Kenneth Overby Model Collect E-50 gun and flak tank

Modelcollect has entered the world of "What If" panzers, affectionately called "Panzer 46" in this genre. They have decided to produce variants of both the E-50 and the E-75. In doing so they have produced two versions of the E-50. This review will cover both the gun tank (72018) and the 5.5cm AA tank (72020).

These kits are molded in a light grey styrene type plastic, they come with "turned" metal (brass) gun barrels, have a fret of PE parts, and tracks made from a DS type material.

Now, while this review is about the "E-50" variants, I will say this: their E-50 and E-75 both share the "same" upper hull, so any and all (hull) defects are shared by both.

Some people don't like that all the tools are "molded on". Should you at some point decide to shave these items off, I recommend that you get replacements from the Revell Tiger II.

There are no open hatches for the driver/radio operator. Should you decide to cut them open, I recommend you get replacements from either the Dragon or the ESCI / Italeri Tiger II(s).

The fenders are molded rather thick (this will come into play later in this post). Note that they seem to be based on those of the Tiger II prototype.

All the detail is clean and crisp, but a little heavy in some spots and while the detail is good, it can be improved upon.
Here we see the armor "lap joints". While this side is well defined.....

on this side they forgot to do it.

Here are the front fender details. A little heavy if you ask me.

The engine deck is well detailed, but I have a couple of issues with it.

My first issue is this: the engine hatches have a metal piece that is bolted in the center to act as a lock for keeping the hatches closed.
They only molded two of the three needed and they are in the open position.

They should look like this. (I will also say now that they have the lifting handles on each of the hatches in the wrong place as you can see in my pic here.)

My second issue is that the little walls in the engine vents are a little too thick, but they can be trimmed with a sharp # 11 Blade.

Now let's talk about the suspension. The suspension parts are well molded, and well detailed (except for the "knock out" marks on the drive sprockets)...

but the tracks fall short of what one might hope for. They are molded in a "DS type" material. There was a good attempt made on detailing the outer portion (i.e. the track detail). However it's not great; the "inner" portion is the sad part. Other than the "guide teeth" there is no detail at all.
I must say here that I purchased the E-50 flak tank first. So in the "Early" production run (before producing the gun tank) the tracks were pretty bad. But as you have seen, I have both of them now and will show both sets here. The tracks for the gun tank are better detailed (on the inside).

First the flak tank.

and here the gun tank.

These are all the common parts between the two E-50 versions: the flak tank, and the gun tank version.

Now, each kit has metal guns and frets of PE for engine screens, lifting hoops, and periscope guards and the gun tank has parts for the turret as well.

The gun tank:

The flak tank:

There also is one small sheet of decals that are common to both kits.

Now for the turrets.

The gun tank

They included the IR scope. Note that the position of the IR device is not on top of the commander's cupola; it is installed in the cupola (see here), so the construction manual shows this wrong (like in many kits). To use this device, the hatch must be open.

The flak tank.

As seen above, the hatch that exposes the "sighting unit" has the option of being open or closed, but there is no "sighting unit" to place in the hatch.

Now for the instructions.
I will show what is common for both tanks, then the specific pages for each tank.
The instructions are clear, easy to follow, and well printed. (Ed. note: apart from the last pages, which seem to refer to another kit.)

I will first show those for the gun tank.

Some issues with the kit were noted:

As I said, the fenders are rather thick and integrally molded with the hull which makes it a little tough when trimming these.

The last two pages show a PE fret that is not included in the kit (the same as in the instructions of the flak tank), which is funny because even though it is labeled for doing the "Ultra Version" of the model, it is actually only for the E-75. Anyway, it is a fret of parts that is supposed to include the fenders, grab handles, lifting points, and the hanging points for track links on the turret.

Now for the flak tank:

As I said, the fenders are rather thick and integrally molded with the hull which makes it a little tough when trimming these.

The last two pages show a PE fret that is not included in the kit (the same as in the instructions of the gun tank), which is funny because even though it is labeled for doing the "Ultra Version" of the model, it is actually only for the E-75. Anyway, it is a fret of parts that is supposed to include the fenders, grab handles, lifting points, and the hanging points for track links on the turret.

There are more pages in the instructions that do not correspond to this tank and which seem to be a tease for the E-75 tank.

Additional notes

As for the E-75, again the hull is the same, only the wheel arrangement is different. I am sure the instructions will explain this.
The E-75 comes in three versions: the AA 50mm turret (same as E-50), the 88mm gun, and the 12.8cm gun.

It is my understanding that they are breaking into the "Prebuilt" market, manufacturing "Diecasts", with metal upper hulls.
Here are pictures from their FB page.

Preview samples purchased by the author.

This model can be purchased from

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Article Last Updated: 18 March 2015