Copycat | E-100 Ausf.B 'Rinaldi's turret' (fake tank)

The myths, legends and real projects developed by Germany during the Second World War fascinates people to this day, indlucing modellers. This is how many have come up with their own tank designs. One of them is the E 100 Ausf.B, made by Michael Rinaldi. But his idea was stolen by modelling company Trumpeter, which sold it as a real project, sparking confusion.

Music gathered from the Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy soundtrack

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An article by Pavel Alexe
Narrated by Mark Fairclough
Video editing by Turn

[rs.p]

A real blast from the past! What can I say... firstly, you guys did the story proud and it is very accurate overall in both tone and details. I can add a few additional insights to the story, and the crux of it is as you perfectly alluded to -- this process of Trumpeter basically acting like it was a real deal, or a real Paper Panzer, was always going to alter the knowledge base and create ripple effects over time. 

Thankfully, most insiders know this is a fake tank. I literally made it for fun, nothing more, and a few posts on Missing Links back in the day was all it ever was, until someone poked me and said "hey have you seen this!?" (meaning the display model at one of the international hobby shows for future releases from Trumpeter/Hobby Boss.)

Regarding Trumpeter, I knew the US importer (I was working in the hobby industry by then) and my very legitimate threat of a copyright strike, if I can use today's terms, for the blockage of import into the US is what shook it all loose. After a few more polite back and forth, Trumpeter put my name on the instructions crediting the design to me (I think the 1/72 kit has it as well). Although credit may not appear on the box art IIRC. 

There were indeed a couple 1/72 resin kit spin offs produced, all long gone, but I will say ModelCollect is very stand up and the owner is fantastic. He personally reached out to me to use the design in their Panzer What-if series of kits and it's fully authorized on their part. WoT hasn't reached out, nor have they ever hinted to introduce it (my guess is they are well aware and probably decided against it), and stick to actual prototype and real paper panzer designs, or their own creations and content.

And I have the original model still, (you're right, I teased it in 2020) that it will make a comeback and I do have something special planned. I'll chat about in the next live stream on my channel and link this video. Fantastic work and credit to you guys for being honest to the story and helping maintain historical integrity moving forward. Cheers!

[sangheiliwarrior]

Rinaldi's Ausf.B's got style.

[romanvarcolac]

Wow, I can’t believe the Chinese copied it. So unexpected… in seriousness though, what turret front armor could it have had with such a design

[warwarneverchanges]

I never heard of this beeing involved in modelling for many years and enjoying Mr Rinaldis work, thanx for sharing.

[comentedonakeyboard]

Well the PLA copys Tanks since ancient times, or the 50s to be precisely.

[Panzermeister]

Excellent video! I enjoy learning about where the fake stuff comes from.

By the way, the L/66 jagdtiger concept you showed in the video is itself likely a fantasy too. Despite the seemingly official drawings done by Hillary Louis Doyle, there are no original drawings of that, or any drawings at all originating from the "pre-internet" era. Just a written concept of that gun on the vehicle...

[HanSolo__]

Knowing the size of the "short" 12, 8cm KwK L/55, how little free space it leaves for the crew, ammo and the fire control system/equippment in the Jagdtiger (huge)casemate..
- Knowing how potent was 8, 8cm PaK L/71 and still huge when it comes to recoil management, breach size and overall gun balance (for any stabilizing). As it could penetrate any Soviet tank while still being: easier to operate, less to carry, less to control when fires, cheaper and faster to manufacure, easier to fit, and less struggle to supply with ammo - which had not that much less penertation capabilities than 12, 8cm L/55 (which meant to use 8, 8cm APCBC-HE as a AP shell core) However much better effective range and carried way more energy overall. For penetragion:
30° angled 230mm pen. at 0, 5km- for 12, 8cm L/55 and
30° angled 200mm of pen. at 0, 5km for 8, 8cm L/71
Conclusion:
E-100 would not be able to use 12, 8cm L/55 more effective way than the Jagdtiger. Let alone absurdly long L/66. Notihing more than the gun would fit indide its turret. Schmalturm turrets never carried 6, 5t cannons... The tank would get a fire rate as slow as 2 rds/min which was the main drawback of 122mm of the IS-2/IS-3 tanks.
If it was to withstand multiple hits of 122mm shells like Jagdtiger or Elefant it would be even heavier than already insane 70t of these two.

[nonamesplease]

Great article. I have been watching with much interest for quite some time how the "paper Tiger" and "what if" trends in German armor modeling took on a life of their own. I somehow never picked up on this particular Trumpeter story before. Very interesting.

[iaminyourwalls]

Can you guys solve the myth that E 100 had 4 planned turret
Turret 1 maus turret
turret 2 krupp turret aka the turret that world of tanks uses
turret 3 henschel turret
turret 4 somewhat anti aircraft turret
i think only maus and krupp turret were ever produced the other two are fake i guess.

[timothywood]

Great video guys..I’m old enuff to have been on missing-lynx so long ago and remember most of these issues.this is one of a few what if’s that gave birth to PAPER PANZER mania decades ago.lol and as with most things the passage of time has twisted the truth or totally rewrote it. Nice to see credit given where it’s “long”over due.

[maxout]

I have that model kit, such a handsome tank.

[BoatIsBoat]

There's a person or artist in deviant art, I think, who made a 3D model of another version of Rinaldi's Schmalturm-Tiger 2 Heinschel hybrid turret, which in my opinion looks visually more appealing than Rinaldi's. Looks more like a tiger 2 turret built for E100, making it feel like its even more related to The King Tiger. Their version carries a 15cm gun and the front is angled similar to the Maus 2 Turm. They simply Call it E-100 Schmalturm 150 mm KwK 46/L38.

[SW-]

Considering that the E series was planned to make it easier to manufacture german tanks standardizing its parts, this turret makes sense in my opinion, it is very similar to E 50 turret and the possible turret that the E 75 was planned to receive.

[KalFulsom]

I have built one myself in 1/35. Thanks to Rinaldi for the design.

[marcbrasse]

Excellent stuff. It's a perfect example of how history always becomes deformed. Often even unintentionally. About the copyright question I am not very concerned though. Now even an educated guess can be copyrighted? But what about those flying saucers, eh? Of which only one rediculously bad retouched "original" picture exists.

[PaperThinArmor]

Wow I didnt even know how scummy Trumpeter was.

[tankertom]

It looks like pointing out the dastardly actions of the chi-coms has caused the like button to disappear.

[CharcharoExplorer]

A question about the JT with the L66 - did the extending of the L66 need to happen for transport only or for combat theoretically? I am confused by the wording.

[mrbarit]

lets all agree to reffer to the turret as the ' Rinaldi Turm'

[wotfan]

There is pics of the e100s 15 cm muzzle break online . Why not use that gun ??