Dragon 1/35 E-100 Heavy Tank 'Nachtjäger'

One thing that sticks in my mind about the German armaments industry towards the end of the war is that they tended to put a lot of effort into gargantuan projects. Many of these were not very realistic and the manpower and resources expended on them would have been put to better use elsewhere.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the 100 ton E-100 tank, called by some the 'Tiger Maus'. Based on the same 128mm cannon to be used on the smaller Maus (of which only three were completed), the E-100 would have been unable to be recovered from any sort of damage where it had to be towed and would have been unable to cross many bridges. It would have consumed a huge amount of fuel and been quite slow in the process of doing so. Fortunately, the prototype never did actually get completed. The cancellation of the Maus project meant no turret for the E-100 and so its chassis sat until discovered by the Allies at the end of the war.

However, reality never stopped kit makers and so not only do we have a load of Luft '46 aircraft, we also have a Heer '46 tank. This particular boxing is the 'Nachtjager' version. Basically it is the standard E-100 kit with an additional sprue (actually three of the same ones) with parts for three infrared sights (hence the 'nacht' part of things).

The kit itself is superbly molded as you'd expect from Dragon. It comes with an etched fret for vents and screens and a number of duplicate sprues for the running gear. Four like sprues cover the tracks and road wheels, while two identical ones are for return rollers and sprockets/idler.

The hull is made up of several pieces instead of the single casting we are used to. Mostly due to the sheer size of things as anything. Though there are a lot of parts, most of them are for the motive part of things as the E-100 was a pretty clean vehicle design. I'm sure that had it reached production, stuff would have been tacked on.

The kit comes with a set of figures that all have some rather advanced weaponry, so I have to assume this sprue was one the matched the 'what if' nature of things.

Instructions are well done with Gunze paints as the standard. There is a full color painting and construction guide for the four figures that includes suggestions for the camo uniforms. Markings are for one tank in overall panzer tan with green and brown streaks, though you could easily paint this about any color you'd wish. A nicely done decal sheet is provided to give you a choice of markings.

January 2008

Overall this will make into a large and quite impressive tank. I've seen the standard day kit built up and it is quite imposing. If you like the 'what if' aspect of things or just want something different from the norm, this one is for you.

My thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com for the review kit. Get yours at your favorite shop or ask them to order it for you.