discussion Getting silly... ;) The BIG kit!

[Guest]

Drumroll opening the lid...

Yes! The mighty Hobby Boss Dora (Schwerer Gustav) has arrived - and it's a massive box for sure!!!

An early indication that there's some repetitive work here... If you don't like sanding wheels, this isn't the kit for you!

...and more "wheels"! 35 + 75, and then you have to make another three... :flushed:
Should last me a few hours for sure!

Every sprue is wrapped in protective foam and plastic bag. No broken parts like Dragon kits...
Everything here feels like quality and like it's made by someone who cares. Well, they have to with the price tag it has.

Here's most of the box, behind a 1/72 scale Horten Ho 229 for scale. The perspective actually makes the box look smaller than it it, but trust me - it's the biggest scale model box I've ever seen and I have no clue about the part count?
The box weighs several kilos just to give some perspective!

This is going to be a long term project as a diorama with the Schwerer Gustav in the battle for Sevastopol. More trains and tracks. Several Flak units. Support units and infantry. (I've got a whole list of kits that's going to be included)
Just the Dora is 1200 mm long so the diorama will be at least 1500 mm wide, perhaps even wider? It'll be housed in a custom built glass monter, as a furniture.
I expect the whole build to take up to a year or so to finish, depending on how long time the group build takes, and my other silly projects like the Entwicklungsfahrzeug Sammlung project...

I'm now fully booked for the next two years at least with my current stash so unless something extraordinary pops up, I won't buy any more kits for a while - but don't hold me to that
This build is going to require a very large desk just to fit the pieces...

 

[papa 695]

Nice one Jens a BIG gun for a BIG project.

 

[Guest]

It's a BIG gun for sure...
Ever since I stood next to one of those 80cm grenades at the Imperial War Museum I wondered what on earth they were thinking building such monstrosity, and after reading up on the subject that question is still not fully answered

I like working with wood as well so the diorama will be built into some sort of display cabinet.
I can't buy any old relics from any of the railroad guns to include in the cabinet, but I've found something that should give it some perspective but that's for the reveal sometimes 2018 or whenever it's finished...

I thought about including Hitlers armoured train, the Führersonderzug, in the diorama but although there are 1/72 scale BR52 locomotives there are no cars of the correct type, nor the flak cars, so I'm going to include a different train in the diorama, but a plausible one. It's not going to be a 100% historically correct diorama of the battle of Sevastopol, but something that should hopefully look good when done?!
I've got an idea in my head and that's what I'm aiming for!

 

[Guest]

Rather you than me, I would find it difficult to stay focused on a project that big.

 

[Gern]

I shall be watching closely Jens!

There's a lunatic out there somewhere who's done a diorama using Soar Art's 1/35 kit - including scratch building the special trains and ammo carriages!

https://www.justcollecting.com/models/1-35-dora-railway-gun-diorama

 

[BarryW]

That is not one I would like to undertake, lots of repetitive tasks there.... I will be watching this one Jens...

It will be a very impressive diorama.

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Kudos to you for taking on this one Jens, a mammoth build for a mammoth gun.

 

[Guest]

Enjoy the build Jens,I'm sure this will be something special:smiling:.

 

[colin m]

This will keep you quiet for a while !

 

[Guest]

Cheers everyone!

I know it's a big build for sure but these bonkers "wunderwaffen" are the reason why I'm modelling at all (I think?) and the Schwerer Gustav & Dora must be the icing on the cake so it just had to be done!
I was contemplating building the Soar Arts 1/35 scale version but I don't have the money at the moment for such a endeavour, nor possibly the space?
It's something for the future perhaps...

It wasn't easy as a workaholic to be retired before I turned 40, and now a bit more than a handful years later when I'm stable-ish after surgeries - and bored - these huge projects are valuable because it's something to do whilst just waiting for time to pass. I don't mind repetitive work because after a couple you don't think so much any more and it mostly goes by itself, but then this is pretty much all I do nowadays.

When all the armour is done I will have a go at the air planes under "wunderwaffe" too and I've already built the Haunebu II and just recently a Horten Ho 229, but in tiny 1/72 scale for practise...

This will be my first attempt at recreating a historic battle, the battle for Sevastopol, but one where rivet counting has no place because I've failed to precisely ascertain the armour of I. Flakkorp and 1 & 2 Flakbatallion who supported the Schwerer Gustav so I'm applying artistic freedom and create something that hopefully looks better than it is accurate!
The only way to improve in modelling is to go outside the comfort zone and that's why I'm trying to do a bit odd and unknown things to me, so I can get better as a modeller.
I've had more than a few fails recently and that's why I haven't posted so many other projects, but it's all for science as they say, or for learning

I've only just starting to learn the basics about modelling nature in 1/35 scale so I'm going to make a couple 1/72 scale vignettes just to get used to the scale. It's hard enough in 1/35 to make something plausible and 1/72 must be a lot harder?!?
I'm having a laugh every day with plastic parts, glue and paint and what more can one ask for?

 

[Guest]

I shall be watching closely Jens!

There's a lunatic out there somewhere who's done a diorama using Soar Art's 1/35 kit - including scratch building the special trains and ammo carriages!

https://www.justcollecting.com/models/1-35-dora-railway-gun-diorama

This guy didn't think 1/35 scale was big enough so he scratch built one in 1/6 scale!!!

http://www.vonabt.co.uk/models/Dora/DoraBuild.htm

This almost makes me 100% sane in comparison :tongue-out:

 

[Guest]

Wow I've seen one of these built up and would love one but can't afford it so will have to enjoy watching yours.

 

[Guest]

Wow I've seen one of these built up and would love one but can't afford it so will have to enjoy watching yours.

Cheers!

This one I got for ~£150 including shipping, but had to pay an extra £30 in customs because I forgot to tick the box "gift".
I've been looking out for one ever since the beginning of the summer and this time the price was right!
Yes, it's very expensive as a kit, but you get many kilos of plastic and PE so I think in the end it's good value for money.
If not it's going to make a rather impressive display piece unless I ¤%&/#% it up

 

[Gern]

It sounds a lot of money, but as the idea of most hobbies is to give us something to do, if you work out the cost per hour then it's very cheap. If you spend a couple of hundred hours building this - then compare that with the cost of going to the cinema say, and watching a hundred films at 2 hours each .......

 

[Guest]

It sounds a lot of money, but as the idea of most hobbies is to give us something to do, if you work out the cost per hour then it's very cheap. If you spend a couple of hundred hours building this - then compare that with the cost of going to the cinema say, and watching a hundred films at 2 hours each .......

Spot on!
If you then add (in my case) that I've been bedridden for more or less the last 8 years and done pretty much nothing until earlier this year then it's not so bad!

I can't say for sure but scale modelling has become a lot more affordable compared to when I started as a boy?
The kits haven't followed the McDonald's index for sure.

You can buy perhaps four 1/35 scale kits for the price of one Hobby Boss Dora, but by weight the Dora is by far the cheapest!
It's also 100% bonkers and that's what scores in my world! :tongue-out:

 

[Ian M]

Scot build the 1/35 there are photos in a thread somewhere on here...
I like big guns and could be tempted but space is at a premium here so maybe I'll just enjoy your one.

 

[Mr Bowcat]

I'm not sure I could keep my mojo going on a big build like this. My Bradley took about 3 months and started to drag towards the end of the build.

 

[Guest]

So that's the 1/72?
Wow, I know people get excited at this thing especially the 35th scale and I can understand regarding the physical size, thankfully the subject doesn't interest me enough to want to build one as I'd have neither the patience or storage space.
The Germans though have always had an obsession with bigger regarding munitions and armour, when they were focused on the gun and armour of the Tiger allied forces were more focused on speed and armour and greater numbers, (the necessity to transport said vehicles overseas played a part too).
But if you look at many of the never realised designs you'll see, such as the P1000 Ratte now that is one kit I'd be tempted to build in 35th to display next to a panther or similar.

 

[Guest]

But if you look at many of the never realised designs you'll see, such as the P1000 Ratte now that is one kit I'd be tempted to build in 35th to display next to a panther or similar.

I've actually begun building a 1/35 scale Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte and was keeping it a secret, but since it's a 100% scratch build and going to take several years I can write about it because it might never be finished anyway...
The chassi is 1000mm long and it's going to take up way more space than the 1/72 Dora/Schwerer Gustav for sure.
As an engineer who's also worked with wood and metal and not just electronics I know all to well that you can't scale things as you want because of weight. It just gets too heavy early on and Hitler should've known this with the Maus - and yet he insisted on not only building the p.1000 Ratte, he also ordered the even bigger P.1500 Landkreuzer to be equipped with the same 80cm K(E) gun?!?
Building some of these monsters in scale gives you a great reference for the bonkers of all bonkers projects and I like this funny side of what is actually pretty tragic.
Just solving all the engineering hurdles would require really clever thinking and machining and that's why I want to build all of these wunderwaffen!