Build Log of Hobby Boss “Dora” railway gun in 1/72 scale
PART 4
By: Richard Geraci
Moving on now, I'll show building the left side gun mount. The right side is the same but opposite hand. Here are the assembly parts before painting. I have left off the piping and handwheels but added the walkway supports from a future step (fig 50). After painting everything, I put the pieces together (fig 51) [1423].
At some point you will have to make six ladders [1474] from side rails, hand rails, and rungs so lets get that out of the way. It is tedious work and the pieces are small as you can see by comparison to the #11 blade (fig 52).
Now we begin to build the loading platform. This is a multi-level affair spanning over the rear of the carriages and includes two tall lifting cranes. The first task is to assemble the lower level enclosure [1532] which is mostly just walkways and ladders. There are a lot of fiddly bits and PE to deal with here and the completed piece must be kept upside down due to the ladders (fig 53). It will be painted separately and added to the model later (fig 54).
The main loading deck and box trusses are next. Here I have already glued the truss halves together and added the small gussets (fig 55) [1585]. Flip the deck over and paint the underside as well as the trusses separately. You need to mask the ridges on the deck underside to prepare for future gluing of the trusses. Now attach the trusses and braces but leave off the small access doors till later. This operation takes some time and clamping to keep everything even and level. Here it is assembled (fig 56). The instructions would have you attach the lower enclosure now and place the whole thing on the carriages. Instead, I will add some misc parts to the upper deck and paint it (fig 57), and then connect the upper and lower decks together (fig 58). Here are the major pieces so far (fig 59). Notice the German soldier on the rail car in the lower left of the photo to get a sense of the size of this weapon.
There are some shell loading carts, the loading ram, and four shells as part of the deck platform (fig 60). There are 9 springs that go on the end of the loading ram that are 3mm long and arranged in a semi-circle. Good luck with getting them off the sprue and glued without losing one. Dry assembled, they look like this (fig 61) and then painted (fig 62). They will be placed on the deck during final assembly later [1634].
Here we begin the two loading cranes by building their shell lifting platforms (fig 63). I added small lead pieces inside the lifting hooks even though they will have the platforms hanging from them. Here are the pieces assembled and painted (fig 64) [1682].
Before we can go any further with the cranes we will have to start putting together the major pieces we've built already. The gun carriage sides are already connected and painted (fig 65,66,67) but still lack a few detail parts. Before we can add those we need to attach the gun mounts which also include the barbette/gas tube assembly. Remember we left off the gun barrel and breech block earlier to make this step easier. This is what the model looks like now (fig 68,69,70). Next we must attach the loading platform to the carriages. It fits right against the gun mounts and sits on the rear of the carriages (fig 71,72,73).
At some point you will have to make six ladders [1474] from side rails, hand rails, and rungs so lets get that out of the way. It is tedious work and the pieces are small as you can see by comparison to the #11 blade (fig 52).
Now we begin to build the loading platform. This is a multi-level affair spanning over the rear of the carriages and includes two tall lifting cranes. The first task is to assemble the lower level enclosure [1532] which is mostly just walkways and ladders. There are a lot of fiddly bits and PE to deal with here and the completed piece must be kept upside down due to the ladders (fig 53). It will be painted separately and added to the model later (fig 54).
The main loading deck and box trusses are next. Here I have already glued the truss halves together and added the small gussets (fig 55) [1585]. Flip the deck over and paint the underside as well as the trusses separately. You need to mask the ridges on the deck underside to prepare for future gluing of the trusses. Now attach the trusses and braces but leave off the small access doors till later. This operation takes some time and clamping to keep everything even and level. Here it is assembled (fig 56). The instructions would have you attach the lower enclosure now and place the whole thing on the carriages. Instead, I will add some misc parts to the upper deck and paint it (fig 57), and then connect the upper and lower decks together (fig 58). Here are the major pieces so far (fig 59). Notice the German soldier on the rail car in the lower left of the photo to get a sense of the size of this weapon.
There are some shell loading carts, the loading ram, and four shells as part of the deck platform (fig 60). There are 9 springs that go on the end of the loading ram that are 3mm long and arranged in a semi-circle. Good luck with getting them off the sprue and glued without losing one. Dry assembled, they look like this (fig 61) and then painted (fig 62). They will be placed on the deck during final assembly later [1634].
Here we begin the two loading cranes by building their shell lifting platforms (fig 63). I added small lead pieces inside the lifting hooks even though they will have the platforms hanging from them. Here are the pieces assembled and painted (fig 64) [1682].
Before we can go any further with the cranes we will have to start putting together the major pieces we've built already. The gun carriage sides are already connected and painted (fig 65,66,67) but still lack a few detail parts. Before we can add those we need to attach the gun mounts which also include the barbette/gas tube assembly. Remember we left off the gun barrel and breech block earlier to make this step easier. This is what the model looks like now (fig 68,69,70). Next we must attach the loading platform to the carriages. It fits right against the gun mounts and sits on the rear of the carriages (fig 71,72,73).
