Hello dear,

I'm begining a project of a diorama including a K-5(E) ("Leopold" nicknamed one), a BR-52 and some vehicles and smaller artilery guns around them.

I'm planning to have my models done as they probably appeared on late 43, just a few weeks before the begining of the shellings by the Leopold and his brother Robert against Anzio Beach (Italy) - but this is just a plan by now.

I had informed that on that period (late 43) the great majority of german equipments were painted Dark Yellow instead of the previous panzer gray (or over the gray in case of an old vehicle wich has been repainted in field).

So, under this situation, I have two questions to ask to you folks:

--> On late 43, just before the Anzio shelling, the "Leopold" railgun was a panzer grey one, Dark Yellow or Dark Yellow / Red Brown one as shown in Hobbyboss instructions?

--> Long before Anzio operations, where the "Leopold" rail gun were deployed? France, Russia... I really don't know... does anyone have the answer? At least a guess will help a lot.

I know that the "Leopold" one was just one of them... it is just this I need to know, I need to have information about this specific gun because the markings on hobbyboss decals are for him.

That's it folks, thanks a lot and have a nice week.

Greetings.
JM

I don't know the answers to most of your questions but there would not be any "smaller artillery" pieces near a K(5) cannon. The K(5) was well back from the front. Why would there be a battery of smaller artillery units set up nearby? They couldn't hit any enemy.

Hello Mr. Chow,

I guess I didn't made myself clear dude, sorry.

Here is the deal:

The railway line will be long enough to acomodate both the BR52 and the K-5(E). Probably will "start" in a tunnel and "finish" in a rock bridge. Between those edges there will have a small road crossing the railroad. On this road I'll place an Opel Blitz 3ton truck towing a Pak-40 or a Pack-38, I still don't know wich. As I said before, the raigun will be attached to the kriegslok, so it will not be represented as "in action" but just being towed by the locomotive to the final destination.

Below you can see a basic draw that I did some days ago, wich shows the overall look of my future diorama:

(click on the image to open in a new window)



So, that's it dude, I hope you can understand now, sorry for not being clear before.

Cheers.
JM

Here you will find some information about the K5s deployment :

http://www.one35th.com/model/k5/k5_hist03.htm

Other pages are worth a look as well

HTH

Frenchy

Sounds like a great idea for a diorama . Just a couple of thoughts , first looking a pictures of the gun (Squadron # 15 ) it looks bigger than regular rolling stock , so I'm thinking it would be too tall for most European RR tunnels , they aren't very wide or high . I think any tunnels they hid the gun in were built for that purpose . Second , you'ld have to put a few spacer cars between the engine and the gun , way too much weight in a short wheelbase area. too heavy for most bridges .If you've ever seen the modern RR move a transformer there's always empty flats between the loco and the load to spread the weight . Maybe use the 6 wheel diesel and one flat to move the gun?

Talking about train composition, there are some infos here :
http://www.one35th.com/model/k5/k5_loko.htm

HTH

Frenchy

Jose,

I have found pics of Leopold and Robert on the Web before, and both were leaning a bit through damage. Both also had the metal framework for travelling covers still in place over the gun when captured, and they were in a rail yard. The K5E was designed to fit within the limit of the European loading guage (but it was a tight squeeze!) so could travel through tunnels etc.

Both guns had been sprayed with a light colour (dark yellow?) in the black&white pics. On Leopold the colour covered everything except where the writing was - they painted around it to avoid having to re-letter it over new paint, so the lettering is on patches of grey. On Robert the light colour was applied in thin wiggly streaks like camoflage. I have the pics I "borrowed" from the web, and could email them to you if you PM me your email address - it would be wrong of me to post them here since they aren't mine.

Tom

Hi Frenchy, thanks a lot for the links you've posted!

Hello Jim, I'll think about the weight question you mentioned. Thanks!

Hello Tom, thanks for your help dude. I'll send a private message to you with my email. Thanks a lot.

Cheers!
JM

Hi - sorry to put a damper on your idea - but I too was thinking of a diorama with a K5, and BR52 - and was advised that when in action the K5 was moved around by a small diesel loco like the WR 360 C12 - and when in transit from on front to another, may be hauled by a BR-52, but with a lot of other rolling stock between the loco and the gun. That being said exceptions always prove the rule, and you can take the attitude that unless thee is solid proof it never hapend it's OK

My understanding is allso that the name Leopold was not on the gun during use, and was applied by the allies after it's capture and shipping to the U.S.

just my 2c worth

Hello Jeremy,

Thanks for your tips about the traveling train.

I had a suspect that maybe this is the probably configuration, but I'll have to use "artistics license" in my project, mainly because I do not have enoght room to display the full composition, even in this smaller scale (72nd) - and I don't wanna display the K5 and the kriegslok separately from each other - they look so fine together...

The space I have to display my diorama is something about 1 meter (39in aprox.) x 50 centimeter (20in aprox.), and this is close to the total lengh of both kriegslok + K5.

Thanks a lot for your tip, but unfortunally I'll have to take the risk, i can't display such a long composition because of my limits of space, but at the same time i don't want to display them alone, they really match each other.

Thank you Jeremy.

Regards,
JM