HOBBY BOSS 1/72nd German 80cm Railway Gun "Dora"
OK, after my recent success i decided "Go big, or go home", so this ones BIG!
The Hobby Boss "Dora".
At 1/72nd, it measures 44 inches (base) long, 2800+ parts.
When the box arrived, that was BIG also (getting the theme?), inside was a multitude of other boxes, and bags upon bags of sprue (all sprues were protected by thin foam wrap inside the bags, nice touch Hobby Boss) and also a few brass etch sheets.
This one is going to take a while, and be be built OOB
comments always welcome
Made a start on the base (more pictures later) and also the front set of bogeys. Now bearing in mind there's a total of EIGHT of these little "mini-models", you only start on the front 4. Each one has a total of 70 parts in itself, and after the first two i was beginning to get severe eye strain, so, future builders of this kit, invest in a GOOD magnifying light.
6 attached images. Click to enlarge.
This is indeed massive, Tony @tonyanderton
Looking forward to the entire build.
Don't hold your breath John, it's going to take a while. I reckon I've got 20 hours in it so far with not a real lot to show!
Is the barrel one piece? (Or even aluminium cast?)
I saw one in an exhibit in 1/35 and it measured a full dinning table for 4 persons. I can imagine that your smaller scale is still big size by all accounts 🙂
Hi Pedro.
The barrel is plastic, but I think it has metal "counter weights" to ease posing.
Time will tell.
Wow that looks huge. I have a Trumpeter 1:35 leopard I am working on
So, finally finished the base, mounted it on a length of timber which was stained and varnished.
First attempt at fixing railway "scenics", so quite pleased.
5 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Also managed to get some "Panzer Grey" primer by Vallejo airbrushed onto the first 4 bogies, also 2 other parts, which eventually will carry the main gun carriage.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Amazing, to say the least, Tony!
Looking forward to this superb build!
Oh man, this thing is BIG!
2x this 8x that. 120+ handwheels 5mm diameter. Everything is duplicated and before you know it, you have multiple "mini-kits" built that need to be painted way before the final build.
9 attached images. Click to enlarge.
1. roughly 120 of these to add, at about 5mm each
1. brass etch walways
1. Take care on these, they are directional.
after roughly 40 hours of work, this is the pile of parts built so far.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Finally took the plunge and airbrushed some of the parts, as looking at all the bits in the sandy coloured plastic was getting on my nerves.
I painted 4 bogies in Vallejo "Panzer Grey", but was dissapointed with the outcome, it was just TOO dark. So i decided on mixing my own. Mixed a more pleasing (but not necessarily correct) shade of grey. Vallejo Panzer grey mixed with Vallejo Dark Ghost Grey. It toned down very well so i mixed nearly 500ml of the stuff (hopefully got enough to finish)
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
1. Mocked up to check fitting.
How Massive build...
OK, so now about 100 HOURS in, and still not finished!
This kit has some MAJOR problems regarding the instructions. i "thought" i had read them thouroughly, but after fixing LOTS of small parts, it came to the decals, and "oh boy", SOUL DESTROYED! LOTS of decals need applying BEFORE the small parts are added, and once these parts are on, you have ZERO chance of fixing them in place. I tried Micro-Sol and Micro-Set to no use, so in the end, the decals had to be CUT and placed. Luckily you cant really tell unless you look really hard.
I'm hopeing to shoot some matt varnish on the "sub-kits" soon, the carefully assemble them all into one BIG model (another fault on the instructions, became apparent, i'll highlight that on the photos,)
Thanks for looking.
23 attached images. Click to enlarge.
1. these need adding AFTER decals are applied!!
1. add these AFTER decals!
1. in my opinion, these need to fixed AFTER the whole kit is glued together as a hand rail on the carriage gets in the way
Well, as far as I'm concerned, this monster is FINISHED!
As for recommending it to others?...think TWICE, and make sure you read, read and read AGAIN the instructions, as some parts need to be put on after decals (you'll find this out on the LAST page. Other parts make gluing to the base very difficult if you fit them during the build. Other than a BIG model, that will take a LONG time, it's not too bad.
12 attached images. Click to enlarge.