Guys,

I have been working on Ttrumpeter's 1/35 "Karl Gerat' (early chassis)seige mortar (mortar only). I'm somewhat puzzeled bay the instructions. They show the torsion bars on the running gear as being elevated as opposed to depressed when the gun is in the firing position. Is this right? When I bought the kit I ordered the Fuimodel tracks for the early chassis, but my only photo reference is the Schiffer book (somewhat poor) which only shows the late model running gear, and the road wheels seemed to be sitting on the ground. All the other books which I have seen concerning the mortar are unavailable.

I'd like to show the piece in firing position so should I have the wheels up or down when firing? Also, are the early model wheels rubber rimmed?

In hind sight I wished I had built the late model chassis instead of the early model, it has been a real bear to build (10 parts as opposed to 3 for the late model). Especially frustrating were parts H 12 thru H 26. The pin insertions on on H12 and H23 didn't match so had to cut then off, if you don't the whole running gear can become askew! ( any mistake here can throw the whole assembly off.).

Now to my next question: Where any of early chassis mortars ever deployed in battle?

Thanks for any input.

Paul

The suspension would have been retracted and the entire cradle laying on the earth when it was fired. The suspension was raised only when it was going to move itself. All were used in combat.

hey,
Not sure if you've seen this site,but it was very useful, when we built ours,scroll down to the bottom of each page and in the lower right corner ,theirs a "NEXT" tab,it;ll take you threw the history and then,some builds (tips),hope this helps.

http://www.one35th.com/morser/karl_hist.htm

wheels aren't rubber rimmed.

Joe

Gentlmen,

Thanks for your input. Looks like the early chassis was only used on the prototype and not used in combat. The link to the martar was very useful!

Thanks again,

Paul

Paul: I'm pretty sure that the pilot models with the early suspension were both used in combat. There were only nine built -- I don't think any were only study projects.

Roy,

Available reeference for such a large and prestigious gun seems kind of thin, which suprises me. It seems the gun was first deployed at Brest Litvosk in the early stages of "Barbarossa", but I have yet to find photos showiing any early model chassis. Subsequent photos show late model chassis at th eseige of Sevestopol and finally Warsaw uprising. My original intent was to show the mortar at Brest Livosk, but so far I haven't been able to find any pics t5o support it.

Paul