admin said:

Good thing is that it finally lets you avoid paying for the resin turret which, on it's own, runs about 50 bucks.  Bad news is that it would have probably gon on an E-50 with six not eight wheel drive as shown here (though the baseline E-50 will be heavier than a panther and looks funky with only six roadwheels).  I think the rounded rear turret piece is also prototype only as it's easier to form multiplate welds than it is to roll a single huge, complex curveature piece like that.  Weapons system wise, the big issue is the gun.  The 55mm was a developmental piece (many say that the S-60 is based on the prototype Gerat 58 which is shown here) and was badly needed as a standardized flak weapon with enough ballistic reach to handle medium bombers in the 12-15,000ft range and enough rate of fire to catch lolo jabo strafers wreaking such havoc among both frontal formations and resupply units.  The 37mm was enough for the jabos but not for the mediums.  However; the 55mm would have meant taking up yet another new ammunition type (i.e. new dies and toolings) by the already hard pressed wartime industries and without a radar proximity fuze, it's utility using simple optical ranging is questionable given the functional traverse and elevation rate limitations plus lack of stabilization available at the time.  Indeed that center hatch -should- cover a sophisticated little binocular foldup scope.  I hope they didn't go cheap there.  One of the nice things about a medium caliber flak tank is that, if adequately protected, it's high rate of fire makes it very easy to use on either advancing mechanized infantry or on heavy armor itself, stripping radios and sights as well as penetrating side armor, igniting secondary fuel and shredding tracks.  A flak tank can fire as many as six shots in the same time it takes an MBT to get off 1.  Obviously, fuel is going to be your major driver here as high pressure injection turbo diesels suck up a lot of it and running at the same basic operating volume as the original HL-230, the new engine will be at incredibly high RPMs to generate the necessary torque.  Without an operational A-Waffe sometime late in 1944, the Wehrmacht will not be able to transition rapidly enough between fronts using rail transport to mass forces and once Hungary is lost, operational maneuver constraints become critical, limiting individual unit assignments to a festung approach, defending key municipalities and praying for negotiations.  I look forwards to this kit's release far more than the monster twin-88mm E-100 and only a little less than the equally fantastical (but still neat!:-) E-100 Krokodile 175mm jagdpanzer.  Now all's we need is a latewar cammo guide to help take use past the Ambush scheme and into summer 1945!

 

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