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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Play a Tune on the Calliope






















We all know about the German Nebelwerfer rockets from World War Two and the Soviet truck mounted rockets and even the American Calliope Sherman tank mounted rockets. But did you know the US Army had truck mounted rockets too?

























The US T-12 rocket system was essentially small groups of Calliope rockets mounted on an elevation platform and carried around in the back of a two and a half ton truck. They typically would have two sets of launchers like this one and they would fire sideways out of the rear of the truck.

























This is your standard Roco truck with cargo bed. I took the rockets from an Esci Calliope then mounted them on a cut down Roco Jeep canopy. I added a spring at the bottom front to look like a screw elevation and added steering wheels at each side. This is a quick and easy conversion of a rare bit of gear that did see combat in Europe with the US Army. Any group of small diameter tubes would work for the launcher unit, since the Esci kit is hard to find.

2 comments:

herrentanz2 said...

What´s the scale? 1/87 i suppouse?

Mike Bunkermeister Creek said...

Yes, the Roco truck is 1/87ths scale. I actually used the rockets from a 1/72nd scale Calliope.

Thank you for reminding me, I should have mentioned it before.