Okay, it’s a clickbait title. I confess. But still, it’s pretty funny. As Yuri Pasholok informed – basically, Trumpeter (a well-known kit-making company) said their E-100 kit wouldn’t be a copy of a WoT model….
Oooooooooops. The 150mm muzzle brake gun is not on the original drawings, it was added by Wargaming.
This, of course, is nothing new. Wargaming had a tremendous influence on kit makers for years – especially when it comes to vehicles that are both very attractive and require a large portion of “creativity” at the same time. In other words, various German wunderwaffe paper panzers. And so stuff like Jagdpanzer E-100 and even the infamous fake Waffenträger E-100 were copied by kit makers.
I am not super interested in kits, to be quite honest. However, Trumpeter is a well-known brand and the fact they rely on Wargaming’s modelers instead of their own research is a bit disappointing.
Let’s wait for some kit maker to argue that their T28 Prototype is based on original documents and not WG model :)
Well, actually this picture could be the real cause. When i look up E-100 muzzle break i get this picture http://www.aviarmor.net/tww2/photo/germany/grille_koenigtiger/grille_koenig_8.jpg
this looks like a pretty legit inspiration for this. (I know this probably isnt a 150mm cannon)
Also, did you look at their original facebook post about this? Because here their making a specific statement towards gamers.
It is a legit photo. It is however of the 17.2cm cannon muzzle break for the 172mm cannon proposed for the Tiger II based SPG.
That being said both WG and Trumpeter got their muzzle break wrong. The holes in the break do NOT extend around the entire break. Something WG and Trumpeter have both got wrong. The reason is, dust kick up is not something you want and thus the break was designed accordingly.
Amusing hobby also announced an E-100 kit, also with a similar muzzle brake, althoigh that looks more like the original muzzle brake the E-100 had in WoT, with linear holes like on a SU-152. To be fair the Krupp PaK44 had that muzzle brake, but undoubtedly WoT shaped the perceived image of an E-100 with that sort of muzzle brake.
The company is Chinese what did you expect?
Come on SS, you ought to know this is nonsense. The Maus II turret drawing inset depicts a 128mm KwK, like Doyle’s drawings of the turret. Every drawing you’ll find of a Maus turret with a 15cm KwK depicts a muzzle brake. If you have the Panzer Tracts on the Maus and E-100, you can see one such drawing on page 3. There’s a well-photographed wooden mockup of a Maus turret with a 15cm gun and a cylindrical muzzle brake you can find online. Hell, even the very-well photographed small-scale model of the Maus displayed to Hitler had a representation of a muzzle brake on its model 15cm gun. And it should go without saying, in terms of armament, what goes for Maus goes for E-100. You didn’t ask yourself why the inset drawing barrel is so long and thin compared to the WoT and Trumpeter 15cm guns?
Tl;dr: the muzzle brake is perfectly fine and WoT did not invent it.
The only thing WoT may have any claim at all to is the layout of the gas venting holes in the brake, as all the drawings and mockups depict its plain shape only. Even then it’s tenuous as a number of these ‘pepperpot’ style brakes were built for other guns before the end of the war, which should plainly show staggered lines of circular holes is not WG intellectual property.
Did Dragon rip off WoT before WoT existed because their old kit of the E-100 has a 15cm KwK with a muzzle brake, just like these? Their kit uses the Maus I turm, but the gun is the same.
Yes but this is not a Maus, this is the E-100 one that never even had the 152mm variant listed as an option, it wouldn’t fit due to the position of the rangefinder (or so Yuri claims).
I believe it wouldn’t fit with the 7.5cm above it either, honestly. According to Panzer Tracts 6-3, though, on May 17 1944, it was decided a turret identical to Maus II would be used for E-100, except for thinner side armor to lower the weight, then including a 12.8cm gun. The next line then refers to meetings on May 30/31 at Kummersdorf where the vehicle is specifically named “15cm auf E-100″. Surely that does mean the 15cm KwK was considered for E-100 after the turm design was finalized, or either Jentz is wrong to call it that, or for some reason they reverted to 1942 Maus turret designs when discussing it? Also, Trumpeter’s comment was made in reply to somebody pointing out the new rear-casemate Jagdpanzer E-100 kit was different from the WoT vehicle, which it is, for what that’s worth. I was in the conversation; Trumpeter’s facebook guy made a funny passive-aggressive comment about Italeri.
It’s possible that the final redesign of the vehicle had the gun housed in a casemate instead of in a turret, in a configuration similar to the in game Jagdpanzer E-100, which meand that could then be the E-100 itself, just in it’s last proposed design.
http://ritastatusreport.blogspot.it/2015/03/about-e-100-and-its-guns.html
By the way, how do you thin is the new Trumpeter Jagdpanzer E-100 supposed to move the gun horizontally?
never seen a “trumpeter” kit brant in jakarta. we got only either Tamiya or some cheap chinese brand. model kits aren’t really popular here, except if they’re anime or gundam
Well, biggest “problem” – 15 cm impossible for this turret. In reality on drawings 12.8 cm Kw.K. L/55. 15 cm L/37 was added for “balance” from Tiger-Maus turret.
It’s OK for game, but for 1:35 scale… LOL.