The real thing:
Of course more information about the MOC in the Marinus blog:(highly recommended)
October 18, 2011
Backhoe dredger Pinocchio by Marinus
Huge model! Very well designed and full of details.
"This is a model of the backhoe dredger Pinocchio, owned by the Belgian DEME Group. Equipment of this kind is used to dredge harbour bottoms, canals and the like. The soil is deposited into barges floating alongside the dredger. The floating on the water is simulated by setting up the model on 4 (yellow) columns. The most striking features of Pinocchio are the 3 spud legs and, of course, the Liebherr 996 Litronic digger. The spud legs can be lowered onto the seabed by winches. In reality the spuds can be forced into the bottom using the power of the winches, but this proved to be too much of a challenge for my model. My spuds are lowered by the winches, aided by gravity, and as soon as they touch the bottom, wires become slack. The spudwires of this model are looped over sheaves in the top of the spud legs, to make it look more realistic. Pinocchio has no propulsion of itself, and to make it move, the forward spud leg is fitted in a spud carrier, which can travel athwartships over a few meters. When the vessel is floating, the forward spud firmly into the seabed and the two other spuds raised, she can “walk” forward or aft. The Liebherr excavator is quite a monster, driven by 2 powerful V-engines and fitted on the pontoon on a flexible mounting."