Sunday 5 August 2012

E-5 light tank destroyer

This is one I have been working on for years the E-5 light tank destroyer or E-5 Kleinpanzer.
So what is a E-5 then, now its the smallest of the German entwicklung series
(E-series) in the 5-10 ton class and least known and almost no info on it at all. It is very possible that there is no info on it because it was never planned in real life, 1 thing that is for the sure the Rutscher is not the same as the E-5, the Rutcher was a much lighter tank at 3,5 tons, that was planned in the Panzerkleinzerstorer series some 20 designs there drawn up at the end of the war but none build only the Rutscher got as far as a wooden mock up, if the E-5 was to be build it would have fit in the design specs of the Panzerkleinzerstorer, more of this all later.

Possible versions planned where:

-light tank 
-light reconnaissance vehicle
-light tank destroyer
-light APC
-radio controlled/wireless vehicle
-flamethrowing tank

and Im planning of building most of them too maybe adding a flak version too.

I have started with the light tank destroyer with a 2 man crew, armed with the 81mm PAW 600, there are other options but the 81mm PAW 600 is light, has a good range, pretty accurate for the shell type and as the ammo is based on 81mm mortar so all sort of ammo can be used.

In the past my attempts stranded mostly as I did not know what track or wheels to use, now my scratch building skills are better I made my own wheels and tracks (or track still need to cast them).
The track link is based on the Panzer 4 link only smaller, there are 19 parts in that small link.
Now its a full scratch build not 1 part is made by someone else, Im pretty proud about that.

The gun and mount still need to change, barrel is to long and I dont like the the shape of the mount so far.
Plenty of other things to do too.


Edit: By now I have redesigned the complete tank that is why it took so long, also added more info.

E-5 kleinpanzer





Also working on a crew for them and to make a nice difference a couple of ladies in lady style panzer wrap and why not its what-if and there are hardly on females figures in our hobby, Im working hard to change that.


 greetings Patrick Mondria