Build Log of Hobby Boss “Dora” railway gun in 1/72 scale
PART 2
By: Richard Geraci
There are 8 rail car assemblies: front outside right/left, front inside right/left, rear inside right/left, rear outside right/left. While they all use the same spring, wheel, and axle parts (fig 18, 19) the car sides and bodies are handed. I used a fine tip Sharpie to mark the underside to the chassis to keep them straight. Here is a top view numbering plan you can use. This corresponds to the decals you will be using later (fig 100). I built the inside cars first [281] (fig 20) and then the outside cars [555] (fig 21) leaving off the finer detail pieces until after painting. Next I built the 4 main support bridges that link the rail cars together. While these are not handed per se, they do have an inside and outside as far as markings go so use that Sharpie again. There are some fairly large photo etch gratings here that are a bit of a trick to get on but once you have done one bridge the other three are not that bad [645] (fig 22). At this point all the cars went to the paint shop (fig 23-24). Now comes 152 decals on the railcars and 72 on the bridges. Be careful to follow those marks you made earlier to get them on the correct side of each bridge and railcar. By the way, the instructions do not match the painting/decal guide which is itself incorrect. Just follow my numbering plan and the photos. Next the detail parts can be added and painted. Touch up, weather, and Dullcote the 8 rail cars and 4 bridges and temporarily place them on the already completed base (fig 25-27). At this point we have assembled almost 650 pieces, not including decals, and we haven't even gotten to the main part of the model yet!
Now I will switch horses and work on building the BR-57 locomotives. They will be identical except for the identification number decals on the cab. The kits have no decals so I will use some from my spares box. There is the armored locomotive itself and also an associated tender. Construction is straight forward with good part fit and no ejector pin marks in visible areas. I have left off the wheels, connecting rods, bumpers, and some other parts to make painting the chassis easier (fig 28 – 30). You may have a different approach. In any case, these are small kits and not at all complicated to build. After painting the chassis, I added the miscellaneous parts. The armored shells were then painted and attached to the chassis. After a bit of detailing and a few minor parts the engines were finished (fig 33-36).
The initial construction of the left [858] and right [1071] sides of the gun carriage are the same, a bunch of small braces, boxes and walkways, plus 220 3.5mm handwheels (110 on each side !). Be very careful here as they don't give you any extras in case the carpet monster eats a couple. The inside portion of the carriages should be pre-painted as it will be difficult to get in there after the sides are joined so the inside handwheels and walkways will actually be added after the pre-painting. The outside ones will be left off until a later step. Here is the left side after the initial construction (fig 37, 38). The right side looks similar.
As I mentioned in Part 1, you can use a jig to hold the rest of the build rather than building on top of the completed rail cars and bed. To build the jig I measured center-to-center on the railcar holes to get the width (71mm) and center-to-center on the main body side panels to get the length (412.5mm). The depth to raise it above the work table is 35mm (just under 1.5”) so a 2x4 will do. The hole is 6.5mm so a 1/4”x 2” machine bolt will work as the pin. Use a scrap piece of 2x8 as a base to keep it from being top-heavy and tipping. Replace the machine bolts with threaded rod later to use the base as a paint stand.
Now I will switch horses and work on building the BR-57 locomotives. They will be identical except for the identification number decals on the cab. The kits have no decals so I will use some from my spares box. There is the armored locomotive itself and also an associated tender. Construction is straight forward with good part fit and no ejector pin marks in visible areas. I have left off the wheels, connecting rods, bumpers, and some other parts to make painting the chassis easier (fig 28 – 30). You may have a different approach. In any case, these are small kits and not at all complicated to build. After painting the chassis, I added the miscellaneous parts. The armored shells were then painted and attached to the chassis. After a bit of detailing and a few minor parts the engines were finished (fig 33-36).
The initial construction of the left [858] and right [1071] sides of the gun carriage are the same, a bunch of small braces, boxes and walkways, plus 220 3.5mm handwheels (110 on each side !). Be very careful here as they don't give you any extras in case the carpet monster eats a couple. The inside portion of the carriages should be pre-painted as it will be difficult to get in there after the sides are joined so the inside handwheels and walkways will actually be added after the pre-painting. The outside ones will be left off until a later step. Here is the left side after the initial construction (fig 37, 38). The right side looks similar.
As I mentioned in Part 1, you can use a jig to hold the rest of the build rather than building on top of the completed rail cars and bed. To build the jig I measured center-to-center on the railcar holes to get the width (71mm) and center-to-center on the main body side panels to get the length (412.5mm). The depth to raise it above the work table is 35mm (just under 1.5”) so a 2x4 will do. The hole is 6.5mm so a 1/4”x 2” machine bolt will work as the pin. Use a scrap piece of 2x8 as a base to keep it from being top-heavy and tipping. Replace the machine bolts with threaded rod later to use the base as a paint stand.
