1/144 TAKOM Landkreuzer P1000 Ratte

Gallery Article by SteelWolf on Jan 4 2018

Silly Week 2018

 

      

If necessity is the mother of invention, then nowhere is that more true than in World War II, especially with Nazi Germany. The Landkreuzer P1000 Ratte came about after a series of studies of Soviet heavy tanks conducted by Krupp. Krupp proposed to Hitler a 1000 tonne tank which was named "Landkreuzer". 

This tank was to be enormous with a length of 128 feet, height of 36 feet, and width of 46 feet. It would have been 10-15 times the size of another German prototype super tank, the Maus. 

Main armament was to be a main gun turret similar to that found on the Scharnhorst battleship, but with the middle gun removed, thereby only having two guns in the main turret. Secondary armament is a bit speculative, but supposedly it would have consisted of anywhere from 2 to 4 Flakvierling quad mount turrets, and 1 to 2 128mm anti-tank guns used on the Maus, as well as 1 to 2 smaller machine guns for anti-personnel use. 

Thankfully in 1943, common sense prevailed and Albert Speer canceled the project before any prototypes had been constructed. Further information about the Landkreuzer can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreuzer_P._1000_Ratte

Click on images below to see larger images

If there's one thing I love, it's "what if" model subjects. And thankfully, TAKOM has come out with a wonderful subject: the German Landkreuzer P1000 Ratte super heavy tank. This 1/144 scale kit came out in Feb./March of 2015. As soon as I saw it, I had to have it! But not just one kit, but two! I wanted two different Landkreuzers to show two different paint schemes as well as two different armament configurations. 

Construction of the Ratte is pretty simple and straight forward, but I found out when building the plastic treads that I didn't need all of part A1. Both Rattes are built pretty much OOB (Out of Box). 

I chose a simple display option for both my Ratte tanks. Both of them next to each other with other 1/144 scale tanks nearby for "size comparison" purposes. When a person buys a TAKOM Landkreuzer kit, not only do you get the large Ratte tank in the box, but also 2 smaller Maus tanks as well. I used 2 Maus turrets from one kit for the secondary armament on the desert tan tank, and the other 2 Maus tanks from the second kit went on the display base itself. The other smaller tanks came from other kits as well as a toy store. 

One tank is painted with Tamiya Spray TS-4 German Grey and Tamiya XF-63 German Grey. The second Ratte tank is painted with Tamiya Spray TS-46 Light Sand and Testor Model Master Acryl #4813 British Gulf Armor Light.

SteelWolf

Photos and text © by SteelWolf