A combo of computer aided design and machining with low-cost Chinese labor and an expansion in the market for model kits has in recent years led to the availability of model kits the likes of which would have been simply unthinkable when I was a kid. For example: the P.1000 “Ratte.” The Ratte was one of the goofier ideas to come out of Nazi Germany, a 1000 ton tank that used two U-boat diesel engines to haul around a turret from the Tirpitz-class battleships packing two 38-cm cannon. The idea – beloved of Hitler – was clearly insane and while some doodling on the concept was done, no evidence of serious engineering has come to light. It’s the sort of idea that would not be seriously contemplated either as a weapon of war or as a commercial high production run injection molded kits.
Except…
A few years ago, the Chinese model kit company “Takom” released an injection molded kit of the Ratte in 1/144 scale. Even at that small scale the model was good sized, because the design was just that insane. I was honestly a bit shocked that someone would go to the trouble of releasing a 1/144 scale kit of the Ratte. But now there’s this:
A Ratte in 1/72 scale, in a box big enough to make a dog house out of. The company behind this, Modelcollect (another Chinese company), has a whole range of truly befuddling designs. Not only perfectly understandable models like 1/72 B-52s and B-2s and, at long last, a 1/48 A-12 Avenger II, but also a bunch of WWII German tanks redesigned as walking “mechs.” I dunno. Well, the Japanese go bughouse for model kits of ridiculous giant fighting anthropomorphic robots, so maybe the Chinese like quadrupedal King Tiger tanks. Well, there are two billion Chinese, so it doesn’t take a big market share to still end up with a big market.