Panther F

Hooben has released CAD drawings of their Elefant.

http://www.rctankhq.com/

Save up those pennies and cut out the steak and beer.

rivetcounter

I'm all excited now in fact Ihaven't been this excited for years this is definitelyat the top of the list for me, I may have to buy a few for the conversions, glad I never bought an Imai now andif you do own an Imai nowis the time to sell before they become worthless

bigfiver69

This is really exciting news. The fact that the IMAI elefant has been pretty much the mythical grail of this hobby for 35 (!) years speaks to the allure of this tank. I will buy one the first day it comes out.Even though it actually played a very small role, militarily, something about that beast is kind of irresistible.

Can't wait. Any time frame yet?

rivetcounter

What's the bet's that Heng Long releases an Elefant 12 month's after Hodden, although there where less than 100 Elefant's serving with 2 Abteilung's at Kursk the remainder went on to serve with Schwere Panzer Jager Abteilung 6531st company went toItalyand was almost destroyed only 1 Bergtiger and 3 damagedElefant returned to Russiato serve with the rest of the Abteilung it was late 44 before the final 3Elefant where removed from the Abteilung and where replaced with Jagdtiger, it is thought that the remainingElefant's wheresent to Berlin for the final battle

Crocodile

How many were manufactured in total?

Olifant Mk 2

OK! OK!
When the Elefant comes out, I'll be so exited I may just buy the KV-2 as well!!

Tanque

"glad I never bought an Imai now andif you do own an Imai nowis the time to sell before they become worthless"

I've got some ocean beachfront property in downtown Boise you might be interested in...

Ex_Pat_Tanker

Hey, I have a couple hundred miles of prime beachfront real estate going begging in Nebraska - call me!

herrmill

$%@&$^@!!!!! duplicate post

herrmill

RSEA

A brief historical look at the Ferdinand (or Elefant as it is more affectionately known)

This assualt gun materialized because the Führer(being the demanding person that he was) was insistingon a turret design that would house the 88mm L/71. No such turret was of yet available, so it was decided to use the failed Porsche Tigerprototype chassis to mount the L/71. A total of 90 Ferdinandswere produced in April and May of 1943. Just in time for use by Panzerjagerabteilungen 653 and 654 during the Kursk offensive.

After being pulled out in late 1943to overhaul the vehicles, a secondary armament was added in the form of a hull machine-gun. In addition, the superstructure was modified to provide the commander with a cupola.48 Ferdinandsgot this cupola addition. 653rd was re-equipped and a separate companywas attached to 614th Panzerjagerabteilung.

The Führer, of course,eventually was granted his wish for a turreted L/71 in the form of thedreadedKönigstiger.. Of which489 were produced betweenJanuary 1944 and March 1945.

Olifant Mk 2

Much obliged RSEA!

How did they perform at Kursk??

tac23

Badly, very badly........

Kursk was not an ideal environment for non-turreted vehicles (rapid moving, close range engagements), and, most of all, without a close defence weapon they were VERY vulnerable to infantry 'tank-killer' squads swarming all over them.

RSEA

Yes, the Ferdinand did not perform well in the battle for the reasons mentioned above. Out of the 90 built only about 48 survived the conflict. Almost half of them were lost. It was because of theirinability to protect themselves from close range infantry attacksthat a hull machine gun waslateradded to the surviving Ferdinands. Armor thickness was also increased. The "modded" tanks, I believe, were the ones officially designated as "Elefants". Allof them, during the Kursk battle, werereferred to as"Ferdinands"(named after Dr. Porsche). These Elephants performed better in defensive roles, as opposed to the offensive role they were used in during Kursk.

I've not seen any images of the Hooben tank, but I assume that since it is being called an Elefant, it will represent the post-Kursk version of the tank, having the hull machine gun andcupola, etc.

EasterBunny

Everything you have stated is correct RSEA. Functionally they were pretty much a failure, but they do look mean and I would love to have one in 1:16 rc form.

Tanque

I won't argue that. If fact as much as I've liked the Elefant I doubt there was any environment right for them. They make a for an
interesting modeling subject but little else.

Not only do I have Imai Elefants but Ialso have the hull and most 'fixins for a 1/10 scale version... one of those projects for
"later".



Jerry

herrmill

Yes, it will be post Kursk model with hull mg & cupola.

Wozwasnt

Who's going to be the first to convert one to one of these?

Panther F

ALREADY thought of that and have an extra Tamiya turret set aside.

tac23

You have an Imai? Im sooooo jealous!

Actually I think the later elephant was probably quite useful as a kind of mobile anti-tank gun emplacement. They were used that way more in Italy, although there they were hampered by Italian roads and bridges being largely unable to take their 70 ton weight!

Apparently they had one of the best 'kill ratios' of any tank in WWII (average of 10:1 according to Wikipedia) so they WERE good tank-killers - just mechanically unreliable, ungainly, and vulnerable to infantry attack and out-flanking by faster, turreted vehicles

All of which could also be said of the Jagdtiger as well

Tanque

Other than they're not as easy to fimd these days there isn't anything to be jealous about. I've had them a very long time. Iwelcome the Hooben model like everyone else cause I can run it. The Imai (Ihave 3 of these soon to be worthless models) runs well enough but the track is a concern; weak links can be ( and have ) broken if the model is run in the wrong terrain. Hopefully Hooben will have ample spare parts and their track will be interchangeable with Imai's ( I wish). Iknow there's a outfit in Germany selling tracks that are supposed to be interchangable with Imai's but I have no experience with them.

Panther F

The Imai will still be a rare bird and hardly worthless. It just won't draw the kind of money that it did in the past. That is if this Elefant about to come out is a good model.

EugeniRUS

This is a long living myth about the high ratio of loses due to the lack ofa close defence weapon during the Battle of Kursk. Only 2 or 3 were lost that way. The rest were lost due to other reasons.

Olifant Mk 2

Thats an interesting viewpoint.
What were those reasons?

EugeniRUS

Mines, AT guns, tanks, etc..
One of the Ferdinands was destroyed by a direct hit of a bomb.