Epixied two aluminum weights to the undersude of the trucks and waiting for the Walthers wheel sets to arrive.Built the kit 20 years ago.
Is that the 1/72 scale Thor?
How much work was involved?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Yes very detailed kit so it takes a while to build.
My understanding of the Karl-Gerat guns is that they were basically Schanelbel (sp?) cars. The gun was tracked vehicle and had to be detached from the rail carriage to be fired.
There was an article about them in a Smithsonian magazine years ago. The logistics to use these guns was encumbering, and the shells had a very high "dud" rate.
Apparently duds were so common that Soviet Sapper companies actuallly had specialists just to deal with the dud shells.
I believe they required a specially modified Panzer Mark IV vehicle fitted with a crane to load the ammunition.
Accuracy was another major problem. The gun moved a good distance everytime it fired, then the barrel had to be lowered to horizontal to load a new shell. This made it impossible to effectively triangulate a target since it had to be re-aimed every time it fired.
The author concluded that the much smaller Sturm-Tigers used in Warsaw uprising, with modified depth-charge launchers, were much more effective.
It was a long time ago that I read the article, so I might have a lot of it wrong.
Be interesting to hear what Wayne (Flintlock76) has to say about this.
Overmod Be interesting to hear what Wayne (Flintlock76) has to say about this.
I'm not a big expert on the German "Thor" mortar, (I almost spelled it morser! ) but I've never seen any photos or films of it being fired on a railcar. It's certainly possible it was tried.
I don't know about the accuracy issues, but I do know the German super-cannon Gustav had terrible accuracy issues, if the shell landed within 1,000 meters of the target they were lucky!
It is an amazing oddity of history if nothing else.
I really should not post on something if my only point of reference is a magazine article I read over a decade ago.
There is supposed to be one in Kubinka, so I will never see it.
I did some looking and found a video on the Karl-Geraet mortars, not more than you'd ever want to know, and quite interesting! "Thor" even makes an appearance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaLdREAAIM8
SeeYou190I really should not post on something if my only point of reference is a magazine article I read over a decade ago.
You were referring to Schnabel cars, right?
Unless I got my mortars wrong, there is also a Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Ger%C3%A4t
Interesting read for history buffs.
Simon
I have decided that the best approach was to purchase a second kit and adapt the rail carriers to fit the Walthers wheel sets .The kit wheels are Plastic and a slightly wider gauge than HO track .I have built the trucks and they roll smoothly on the track .I have airbrushed the desert yellow and will airbrush the green and brown cammo soon.
I had to fill the two old tool boxes with lead shot to allow for smooth operation and to prevent derailments...https://youtu.be/Y4pfP0tWldM
That is impressive. It really does not look out of scale at all.
I think that kit could be the basis for a huge freelanced Schnabel (SP?) car.
Great job.
SeeYou190Schnabel
This is the kit #732 and here is some more detail on it (turn the sound down a bit!)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5rxJjcyM1Xk
I don't think this has the complicated shift mechanisms a Schnabel car uses. These are just gantries a bit like lift bridges, pivoted at the appropriate point over the 'trucks' at each end, that are used to jack the actual treaded vehicle up to clear. The arrangement when 'railborne' appears to be more akin to a Garratt locomotive chassis...
Schnabels have much more spread of the carried load, and selective ability to lift and shift each end under positive control; all that would have to be selectively recreated in an 'adaptation' probably using multiple kit trucks or 'other' parts. Would like to see it done!
Thanks!It was an interesting project!
Coupler height is just right!Now it is off to Aberdeen Proving Grounds for evaluation!
https://youtu.be/BvzZXkOJiKk