Landships II

James H · Legend

The Kaiser's Pullman - for Marienwagen.

Roger Todd · Legend

At least they've not got rid of the models, even if they are out of the public eye... Thanks for that. By the way, I have a vague memory that the models were all 1/48 scale, is that right or am I imagining it?

James H · Legend

Ooh. Wouldn't know about that. The Archivist said they were all made by (iirc) John Pickering. Don't know if there was any kind of detailed drawing of KWII's proposal. If not, then any attempt to render it in 1/48 would be guesswork, I should have thought.

Roger Todd · Legend

At least we know his full name now, all the models' labels said merely 'JP Pickering Esq'! I probably imagined the scale, or maybe it only applied to subjects such as the Flying Elephant, Foster's Big Wheel, Mk VI Wooden Mockup etc. for which he would have almost certainly used drawings.

Marienwagen · Corporal

Hi James,

Thanks a lot for the pictures !� It is possible that the model is in 1/48th scale as it has approximately the size of a railroad wagon of the time. (personnaly, I thought it was larger)

I don't know the German type of guns in service at the time (it would be helpful for adding scale).� Note that I have already contacted Mister Paul Malmassari (well known for his knowledge of WW1 and before "tanks") in the past and he�writed to me that after twenty years of research, he has found nothing (scale drawings or patents) about this particular war machine project.�

However for Cowan steam machine (the inversed bathub), patents are known to exist (I would like to find a copy of these); although I don't know if this machine was really built or not !

All the Best,

Marienwagen

�

Roger Todd · Legend

I very much doubt plans for the Kaiser's vehicle were ever made. Remember, Kaiser Bill was fond of doodling 'Ideal Warships' and the like none of which ever saw so much as a draughtsman's board afterwards, this would have been in that vein. It is also futile to try to scale it from guessing what the guns were because, again, it is based on no more than idle sketches. It's a bit of fun that indicates what some people - by no means experts - were thinking about at the time. It has no more status than, say, the fanciful 'steam blockhouses' drawn by Albert Robida.

The Cowan (or Cowen) machine was never built. I've never seen a patent drawing, but then I've never looked very hard. Nobody has ever published a reproduction of the patent drawing, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's been lost, especially as it is so old.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

Roger Todd wrote:
At least we know his full name now, all the models' labels said merely 'JP Pickering Esq'! I probably imagined the scale, or maybe it only applied to subjects such as the Flying Elephant, Foster's Big Wheel, Mk VI Wooden Mockup etc. for which he would have almost certainly used drawings.

�So there's a model of the Mk VI mockup? Is it on show?

Roger Todd · Legend

It's not on show because, as James wrote, all the models Pickering built which were in the display case I saw in 1990 are now in store. I've attached the photo. As you can see my interest was in the Flying Elephant model, I happened to catch the rear end of the Mk VI but that is all I have as I wasn't interested in photographing it separately. It would appear to depict the wooden mockup in situ on the rail wagon so familiar from the one photograph I've seen of the thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_VI_%28tank%29

TinCanTadpole · Legend

Yep, I've got a copy of "A New Excalibur", which has a sharp version of that photo on p.111. My inkling is that the basic profile of the Mk VI was not far removed from the production rhomboids, so I don't think the downward slope of the rear track frame would be as shallow an angle as the model shows. It's an interesting subject, one I may try to model at some point - as a hypothetical production vehicle, rather than a mockup.