Product Description
Now available, for the first time, a kit of the speculative “Virus House” Atomic Bomb design of WWII, gaining fame online from an article on luft46.com a few years back, based on a technical diagram of a purported weapon prototype in David Myhra’s “The Horton Brothers,” which in turn was evidently inspired by technical information (or a misinterpretation of it) unveiled about the German nuclear program in Manhattan Project scientist Samuel Goudsmit’s book “ALSOS: The Failure in German Science” from 1947.
The concept being a crude, completely unpowered device fitted with over 550 kg of Uranium plates, buffered by neutron-absorbing kerosene, that would be crushed together by the high-speed impact of the weapon with the ground, initiating a nuclear “fizzle” in the low-kiloton range.
However, further research reveals that, while the original diagrams do seem to be authentic, they in fact represent an early design of a crude research pile, not a bomb. Further calculations also indicate that even if the “bomb” had been constructed, with weapons-grade Uranium, it would not even have “fizzled” properly.
But, on an interesting note, the diagrammed Uranmaschine was actually built, by physicist Wener Heisenberg, at the University of Leipzig, and the last device in the series, the L-IV…actually did blow up, in 1942. An air leak caused the Uranium in the device to catch fire, boiling off an inner jacket of heavy water, and causing a small steam explosion that blew the reactor apart, showering the reactor pit with blazing fragments of Uranium that would burn for two days before petering out.
Thus, technically, this model represents the only genuine example of a Nazi nuclear explosive device. For your model-making needs!
Comes with a three-segment bomb casing, for adaptability in configuring the weapon as desired, for aesthetic or technical reasons, as well as the “L-IV” nuclear “warhead.”
Available in 1/72 and 1/48 scale.
The concept being a crude, completely unpowered device fitted with over 550 kg of Uranium plates, buffered by neutron-absorbing kerosene, that would be crushed together by the high-speed impact of the weapon with the ground, initiating a nuclear “fizzle” in the low-kiloton range.
However, further research reveals that, while the original diagrams do seem to be authentic, they in fact represent an early design of a crude research pile, not a bomb. Further calculations also indicate that even if the “bomb” had been constructed, with weapons-grade Uranium, it would not even have “fizzled” properly.
But, on an interesting note, the diagrammed Uranmaschine was actually built, by physicist Wener Heisenberg, at the University of Leipzig, and the last device in the series, the L-IV…actually did blow up, in 1942. An air leak caused the Uranium in the device to catch fire, boiling off an inner jacket of heavy water, and causing a small steam explosion that blew the reactor apart, showering the reactor pit with blazing fragments of Uranium that would burn for two days before petering out.
Thus, technically, this model represents the only genuine example of a Nazi nuclear explosive device. For your model-making needs!
Comes with a three-segment bomb casing, for adaptability in configuring the weapon as desired, for aesthetic or technical reasons, as well as the “L-IV” nuclear “warhead.”
Available in 1/72 and 1/48 scale.
