Trumpeter 1/35th E-100 Jag Pz WiP

[bish]

I have been itching to get to this build all year and its finally here. The E-100 Jag pz is my biggest armour build to date and will be my first urban dio in a very long time.



I'll be adding a PE set from Voyager, which is the smallest and least complicated of their PE sets that i have seen. And the one piece kit tracks will be replaced with Trump indy link workables. Plus i will be keeping an eye on the spares box's to see if their is anything from those i can add. I know for certain i will be replacing the old style exhausts in the kit with muffler style ones from a Panther kit.

I was able to get a head start on this just over a week ago when i wasn't able to work on the other builds. My main focus has been on the running gear which is now complete. First thing to tackle was a couple of wheels. As is often the case with German steel rimmed road wheels, they all had a seam that had to be removed.



After primer, it was time for an early painting session. I am doing the whole vehicle with a green base with the DY and brown on top.



After a coat of future, i did a raw Umber oil wash and some light dry brushing. The rims got a coat of Citadel steel and a raw umber wash. This will be it until they get some dirt effects and pigments with the rest of the vehicle.



The suspension was rather easy, certainly not Dragon head banging. Its just one long piece on each side with all the springs on and then just the axel arms to fit.



This was then just given a coat of green, you can't see any other this behind the wheels.





And the tracks. This went together really nicely, but were a pain to get ready. There are 51 links each side with 4 different parts. the parget part had 4 sprue attachments on each piece and were a pain to clean. But once done, they are really nice tracks, and fully workable.

And very long.



A primer coat was followed by Tamiya NATO black followed by a steel dry brush.







And another Raw Umber oil wash.



And tonight, all this was put together.





And i have also been able to do some work on the gun. Its not often i use two piece plastic barrels, so i wanted to get this done. The muzzle does have holes in but needs cleaning up and the instructions recommend a 1.5m drill bit. I thought this was a bit big, but it worked out fine. I am leaving the barrel off to make it easier to paint inside the mounting.



And thats it for now. With the other two builds done, i can now focus on this. I plan on starting on the base soon. I am useing a building, path and cobbel section from Great North Roads. But i did find one issue. When i was planning it out a couple of weeks ago, i realised the cobbles and path are not big enough, so i need to buy another section of each next month.

More soon.

[Leon]

Off to a great start and looking good Bish!

[dupes]

Lordy she's a big one! Would love to add this to the collection some day. Tracks look great!

[Tojo72]

Nice,I had my eye on that one but never pulled the trigger on it,should be a nice project.

[tobias5555]

Good start.

[bish]

Thanks guys.

dupes, your not wrong, and rather weighty as well. I have the upper hull on and she is already piling on the pounds.

Tojo, it looks a really nice kit and so far no issues. This is my first Trump kit of any kind and I am please with it. And despite the size, its not over complicated and not to many parts. If this was dragon, there would probably be as many parts in the suspension as there is in the whole kit.

[dierk]

Good start! Now that you've got the tedious bits out of the way the fun can begin!

[bish]

Thanks dierk. And ye, that was my thinking, do that bit here and there over the week and then get stuck into the rest as soon as the other builds were done.

[thechaos]

good Start for this Monster.

[wbill76]

Don't blink or you'll have it all done! Off to a good start on the beast there Bish.

[bish]

Thanks guys. Don't worry Bill, it will slow down once I get to the base.

Progress has been good on the big guy. Its now all ready for some paint. The first thing i did after the tracks were done was stick the top on.





Then i started to add all the bits and pieces. Its been nice to get a chance to dig into the spares box, especially the Panther one which is a bit full after a few Dragon Panther. I replace the kits old style exhausts with some panther muffler ones which look a bit more meaty and i think much better suited to a vehicle this size.

Also, the kit provides an antenna mount for a Star Antenna. But the Voyager set provides a resin replacement. But as any good command vehicle should have 2 antenna's, I used the kit provided mount without the ceramic pot for the 2m antenna.

You can also see i sprayed some green along the bottom of the superstructure where the side skirts will go. I did the same to the inside of the skirts.







The skirts were then added and all the last bits fitted. The kit includes some unused parts clearly intended for the E-100 tank kit. These include the spare track holders and vehicle tools. I decided to use both these so the spare track holders were fitted and some PE brackets from the spares box as the Voyager PE does not include any.







And some with the barrel dry fitted so you can see what it will look like.







There are a few parts that will be painted separately and fitted later. These include a nice resin night vision device from the AM set.





Overall, this has been a really nice kit. But there are a couple of really minor negatives. While the Trump AM tracks reminded me of the best of Dragon. Some other features made me think back to the Italeri panzerwerfer i recently built. This include location indicators on the outside. There are 4 locations, 2 on each side, for a device i have not yet fathomed out. Each location has two mounts, one above the other. Here you can see the upper one fitted after the raised area was removed. Below it the location of the lower piece.



And also there is lots of small flash especially around smaller bits. Its something i would expect from a small company not a big one like Trump. This, combined with things i have heard such as the issues with the 32nd Ju 87B, makes me think they are a company that can really produce great kits but get lazy when it comes to the finer detail.

That's my view on it anyway.

And finally the base. You can see the one piece of cobble stone section i have laid down. On the right you can see the markings for the path and building. I need to build up that side to raise up those bit.



And thats all for now folks.

[Leon]

Really good progress Bish! I love the looks of this beast.

[bish]

Thanks leon. It is rather impressive. I know have the first coat on, looks even better green.

[tobias5555]

Looking great. You add so much extra parts, maybe you should use the RB 17 cm gun to.

[bish]

Thanks Tobias. I did think about an AM gun but I could not find one just for this kit and was not sure what size the gun was meant to be, looking at it I might well have got away with that RB gun. O well, the kit one is all painted up and fitted now. Thanks for the suggestion.

One PE set and one set of tracks is not much for me, makes a change.

[pt109]

Nice one! Really impressive camo job!

Impressive kit.

Paul

[modsrule1976]

This is looking amazing. It's next on my list....pulls up a chair

[bish]

Thanks guys. mods, its a nice kit, nothing to complicated, just leave plenty of room.

I spent the best part of the weekend painting so thought i would share the results. I have gone for green base that the Germans were using as the war came to an end. And i don't know about you, but i reckon if Marvel had ever come up with a Hulk Mobile, this would be it.







And then the other colour colours were added. I rather like the German schemes where the DY is bordered by thin red brown, so i went with that idea but with a difference. I did have to do some tidying up afterwards but did leave some areas of overspray.









And then the barrel, which was painted off the vehicle, was added and the markings applied. For them i wanted low viz markings. I decided not to go with the coloured numbers the Germans actually used. I did want black outline numbers, but the only ones i could find were from Archer. despite being bigger than i wanted, i got a set, but i just couldn't apply them. I lost about half dozen numbers before i gave up and went with some 72nd German black numbers form my Luftwaffe decal stash, as are the black crosses. On reflection i should have gone with these from the start. The whole thing then got some light oil dry brushing.









This would normally be followed by a coat of future before weathering. But i have decided to give Alclad Aqua gloss a try. That should be here in a day or so, but as i am in no rush, i will leave this to dry for the week. In the mean time i can get some work done on the figures and get the tools and exhausts painted up.

So that's all for now.

[Tojo72]

Very cool paint job

[bish]

Thanks Tojo.

[bish]

Just a short update this weekend. I have hardly touched the vehicle, only painting the exhausts. This was done with oil paints and Tamiya weathering powders. I also dry brushed some green around the top. This has been drying since wed and i got my Alclad Aqua gloss a few days ago. So now its all dry, I can get to weathering.



My main focus has been the figures. I have worked on SS camo over the past couple of years, but this is the first time I have tried German army camo. I checked a number of sites for colour suggestions using Vallejo paints. But I am still building up my collection of that brand as i switch from Tamiya for figure painting. But, as this is a what if and clothing colour can vary, I was not worried about being to précises, so I used what I had.

I was reasonably pleased with the results until I looked at the photo, here they look bloody awful. Aside from them looking like they have been painted by a 2 year old, I have not left enough of the lighter base colour showing and the rain streaks are way to large. I used a 10/0 brush and dark green paint. I saw one build on Armorama and he did a great job with a 000 brush. I have also seen people use pens, but they seem to be a bit thick.

So while the figures are not to bad to the naked eye, i am now having thoughts about going over the camo again. Here is two of the figures. I decided to try an oil wash which i like the look of. Both have had the trouser washed, the one of the left raw Umber and the one on the right Raw Umber/Yellow Ochre mix.



I have also been doing the base. Using some scrap wood i raised the areas where the path and house will be.





And found something handy to weigh it down with.



And the building was then added.



And some chipboard was added inside to bring up the floor level and add some support to the walls.



So i can now start painting the house, it will be 2 weeks before i can get the rest of the cobbles and path.

That's all for now. All comments and suggestions welcome, especially on those figures.

[wbill76]

Beast is coming together nicely Bish, good choice on the camo. Base should give it a nice place to sit as well...don't want to ask how much it will all weigh in at once you're done though!

[bish]

Thanks Bill. And ye, its going to be damn heavy. Even the vehicle itself has some weight, which surprised me especially as how little metal there is on it.

[Leon]

Nice work on the camo and the base is looking good Bish!

[bish]

Thanks leon, its coming on slowly but surely.

[Wes]

Very nice stuff Bish. Where did you get the cobblestone from?

[bish]

Thanks Wes. They come from a UK company, Great North Roads, long with the path sections and building.

[bish]

Time to wrap up at least one part of this build. The final stages of the Jagd were all on the weathering. I started off with a light dot filter. I used less oil and lighter colours to get a lighter more dusty effect than i have done on previous builds and i am really happy with the result. This was followed up by a pin wash and some very light chipping. As you can see, i also have the antenna's and FG 1250 IR sight fitted.





One thing that's had me stumped is the piece of equipment which can go in one of the 4 mounting positions, 2 on either side of the vehicle. One review i read said this was an ammo hoist, but that does not make any sense. Even from the rear position, it could not swing ammo round to the rear hatch, and the front positions would be useless.

So, anyone have any other ideas.



The FG 1250 is resin and come with the Voyager set. they include this in a few of their AM sets but this is the first i have used and its rather nice.



To finish off the weathering, i used some MiG and AK pastels. The Voyager set also includes PE metal sheets for protecting the louvers. I painted this steel and tried to replicate some mild rust finish. It took several attempts, but i am pretty pleased with the end result.









I also got the camo on the figures finished. near the end of the war the Germans were working on a new version of their camo uniforms intended to counter IR equipment that other countries as well as the Germans were working on. It consisted of the normal camo being overprinted with hard-edged carbon black polygons. I had heard of it but never seen an image. Some one over on FSM posted a link which showed it, which was very useful. So i replicated this with Tamiya NATO black.



So, now i can put the vehicle to one side and get the figures wrapped up. that should take a couple of days and then i can concentrate on the base.

[Leon]

Nice finish On the Jagd Bish! Weathering looks great.

[Wes]

Right on Bish. Love the weathering brother. The dot filter seems to do the trick nicely.