Gehendepanzer I 'Trichterweber' - German Medium-class Mech

##FICTIONAL##

The German Gehendefahrzeug programme was a product of the Blitzkrieg doctrine being studied prior to the outbreak of World War Two. Developed along the traditional Panzers at Kazan, the first Gehendefahrzeuge were unarmed and unarmored, simply built to test the viability of the Schwartzstabilisator system which allowed the walkers to… walk. However, with Fall Weis launching in only about a year, the Dresdenwerke plant was tasked with producing a combat-ready walker — ein Gehendepanzer — within only six months.

The resulting vehicle took its maiden strides in April 1939, only a few months before the invasion of Poland. This was the Gehendepanzer I ausf. A, known officially as Trichterweber or ‘Funnel-weaver.’ It was not a pretty vehicle — not nearly — but it accomplished the role of walking and being able to shoot things quite nicely. The rectangular hull was armored frontally to 50 mm and to the sides and rear to 20 mm. A 37 mm KwK 36 anti-tank gun was mounted in the hull with 20 degrees of rotation to either side. The boxy hull gained the vehicle the nickname Kuhlschrank among crews, meaning ‘Refrigerator.’ Just under two-hundred were produced prior to the outbreak of the war and distributed to several of the Panzerdivisions in the order of battle for Fall Weis.

The ‘Kuhlschränke’ saw incredible success in Poland. The mere existence of the walkers was completely unknown to the rest of the world, so many Polish soldiers on the border who probably haven’t seen tanks before now seeing walking tanks simply turned and fled. Not a single of the Gehendepanzers were confirmed lost until the outskirts of Warsaw, when a Bofors 40 mm was able to down two in an ambush; simply hitting them was difficult due to their odd gait and thin silhouette. In total, nine would be disabled, one of which was struck by a falling PZL fighter. Walkers were not deployed in Operation Weserübung.

In France, the walkers performed somewhat well; they were found to be very effective against entrenched positions due to their height. The KwK 36 was found to not be entirely adequate against French tanks like the Char D2 and FCM 36, though the low-velocity guns of many French tanks were unable to knock out many ‘Kuhlschränke’ either. Twenty-five were destroyed during Fall Gelb and another forty-seven during Fall Rot. Though they proved the effectiveness of walkers in combat, the low number already built had been depleted severely, with only one-hundred seventeen of the original one-hundred ninety-eight remaining available for Operation Barbarossa. By November 1940, two successors to the ‘Kuhlschrank’ were in production, the bipedal Spähgehendepanzer I and the quadrupedal Gehendepanzer II. Hence, no more of the original ‘refrigerator’ were produced. The remaining Gehendepanzer Is were expended in attrition on the Ostfront. The last vehicle on record was a modified, de-armed example converted to a command vehicle. It was recorded as destroyed in April 1945 on the outskirts of Königsburg.

This file was originally a test simply to see if I could make a mech at all, and as it turns out I can! Given as it’s originally a test, this is free. Print at 0,1mm layers. Mirror the legs (which are right-side) to make a left leg. The foot does not need to be mirrored, as it is symmetrical. Print the codpiece upside-down with the connection point on the build plate. The legs can be printed in their given orientation. The ball-joint connectors and hydraulic hatches should be printed with the connectors down. Can be freely posed. Happy printing!

Very much inspired by Iron Harvest.