While the Germans produced some very effective armored vehicles
during World War II, the complexity of their designs, especially
with the Panther and Tiger series, resulted in lower production
rates and greater maintenance problems. The engineers went
back to basics and designed a series of standard tanks, the
'Standardpanzer' which took the better capabilties from existing
tanks and made each design simpler.
The E-50 was designated as the standard medium tank to replace
the Panther and Tiger series. The design weight was to be between
50 and 75 tons.
These standard tank designs did reach varying degrees of construction,
but none went beyond initial prototype stages as the war ended
before they could be completed, tested, and pressed into production.
The Kit
Trumpeter has released two more interesting armor prototypes
into their growing tank portfolio. This one is the E-50 Standardpanzer
which bears a strong resemblance to the Panther tank but featuring
simplified road wheels and Tiger firepower.
The kit consists of 294 parts (according to the specs) molded
in light gray styrene and presented on 5 parts trees. The
track is vinyl and nicely detailed. One
fret of photo-etched detailsround
out this kit.
The first thing that will catch your eye is the roadwheel
layout. This design used a similar overlapping wheel arrangement
as the Tiger, but eliminated the dual wheels per axle to make
maintenance easier. The roadwheels still provided supplemental
protection to the lower hull.
The exhaust layout on the rear of the hull is very similar
to the Panther. Conversely, the upper hull looks like an interesting
hybrid of the Panther and Tiger designs though hatch layouts
are simpler.
The turret also looks similar to the sloped armor of the Panther,
though smaller than the Panther, it is dwarfed by the main
gun.
Markings
No decals are provided in the kit as the tank is notional
and so is the Desert Yellow over Brown scheme the color profile
depicts (though it is quite appealing).
Conclusion
This is another very impressive model. Trumpeter has created
a nice and simple in this box and this complements the E75
Standardpanzer released at the same time. What's even more
impressive is the response from DML - none. It looks like Trumpeter
won the kit war, or at least this phase of the battle.
