e-100 vrs maus

Bill, I'm happy for you. Sounds like you've made the majority of us happy. Lol. I, myself was scared off by the Firefly's tracks, so you've got backbone to do those. Shermies proud, I'm sure. Your birthday's this month also, whens yours? Libras rock! Of course, you could be a Scorpio. Birthday's coming, so skys the limit for you! Have a blast.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

Scorpio it is, barely. One day earlier and I would have been a Libra (if I remember right! Not too much into that stuff.)
My b-day is the 25th, so getting close!

I played around with the kits a little this weekend. I put together 5 (whoa, boy!) links of the Firefly. More work than anyother one I've done previously. They were all single piece (although sometimes two different, alternating) links. But let me tell you, they are a piece of cake compared to the ones for the Dragon Kettenkraftrad. Oh brother! If those were the first indy links I'd tried, I'd NEVER do another one. I put 5 of those links together, too. They are T I N Y! You fit one side of a link into the opposite side of the next link, as usual, but rather than just glue them together, you have to fit a little pad with a small pin on it down into the joint between the two links and glue it there. With very careful work, it might be possible to make them workable, but what a nightmare! I'll be happy if they just come out looking half decent. It's going to be a real chore to get them bent around the drive/idler wheels! Whoopie!! Back to the Tiger where the pieces are big enough to work with!

Have a fun time, all.

Bill

ive just picked up a E 100 today Dragon should give J Hulk free E 100s for his photos of his
are there going to be any E-100 sticky theads or sherman group builds in the future, or just battle of the bulge or Normandy group builds
its my Birthday coming up aswell on the 9th November Libras just think they rule

Happy future birthday, fellow Scorpio!!

The E looks pretty cool. Massive tracks. I was surprised to see they have what's basically a link and length build. I hope I can make them come out right!

Bill

E-Mania strikes the FSM forums!!!

I wouldn't mind doing another, actually. A buddy o' mine is just starting his, too.

The link and length is a pretty good deal.
One word of advice: leave the idler loose so you can cinch 'em up with the trax in the back. I thought I'd be able to take up any slack with copious track sag, but no dice. Had to do some quick slicin' and dicin' to get 'em all hooked up. Thankfully I had planned on full skirts from the beginning!

The whole idler assembly is a little weak and ambiguous. If I did it again, I'd run a brass axle through the hull and into the idler arms, and leave 'em loose as mentioned above. Some decent sink holes on those arms, if I remember correctly.

Happy E-ing to all!

I haven't looked that closely at the kit, yet, Brian. But I'm impressed with it. I can not believe the size of those tracks! I thought the Tiger tracks were big! Thanks for the idea for the brass axle. I may try and incorporate that into my E! If I do, I'll let you know how it works. Looks like a pretty fun build. I did notice that the links have two ejector pin marks on each link. They will be NOT fun to fix. Dragon has come up with a way to kick those things out of the molds without leaving the marks on the links. But the only kit I've seen it used is the Elefant, and they got the links themselves wrong! Oh well, guess we need some challanges with our builds. Wish they would have done it without the pin marks on their newer kits, though.

Robert, I messed around with the Firefly a little, too. One thing I noticed was that the transmission housing looks way too "textured". I think they went way overboard in trying to represent the casting pattern. What do you think? (I'm really glad I got the Firefly!! Thanks)

Catch you later,

Bill

Bill, actually Scorpio starts on October 23, I'm on the cusp- Oct.22. Caveman, even though I'm almost a Scorpio, I won't get on a soapbox and say why we Libras are superior. LOL Maybe that might be a different thread. Nah.....

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

Eric, knew I was close. Sounds like we ought to get together and celebrate!!! LOL

Hope you get lots of goodies!!

Bill

Well Bill, actually I did. I got Tamiya's Panther G w/pe, Dragon's Elefant and Tamiya's Marder III M. It's early, but it beats getting something I didn't want. Actually, they were at good prices. We still might get to hook up next year if i see my brother-in-law down in your area. Will keep you up to date.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

Cric;
Sounds great!

Pick up a set of Jaguar indy tracks for that Elefant. They are made for the Italeri, but fit Dragon's perfectly. Dragons are inaccurate!
Jaguars are fairly cheep (for indy's, about $15) and go together easily. The only problem I had with them was when I cut them off the sprue. I can't remember exactly how they are hooked on, but if I didn't do it in a certain order, it had a tendency to break or at least crack the link. I fixed a few of the cracked ones, and had enough extra to replace the ones that broke. When I cut them in the "right" order, it was fine. They look great, painted easily, and were fun to do.

Congrats,

Bill

Thanks for the advice on the tracks, I believe I have heard that Dragons were no good. Does Jaguar make any for the 251/D?
I know AFV does, but wondered if there were any other reasonably priced ones out there. That has been the hangup for me on that kit, vinyl tracks. Thanks. Congrats on your score.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

Bill, it is definitely a sinkhole symphony on those E-trax, but they're not so hard to take care of. I did it the hard way and filled and sanded after I had installed 'em, but (here it comes!) if I did it again, I would build the lengths, THEN fill and sand all the sinkholes before putting 'em on.
Sounds obvious, I know, but I put the darned things on first because I had no intention of filling those holes. Then I was taunted into doing it by a friend! I'm glad he talked me into it.

Brian, sounds like what I've been going through with the tracks on the Tiger. In fact, they are the main reason I'm looking for am tracks. I put a few together, too, then decided I needed to fill the ejector pin marks. it's not an easy thing after they are together. I have a tendency to get a lot of putty between the links. Guess it could wind up looking like mud, or something! LOL

Eric, (sorry about the Cric before!! lol) Jaguar has very little in the way of tracks, I believe. I'll see what I can find. The problem with the Dragon links is, they put the little slanty cleats on the face of the links pointing the wrong way. Compare the links to the picture on the box. Volstad got it right, the toolmaker got it wrong! It's really too bad because otherwise, they are fantastic moldings (or are they castings??). Great Models has them in stock, but are showing limited. I'd grab another pair, if they had been used on anything other than the Elefant. Even the ones for the Ferdinand were different.

Have fun,

Bill

Thanks Bill. If I ever finish my Panzer III, It'll be a coin toss to see what gets built next. Mood changes all the time.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

Eric;

I bought the Eduard detail set and their pe zimmerit set for my Elefant. I wouldn't go with the zimm set. Doing it again, I'd definately do it with putty. The detail set is okay, but I've run into a little confusion with some of the instructions (not as bad as Aber, though). I also bought two sets of pe fenders. I think the first was from Royal. They were for the Italeri kit and didn't quite fit the DML, so I bought the Aber set specifically for the DML Elefant and Ferdinand. They fit well, though I had a little tinkering to do with the pe zimmerit. But there are some crescent fittings that are unbelievable! You have to bend a thin strip to the outside circumference of the crescents, then cement a crescent to each side of the strip! I've got one (maybe two) done in about 7 or 8 months! I get part of one done and it's so frustrating, I have to get away from it for a while. And then, the instructions don't say exactly where to put them. They also say to use a piece of plastic card under the fenders. Again, nothing that says exactly where, and it doesn't even say what size to make it. There are two dimensions given, but one of them looked like thickness rather than width to me. Not sure. I measured a similar looking area molded onto the bottom of the DML fenders, and figured that's where the plastic card was supposed to go and the size looked about right, so I went from there. There are also four little crescents on the DML piece, so I'm using them to approximate where the Aber pieces go, but it just doesn't line up quite right. All in all, I think the DML fenders look pretty good, detail wise. Just a little thick. And they look better every time I work on the Aber ones! LOL No discouragement intended. Just trying to let you know some of the problems I've had. The straight DML build is pretty clean, so far. (Oh, Aber has a full detail set out for it, too. If you dare! LOL) Let me know how it goes. Good luck with the III. I'd like to do one of those sometime, too.

Take care;

Bill

Thanks for the advice Bill. Let's see now........P/E detail set, P/E fender set , P/E zimmerit set, and Jaguar tracks adds up to YIKES! [:0] That probably comes to 3X what I paid for the kit! Hhhmm.....that sort of takes the fun out of buying it at a good price. I've heard before not to get the P/E zimmerit, so that saves a few bucks. I'm pretty much an out of box guy, but am exploring options when they arise. The Panzer III is coming along and is a nice kit. Too many wheels! Next up weathering.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

Wanna see it!!

I'll let you know more about the detail set as I use it. (Glad I've got the little Hold 'n Fold now!!)

Have a nice night.

Bill