The Rat

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Heinz Guderian said, "Hitler's fantasies sometimes shift into the gigantic." This is a 1:100 scale model of the Krupp Ratte Tank. Big thanks to Buchnerb for committing over 120 hours of printing time and about 6 pounds of plastic to test print this massive tank, as well as offering valuable advice on improving the turret design. The 128mm turret and 20mm flak guns are from Bergman's packs. Most details related to this tank are purely speculative. I took some liberties when creating the model. I designed two turrets: one represents the planned prototype turret that would have been taken directly from the battleship Gneisenau, known as Ausf A; the other represents a theoretical newly produced turret, called Ausf B. Two dowel holes are placed in the hull - 1/4" diameter by 10" long (+ tolerance) - to help align the parts properly. The development history of the Ratte started with a 1941 strategic study of Soviet heavy tanks conducted by Krupp. This study also gave birth to the Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy tank. The study led to a suggestion from Krupp's director, Grotte, who proposed to Hitler on June 23, 1942, a 1,000-tonne tank he named "Landkreuzer". It was to be armed with naval artillery and armored with 25 centimeters of hardened steel, so heavy that only similar weapons could damage it. Hitler became enamored with Grotte's concept and ordered Krupp to begin development in 1942. By December 29, 1942, a few preliminary drawings had been completed, by which time the concept had been named "Ratte" (Rat) by Hitler himself. These submitted designs went under the titles OKH Auftrag Nr. 30404 and E-30404/1. Albert Speer saw no reasonable use of the tank and canceled the project in 1943 before any prototype could be manufactured. I've been working on this as a side project for some time now, and I just recently completed it. I decided to release it as a thank you for reaching 100 followers. Print Settings: Printer - Not Sure; Rafts - Doesn't Matter; Supports - Yes; Resolution - .1mm; Infill - 5%. Notes: The hull parts should be printed track down, and the turret horizontal with the bed. Buchnerb found that printing the hull flat side down with tracks vertical resulted in weird bubbling at the wheels.