Maus! or: 'my other tank is also a Porsche'

[The Dozing Dragon]

Love it.

[Ballardian]

Many thanks gents, will have some final pics once I've finished the shell loading/spent ejection hatch.

[wolivant]

Must say..That is a lovely paint job on the Maus.

Wolt

[Golgotha]

Cracking reminder of the German sense of humour calling their biggest tank a Mouse and their smallest a Goliath.

[Wyrmalla]

IIRC the Maus was originally named the VK 100.01 “Mammut” during its initial prototype phase. Someone else could speak for the name change (I think the thing actually gained weight during its developed, as German tanks were like to do), but it was probably ironic given its original name.

[Ballardian]

How military kit & ridiculous supertanks got their informal names would make an interesting thread of its own. Indeed, 'Mammut' was the first 'nickname' given to the Pzkpfw VIII, with 'Mauschen' also reputedly preceding 'Maus'. The German military wasn't particularly prone to naming their vehicles at their conception, the Tiger & Panther began as PzKpw V & VI with no nickname (unlike the Brits, who tended to name everything in sight, including other nations vehicles - some of which stuck to the point being adopted by their progenitors - Lee/Grant, Sherman, Honey/Stuart etc) & tended to stick to an alphanumeric nomenclature, rather like the Americans (the Maus being either its VK prototype number or PzKpw VIII). It's quite likely that humourous nicknames were generally given by either the troops using a given piece of kit or the technicians working on their production somewhere down the development line.
 Not funny I grant you, but quite interesting.

[Cartophilus]

I'm more of an early war fan, but this Maus is a wonderful model and painted exceptionally well.  Very well done.

[Ballardian]

Cartophilus - thanks, once the panic over getting the right camo scheme abated it was quite a simple (with it being so flat/slabby) & fun job.