German E-100 "Krokodil" Tank

CybranM

Recent render:


New project and new post, this time I'm working on the (fake, never actually built or designed) German WWII tank "E-100 Krokodil".
There seems to be two different designs with the same name but as you can see I'm working on the "turtle" variant.

Current progress on the blockout:

Finding good reference images is pretty tough since its a made up tank but I'm basing most of the design off of these model images I've found:

I'm basing the size off of the Tiger II thats placed next to the E-100 in the lineup image


There are some areas where I will improvise and make my own details, such as the rear of the vehicle I'm adding the C-hooks and lift jack like every other German tank had. I've also added lifting point to the front and sharpened the overhang above the front drivewheels.

If you have any feedback or suggestions feel free to post them, I'm trying to make this fake tank as realistic as possible so if you think I should change something I'd love to hear it!

CybranM

I've mostly finished the tracks and wheels, I did some adjustment to the overall length of the vehicle, it was a bit too long before and I wanted to match the tracks from the real life E-100 prototype.

I added sideskirts but I'm not sure if I like them or not. 

Feedback is always welcome

Zi0

I think the sideskirts look cool but I would delete a panel of two to make it a bit more interesting and to make it look battleworn, like it fell of during a battle or something and the crew wasnt able to get a new one yet.

Anura_Interceptor

That gun is bigger than the tiger, really gives you a sense of scale. I like the sideskirts, they could even stand to be a bit bigger. Maybe keep the solid metal part of the sideskirts in a similar profile to what it has now, but add some wire extensions like what this tank does. 

CybranM

Thanks for the feedback

@Zi0 Yeah, I'll probably do something like that, I'm thinking of adding "optional" details such as the skirts and equipment like shovels, C-hooks and liftjack to a separate texture map. Would make it easy to remove different panels to add variety between multiple vehicles.

@Anura_Interceptor The size of the vehicle is pretty ridiculous, putting a human (180cm) next to it really shows how large it'd be, and this is supposed to be a "low-profile" tank destroyer.
I'm not a huge fan of how the wire-mesh sideskirts look on a tank and I dont find the actual E-100 sideskirts that appealing either:
I'll probably use the king tiger style skirts or maybe none at all.

Avenger84

Cool, Looking forward to seeing this progress

Zi0

You totally should add such details, personalizing a tank in such a way makes it more unique and adds a level of story telling to it. Think about stuff like spare tracks, MG on top, tools, backpacks etc. With these kind of items you can add some contrast to the vehicle texturing wise. I really like your project so keep it up dude!

CybranM

Long time no post, I ran into some difficulties related to weldlines and flamecuts on the armour plates.

I tried to figure out the best way to do the welds/cuts and I started off with Substance Painter but theres some limitations with how the brush works with alphas in Painter. The alpha is "stamped" onto the model in Painter while in Zbrush its "rolled out 


I redid the engine bay to more closely match the actual german tanks with a large fan on each side of the engine with 2 air inlets.

Above you can see the flamecuts in Modo with the other details I added to the sides of the tank such as barrel cleaning rods and towcable.

The next step is to finalize the other details on the tank and then to merge them with the zbrush details and create the lowpoly. It should hopefully be smooth sailing from this point on (famous last words).

Any and all feedback is very welcome

Necrodark

Wow!! this looks incredible so far, and those weld lines 
cant wait to see this thing textured.