1/35 StuG E100
Trumpeter 1/35 StuG E100

Finished! Trumpeter 1/35 scale "StuG E 100".

This is a fictional assault gun based off chassis of the German experimental E 100 super-heavy tank, that was being constructed at the end of the Second World War. Being that it is fictional I cannot give exact statistics for it, but I can estimate the frontal hull armour to be 150-200mm thick, whilst the casemate armour would likely approach 300mm.

Measuring the calibre of the gun on the model, I got a figure of 6mm, which when converted from 1/35 scale to 1/1 gave me a figure of 21cm. Some research found that the gun seems to be the 21cm Kanone 39, a Czech built heavy artillery piece that fired a 135(!)kg shell.

The kit was a very straightforward and pleasant build. I started with the lower hull and then moved on to the upper hull, and once that was completed I joined them together. I made the decision to fit the side skirts before the wheels to make painting easier, and as the tracks included were one piece I was able to get away with this. After building all the wheels and gun barrel and setting them aside I moved onto the painting.

I first painted the main body of the vehicle all over in Vallejo Sand Yellow to represent the popular dunkelgelb colour many German vehicles were painted in. I used this for most of the wheels too except for the ones I wanted to paint another colour. Following this I masked off the bottom area of the casemate and proceeded to use red-brown and dark green paints to create the camouflage markings on the hull. This was done with no masking, just a low pressure on the air brush.

After this I moved on to the casemate, first I masked off the hull to prevent any paint getting onto that, and then using blu-tack I created a line to divide off the front area of the casemate that I wanted to spray in the German primer colour. I made this colour by mixing a little red paint into the usual red-brown I use, I am very happy with how this went! I also used this colour to paint 3 wheels for each side (the other wheels were painted in the sand yellow).

I painted the gun barrel with steel grey, a colour included in my "cold war silver darts" paint set. The tracks were lightly sprayed with rust colour and metallic steel colour to give them a lightly worn look, I also used metallic steel to paint the rims of the wheels, as if the paint had been worn off them.

After painting, I fitted the gun and tracks to the model, and added some light weathering using rust color, gunmetal, metallic steel, and metallic black. I sprayed some areas very lightly with rust to give it worn look. Following this weathering I sprayed the top side of the vehicle with Pledge floor gloss in preparation for decals.

The decals included were some basic numbers and German crosses, in the end the only decals from the kit I used were the "2 1" decals that I put on the rear access door. The crosses on the side are the emblem of Kuromorimine school from the anime series "Girls und Panzer". I had these left over from a set I bought to make a Tiger II earlier, so decided they would look good. I also added a whole lot of "battle damage" decals that were included with some other kits I bought, and I think they actually look pretty good, especially the scrape marks.

Finally, after leaving the decals to dry, I applied a coat of matt varnish to seal in the decals and bring down the glossy shine from the plastic and pledge.

In conclusion, this was a very nice (and BIG!) kit to build, and I can definitely recommend it if you are fond of "what-if" projects. I also included a size comparison with my 1/35 Anglerfish Pz. IV Ausf D Kai I made last year.

Now I just have to find somewhere to put it...

Happy Building!