Paper panzers, what about the what ifs

The E-60 in question is basically following ModelCollect’s usual strategy, that is to make a kit, say the original E-75 and then make a variety of turrets that could fir on that, and then, when they brought out the E-60 to mix and match turrets that were already used on the E-75. In a way, it conforms to what the whole E series of tanks was to be about, standardisation of units that could serve as components to have various heavier or lighter turrets to make for example a medium or heavy tank, depending on what was added to the basic base unit. . It also means that when you’ve made one E-60 or E-75, you know what the others entail, and while none are going to bother Dragon for best kit title, they are pretty good.

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Next up, one of the Amusing Hobby heavies, n fact they made two tanks with essentially the same turret, one forward, one aft, something that Trumpeter also did. This one however is the Panzerkampfwagen VII VK72.01(K) ;Panzerkampfwagen VII VK72.01(K), Amusing Hobby 35A007 (2014)

Very different from the ModelCollect E-60, this is what you could actually believe would have served in WW2 had it progressed. This is one I enjoyed building a lot, and that included probably more photoetched parts than any other I’ve so far included in the thread. To me it looks like a tank more at home battling it out in city streets. Oh, and while yes, it is a nicely sized kit, the artwork on the box showing the size of the commander in the tank is way off, unless of course he was maybe four feet tall.
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Great looking kits. … And what seems to be a nice big varied collection :+1::+1:

Thanks, much appreciated. Yes, I have a lot of what my grandmother used to call dust collectors :slight_smile:

Not one, not two, but three models to fill up a bit of bandwidth and maybe entertain for a couple of minutes. First, the ModelCollect Jagdpanzer E-50 12.8cm L/55 – JAGDTIGER II. Yes, take the hull/track etc of their E-50 tank, leave out the turret and add a fixed gun position, and in a very convincing fashion compared to most What-if German tanks. The Jagd- type panzers were all about building the most tanks/tank destroyers in the last time with less materials/manpower, and honestly, this E-50 Jagdpanzer looks the part. One thing to note for later in the thread, the basic model, aside from gun fitting and wheels, is exactly the same as the E-75 Jagdpanzer. Again, stands to reason, but it does essentially mean if you buy both you are buying more or less the same kit. For my money, literally, buy the E-75 version. The eight wheels per side rather than the six of the E-75 just looks better as does the bigger gun, but you pays your money you makes you choice. Here’s my effort;







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Next up, the incredibly huge Grille30 30.5cm(Grw) L/15 Mörser “Bär” byTrumpeter;

If you ever wanted to know what a short barrel 12" gun looked like on a Royal-Tiger sized vehicle, this is it. Rather like any land battleship, my bet is this would need a few escort tanks to look after it so it could use the giant gun to bombard positions at relatively close range. That said, it’s an impressive beast.








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Finally, if Dick Dastardly drove a tank for Germany in 1947 what-if WW2, (too many hypotheticals there?) this next one would be it. The Panzerkampfwagen E-60 Ausf. D mit 12.8cm L/55 Säbelzahntiger by Modellcollect.




Yes, that turret was indeed used on their earlier E-75 and again here and there with spaced armour on the sides. That’s ModelCollect for you, they use parts for every tank and then mx and match. After all, this is what-if land, so why not. Anyway, this is one mean sporty looking sleek tank, (seriously) and, well, pushing the what-if limits even more. I mean, that is one seriously huge gun, you’d see that coming round a corner half an hour before the tank finally appeared.


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Another 3 nice additions … The Morser looks mean… You need a couple of Panther 2’s as escort tanks for it … Make a nice Dio … Great builds as well…:+1:

Thanks, and yes, I think I have the very tanks built that you mean, though with all the super heavy what-ifs they’d have their work cut out for them.

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That’s the sort of turret-and-gun combination that I refer to, when I see the some of the vehicles in World of Tanks with L/100 cannons (and elsewhere, as shown below) as “[base vehicle] mit lolturm” as a play on the planned Panther II ‘schmalturm’:

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That Panther 2 turret is based on prototypes, (I have one built but with a different gun) I’d say that while the gun is certainly notable, the weirdest aspect of that model is the use of rubberised wheels since in the last years of WW2, certainly when that turret took shape, the Germans only used full metal wheels. Back to the gun. If the Germans really were to use such weapons, I imagine they’d come up with a more realistic device to hold it stead when in transport mode, maybe fastened to the front glacis slope since the conventional arrangement would be next to useless.

It’s actually more correct for most “prototype” Panthers to use the rubber wheels, since the steel wheel version of the panther was built only in very small numbers and they actually went back to the regular rubber-rimmed wheels for the last production batches, with only the very last road wheel being the steel wheel type.

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Several of the steel-wheel Ausf. G Panthers were employed during the Ardennes offensive, where it was found that the hollow-center guide horns on the tracks were insufficiently strong to handle the additional stress from the steel wheels and had an excessive failure rate, so would need to be redesigned to function properly with the steel wheels. This redesign was never completed, given the production issues then extant.

The steel-wheel Panthers were produced by MAN in September 1944; only 24 vehicles have been definitively identified as receiving steel wheels – Fgst.Nr. 121032 through 121055 – and since MAN only built 28 Panthers during that month, it places a severe upper limit on how many would have been so equipped (ref: Jentz, Germany’s Panther Tank). The steel wheels were relegated to being used only on the rearmost road wheels, to address the increased wear on the rubber tyres for that wheel position.

I’m just going off the photos I’ve seen and what not, especially for the turrets being developed near the end of WW2, and with the shortage of rubber driving the use of steel wheels I’d have guessed this would worsen in the what-if period most of the proposed German tanks are based upon being used in if the war had gone into 1946-47. I’d say the tank pictured isn’t a prototype and my point was that the Panther 2 turret shown was based on prototypes, not that it was a prototype.

I’ll jump in and add my two completed paper panzers here. The first is a Modelcollect E-75 with some PE added. I tried to keep it as realistic as possible. It’s a pretty bare bones kit and I replaced the tools, added tool clasps, scratch details, and other doo dads to make it a decent model.











Next is the Amusing Hobby Lowe. This is an amazing kit and just brilliant to put together. Everything you need is in the box. Highly recommended.





















Thanks for looking!

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Nice pair of builds there Matt. Great finishes on both. Some nice weathering on each one :+1:

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Very nice indeed, and if you look at both you’ll see that both ModeCollect and Amusing Hobby are engaged in what I described before, mix and match. Your E-75 is basically the same kit as the second model I posted here but without the added spaced armour around the turret, which was also used just as you built it in the last E-60 I posted. The Lowe on the other hand, (a kit I haven’t managed to get yet but certainly intend to after seeing how great it looks from your build) uses the same turret as the Panzerkampfwagen VII VK72.01(K) I posted, only that version has the turret aft and the engine forward, Elephant style.

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All this paper panzer talk is now making look for the Trumpy E100 super heavy … My poor wallet …:see_no_evil:

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Apologies for that but I will keep a lookout for anywhere that is having a sale, etc. which sometimes happens at Easter. You never know :slight_smile:

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Seen elsewhere on this site but here is my contribution to the “Paper Panzers.”
In this case the paper was my own.


This design again based on the thinking that if the war had continued much longer the Germans would have had to consider a closed-top, heavy duty, armored recovery Berge.

I call it my Sd.Kfz. 88m
p.s. and Yes, there is a full Berge Winch tucked inside there!

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