A few weeks ago, I posted some photos of a part built and then completed Modelcollect E-100 Wotan 1/72 model. These are part of the Fist of War series, and they’re essentially fantasy models with a loose connection to WW2. That’s not to say they aren’t enjoyable to build. In fact, because you can muck about with paintwork or essentially anything you want, they are very freeing because no one can say what you do aint so. Getting them to look real is the main effort. In keeping with the Wotan, the P-1000 and P-300 from the same series, (see previous threads of mine) these are all being winterised, basically a dark grey base coat overpainted with white and then weathered, heavily. What I found with this kit was that compared to the Wotan, the turret, (based on the fantasised E-100 turret version that made it all the way from a scratch build to being adopted by several kit manufacturers as a what-if E-100 turret) was undersized. Had I built the kits the other way about, maybe I’d have felt differently, but what it looks like is a lot of carriage supporting very little armament. Because the tank body and legs, etc. are identical to the Wotan kit. Only the turret has changed. What I also found was depending on how you pose the legs, this can seem a smaller tank that the other I made. That was built stationary, the drop-down stairs underneath deployed, and as a result the legs were posed high. As you’ll see, by altering the angles to a more crouching position, as though the tank is on the move, it becomes more squat and tucked away. Anyway, here’s what I’m waffling on about;
Your painting looks great.
The turret you mention is, I think, from the Michael Rinaldi scratchbuild he did years ago. It is quite low, but to me it’s more like the legs are too big for the whole tank.
I liked that all your talk of legs and squats caused an advert to appear under your post for a bad knee remedy.
It did make wonder if there’s a mechanism to stop the gunner shooting up their own knees.
Yes, that is exactly where the turret originated. I think it was Trumpeter who first appropriated the design, but now it’s basically an accepted deign, even though it’s pure invention. If you look up the Wotan version, with the open twin 128mm turret, along with ball turret AA behind it, it all looks in proportion. Of course it’s all just fantasy, but then, when you look at a lot of the what if? paper panzers that were drawn up in WW2, lots of those were totally impractical and unworkable too.
Oh, and thanks for your kind words about my painting. As always in all my builds, it’s all brushwork, no airbrushes were harmed in the making of these models 