CTA Entry: DML E-100

[Ruben Lopez]

Hi every one! Glad to be here in this great effort. For this thread I'll going to build the E-100 from DML. This is going to be an out of the box build but I still have not decided how I'm going to finish it; with or without camo.

So lets start the build!
First the required photo with the date.

Here is a close up.

As it is always the case I didn't follow the order of the instructions and started building the hull instead of the wheels. The hull is composed of four parts; sides, bottom and rear plate. Here it is.

Next the springs for the suspension are glued in place.

Then the arms for the wheels are put in place. The fit is so tight that they don't need glue to stay put!

Thats all for now folks!

Next the wheels and tracks. :yipee

See you soon!

 

[MrT]

 

[moon puppy]

Welcome aboard Rubin, man those are some old campaign ribbons.

 

[Sherman 18]

 

[jknaus]

Cool stuff. This should be fun to watch.
James

 

[razordws]

Looking forward to this!

 

[Iron Mike]

Hey Ruben! Good to see you around! That E-100 is huge, ja?

 

[Ruben Lopez]

Thanks for the comments guys!

MP, my ribbons can give you an idea of how much time I've been out of this.
Mike, You are right! the hull alone is about 10 inches long!

Now it is time to continue...

I installed the road wheels and tracks to the chassis.

The arm for the idlers fits so tight in their holes that I didn't glue them which let me adjust them later when I was installing the track.

I was going to build this in “out of the box” fashion but the idea of a diorama came to my mind and that was the end of it. Since the engine hatch is a separate piece I decided to add an engine; so I installed the Tamiya engine to the interior. (Maybe it is not the correct one but it looks better with something in there.

Next I cut two pieces of styrene and painted them black to cover the holes of the radiators so you don't see the empty hull thru them.

Here you can see the engine and the pieces in place. I glued them to the bottom of the fans creating a space between the styrene and the hull; that way you get a shadow when you look from the top.

Here is the hull from the top.

Since I am planing on posing the hatch open I had to add some detail to the inside. Here you can see the supports for the air intake covers.

The front of the hull. The glacis plate has the weld lines where it meets the sides of the chassis but there are gaps in there so I removed the weld lines and made new ones with styrene rod.

Here are the new ones.

I also did the ones for the rear plate since the model doesn't have any.

Another thing missing is the support for the skirts that should be present in the edges of the glacis plate.

Here it is done. It is not 100% complete but the rest won't be seen anyway!

By the way, the front edge of the skirts is too thin so I corrected it using some epoxy putty. The piece of styrene is the other half of the support.

The rest of the skirts. The only thing you have to add are the conical nuts to them.

Next I glued all the parts that go in the rear plate. The exhaust received styrene bolts to make them look better.

And the glacis received the light and its cable.

Next, the turret.

 

[Iron Mike]

:drinks

 

[MrT]

Very good progress Ruben!!

Terry B)

 

[jknaus]

James

 

[moon puppy]

Thanks for the comments guys!

MP, my ribbons can give you an idea of how much time I've been out of this.
Mike, You are right! the hull alone is about 10 inches long!

Now it is time to continue...

I installed the road wheels and tracks to the chassis.

The arm for the idlers fits so tight in their holes that I didn't glue them which let me adjust them later when I was installing the track.

I was going to build this in “out of the box” fashion but the idea of a diorama came to my mind and that was the end of it. Since the engine hatch is a separate piece I decided to add an engine; so I installed the Tamiya engine to the interior. (Maybe it is not the correct one but it looks better with something in there.

Next I cut two pieces of styrene and painted them black to cover the holes of the radiators so you don't see the empty hull thru them.

Here you can see the engine and the pieces in place. I glued them to the bottom of the fans creating a space between the styrene and the hull; that way you get a shadow when you look from the top.

Here is the hull from the top.

Since I am planing on posing the hatch open I had to add some detail to the inside. Here you can see the supports for the air intake covers.

The front of the hull. The glacis plate has the weld lines where it meets the sides of the chassis but there are gaps in there so I removed the weld lines and made new ones with styrene rod.

Here are the new ones.

I also did the ones for the rear plate since the model doesn't have any.

Another thing missing is the support for the skirts that should be present in the edges of the glacis plate.

Here it is done. It is not 100% complete but the rest won't be seen anyway!

By the way, the front edge of the skirts is too thin so I corrected it using some epoxy putty. The piece of styrene is the other half of the support.

The rest of the skirts. The only thing you have to add are the conical nuts to them.

Next I glued all the parts that go in the rear plate. The exhaust received styrene bolts to make them look better.

And the glacis received the light and its cable.

Next, the turret.

:yipee

So you're one of them huh, painting the tracks on the model. I just can't figure out how you guys do that but...

 

[Ruben Lopez]

Mike, Terry, James and MP, thanks for the comments; really appreciated.
MP, yes, I'm one of those who paints the tracks glued to the tank. (In fact I try to paint everything after being glued to the vehicle.) You'll see how easy it is compared to paint and then glue them!

So here is the turret.

It is this massive piece of plastic which is done in two parts; the roof with all the sides, and the bottom plate which has the turret ring. The only parts you add are the vision ports (top and sides), the pivot for the gun hatches and those little half round tubes that I assume are for the collapsible crane.

The only modification was to open the hole for the gunners sight and insert a piece of styrene rod to simulate the sight. Here is a close up.

Next is was time for the mantle and the barrels. For the muzzle brake Dragon includes a piece of PE that you should wrap around the muzzle and insert the ends in a slot in the bottom of it. I did it but since the fit is not so good I decided to use the PE as a template and drill the holes directly into the plastic.

Next I assembled everything.

Now, the paint!
Stay tuned.

 

[Iron Mike]

Large!

 

[moon puppy]

Good idea on the muzzle break.

 

[Gatto]

That's one big jigger looks good.

Gatto

 

[phantom II]

Wow, that's a lot of steel err plastic !

Good job on the muzzle brake Ruben , that must have taken a lot of elbow grease .

Looking forward to the hat tricks on the paint job.

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[MrT]

Big turret! Big tracks! Big tank! I like it!

 

[lupanzer]

... ...following with a big attention!

:drinks

Luiz.

 

[SA Dave]

GREAT :woohoo: