Model Forum / General / Models / January 2008

"They who are called Nazis, they go the Stalingrad?"
Okay, Google's working on their page translation program, it still has a
few whale tails in it. :-D
Let's see what Babelfish does with it (BTW, I'm presently watching
Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy on the Sci-Fi Channel).
Page one:

"Land cruiser P-1000 rat (1/87)
Who believed so far the fact that the military-technical giantism of the
Nazis with projects was exhausted like the Dora cannon or the mouse
which must itself a better instruct let; because in June 1942 the
company Krupp Hitler submitted its plans for the P-1000. Behind the
designation the project of a heavy armored vehicle hid itself to 1,000
tons. Late equipment considered by Hitler with the Suggestivnamen rat
should carry a rotating turret of the war navy with two 28-cm cannons
than main armament. During maximum elevation a range of fire should have
been achieved by 42,5 km. Further were intended as armament: 1 x 12.8 cm
cannon, 8 x 20mm Flak 38 and 2 x 15mm Mauser mg 151/15.
If one believes the meager Quallen, then the monster should have a
length of 35m, width of of 14m and a height of 11m. For motorizing two
possibilities were discussed: Either two MAN V12Z32/44 24-Zylinder
marine diesel with ever 8,500 HP or eight Daimler Benz MB501 20-cylinder
marine diesel with ever 2,000 HP. Under these conditions and considering
the 3,6m broad chain drive assemblies was a cruising speed of approx..
40 km/h calculated."

Page two:

"On the idea, which came project 1000, which never out-came in the
reality over project sketches to realize on a scale 1/87 as model
Wolfgang Diebl already before approximately 10 years. At that time the
magazine model fan published a 2 centimeters large design, which
illustrated the P-1000 on a scale 1/188. It increased the picture on DIN
A4. From the number of castors, the well-known masses of the tower of a
battle ship of the crowd refuge class as well as from the size
comparison on the design Wolfgang the mass of its model project derived
illustrated VOLKSWAGEN of excavator bucket. When the company brought in
the year 2003 a carrying bill car to Trix with a marine diesel engine
from metal pressure pouring on the market, also a halfway fitting engine
was available.
The discussion with a model construction colleague encouraged Wolfgang
in the idea, its Fantasie area to give and the model project to actually
realize. The tub and developing manufactured he from 2mm strong plastics
Sheets. The chassis developed from 3mm brass tubes and the castors of a
hunt tiger model of the yardstick 1/35. He discovered the metal chain at
a company in Hungary. The gun barrels (28cm) were turned after after an
original design from aluminum. The two Flak Hecktuerme come E100 armored
AAA vehicle of kind master.
In order to represent the transport of the P-1000 in a Diorama, Wolfgang
developed further three-part diesel locomotives, transportation chassis
and a large crane to the engine change, which is however still in the
building."

The model does leave one big question. How the hell was this thing to
get from wherever it was built to where it was supposed to be used?
Unlike the Dora railway gun, you can't disassemble this thing into
component parts and ship it around by train, so I assume it literally
crawls its way under its own power to where it's needed.
No matter what they say, I can't actually picture this behemoth crawling
around at 40 km/h, which would make it faster than a Kingtiger tank
traveling on a smooth surface (35 -38 km/h)
To put it mildly, its movement will be obvious from the air, and you
should be able to spot it via a Norden bombsight on a B-17 at high altitude.
I imagine how could cover it with foliage and make it appear to be a
small grove of trees during the day, while only having it move during
the night., but when's the last time you saw a small grove of trees with
two huge tread marks leading into it on one side and nothing emerging
from it on the other side?
That's bound to arouse suspicion.
Just on a lark, and actually assuming it was moving at 40 k/hr, it would
take it it a tad over 40 hours to crawl from Berlin to Moscow (1,607 km).
This wouldn't include the the two-day pauses when the treads broke and
needed to be repaired by the ten Bergkoenigstigerschrittreparaturpanzers
following it around. ;-)

Pat