
I've also had a "history" of the German one meter mortar and the several mobile versions fielded in '43 to '45 bouncing around for decades and will finally get working on it as well.

[TsrJoe]

ooohh a WW2 german tank with a turbine..now that id love to see...any chance of a scan of it..iv a few scrap 1/32 german jet engines which may be just the thing? (Jumo 004 and BMW 002)

cheers, Joe

[Aircav]

You'd have to do an engine change ever day  great idea tho' 

[sagallacci]

While the idealized installation would have used a HeS 011 as the core, the practical version would use a BMW 003 as a compressor for a separate little combustion chamber + turbine for power to the transmission. The air was bled off the last stage of the 003 compressor. Because the main engine was set to run at a steady rate, it could be optimized for endurance, so running life wouldn't be too awful. With a heat exchanger, the fuel efficency could be bumped up to being merely awful, but it could burn the crudest of synthetic oil.
In my version, I'll be using  a version of the heat exchanger. I'll also have a regular large truck engine, probably a straight-six, coupled to a hydralic drive to the transmission as a creeping drive when the turbine wasn't in use. As everything will exhaust up , rather than back, the rear plate could have a jettisonable fuel tank hung on it.
I'll likely be doing two combat versions, a fairly conventional E-100 as proposed with the Maus turret, fitted with the 128mm main gun and a co-axial 75mm PAK 40 instead of the shorter 75, abandoned after an engine fire. The other one will be an operational gas-turbine version with the Dragon turret, in the process of being knocked out by tank-killer troops.

[sagallacci]

The new Thomas L.Jentz and Hilary Louis Doyle Panzer Tracks No.6-3 on the Maus and E-100 is chock full of potential wiffery. It includes info on the intention for Maus production in '43 which only a fortuitious Allied bombing raid kept it out of production, a MausII turret from Krupp which would have been the likely choice for the E-100 turret and several neat details about the developement history of each.

[Sauragnmon]

Interesting enough, got any clips or images out of the books? that Maus II turret sounds interesting... I'm working on a Maus right now, in 1/72, and I do want to build the Flakpanzer E-100 and Jagdpanzer E-100 with the Kora conversions soon before they get yanked out of production.  I have a soft spot for big tanks, what can I say.

[Sauragnmon]

Not a bad price, I've got the Maus partially built from Dragon.  I don't have the E-100 yet, so I can't make a comparison between the hulls, so I don't know if you could convert the Maus into the Jagdpanzer model, though I should imagine the Flakpanzer one would work since there's little change save the turret to my knowledge.

[bluedonkey99]

If the 1/72 Dragon Maus and E100 are anything like the 1/144 version they should be good to go.

As indicated the E-100 has a modified Maus Turret and a proper production body.
An odd site is to place a King Tiger Turret on the E-100 body.... it looks small, but feasible.

In fact hours of fun can be had mixing and matching the turrets of all the German amour produced by Dragon and Takara!

tigers, panthers, KTs etc... further amplified if you can get your hands on the Japanese resin kits for the Panther II,  Schmall Turm flak turrets such as the Coellian and kugelblitz!?




anyway... back to wings ;o)

[Thorvic]

Cromwell models do the E range of tanks in resin in 1/76th scale

E10, E25, E50, E75 and E100 plus some variants

http://www.xs4all.nl/~cromwell/76War.html

And the E50 & E75 in 1/35th

http://www.xs4all.nl/~cromwell/35Kits.html

Accurate Armour do some project tanks in 1/35th
http://www.accurate-armour.com/showaaproducts.cfm?category=1&subcategory=12



Geoff

[sagallacci]

My projects are going to be the 1/35 E-100s. The first will be an otherwise E-100 as we know it, but with the Maus II turret (think Maus turret but with a more conventional near vertical flat front plate, the 75mm gun on top of the main 12.7cm gun in a more compact mantel, and a slightly shorter rear, per the new Doyle drawings), the second will be a couple layers of whiffery, with the turret starting off as an original Maus type, but chopped to an approximation of a Maus II with a modified Jagdtiger fighting compartment front plate and 12.7cm gun and mantel (presuming the Maus II turret was never built, but exisiting Maus turrets were being re-used), and the much modified engine compartment will be opened up to display a GT102 gas turbine installation. The third will be an E-100 with a limited traverse turret fitted with the 17.2cm cannon from the Dragon Geschutztiger kit and an improved GT-102 gas turbine, using a HeS011 instead of a BMW003 gas generator core.  

And regarding the Geschutztiger, the gun carriage will be adapted to fit the 21cm howitzer as a towed artillery piece and the G'tiger hull will adapted to carry a 100cm grenatewerffer (a totally fictional weapon I designed)

[jcf]

And regarding the Geschutztiger, the gun carriage will be adapted to fit the 21cm howitzer as a towed artillery piece and the G'tiger hull will adapted to carry a 100cm grenatewerffer (a totally fictional weapon I designed)

C'mon Steve show us some drawings of the new gun. 

Are you going to the meeting on the 11th?

Jon

[Sauragnmon]

Not bad thoughts... I plan on building the Flakpanzer and Jagdpanzer E-100, the look of the 17cm gun is just too cool to deny.

Got any pics of comparison between the E-100 and Maus hulls?  I'm wondering where the discrepencies are... I'm sure there would be something different with the suspension, likely, among other things.  I haven't seen the built up E-100, so it makes me wonder at the difference.

[sagallacci]

The E100 hull is totally different than the Maus, think oversize TigerB hull, massively armored, big armored skirts. Totally different suspension any anything else.

[bluedonkey99]

the   e-100  is pretty representative

although the type B (i dont recall else where ith its oversize panther II/King Tiger cross turret looks cool)

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=109169


MAUS

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=25726

[Wyrmshadow]

I did a few versions myself a few years ago.