My Hobbyboss 1/72 80cm M(E) "Dora" railway Gun

[Rufuss666]

Hi everyone. My first build Log on here. Bare with me and hope you don't find it tooo boring. Below I'll try and describe what Ive done and no doubt I'll be asking you guys for A LOT of help. The kit looks awesome in the box, really nicely packed and protected with lots of individual boxes to keep it all safe. As you can see its a huge box of platic:





Started with the track yesterday and carried on this morning



Cut up an old coat hanger and stuck it across the joints for a bit of support, considering how big and I'm guessing heavy it will be, it quite flimsy


Two small bits done as a test, quite happy with the result. Plasticote grey primer used then pre-shading with Vallejo gunship grey and some black/blue I mixed a while ago and used some oil paints to add some streaks this morning. The 2 smaller bits have been coated with Ultimate dark dirt and I'm pretty happy with the result. Need to get some Alclad steel paint to finish the track.







That's it for now, more to come later if I can get the other half to bugger of out shopping or something. Thanks for looking and I welcome any criticism (constructive preferably ) or tips and advice. cheers guys

[Svenne009]

I saw this (damn good looking) kit as an entry to a local competition, if it keeps going like this you are going to end up with a very nice setup.

Will be following this one

[Homerlovesbeer]

Woa, this is going to be amazing! I love the way you've weathered the tracks, outstanding.

[RFeeney]

This should build up to something very impressive, good luck

[Rufuss666]

little more done. hand painting the sleepers with oil paint then covered with Ultimate dark dirt again. Cant really see the brown and ive been at it for hours but I quite like it so far.

[Rufuss666]

Half the track is done and made a start on the other section. painting by hand is taking so long but so far its looking good I think, better than I expected anyway. Wood painted with Abteilung oils, German ochre then wiped over leaving some oil in the grooves then covered in Ultimate dark dirt.

[Homerlovesbeer]

What a monster! The tracks looks very realistic. Nice...

[InitialProduction1]

Really awesome Rufuss, how many freaking parts is in that monster? Wow this is going to be a intense build, but fun to watch.

[Rufuss666]

Thanks Guys.There are 1767 bits in the kit, and now after reading that I could cry Got some more done yesterday, spent 9 hours cutting, sanding and filing the parts for 4 of the 8 'wheel' sections. My Mr.Hobby paints arrived yesterday and gave them a run last night. The H32 field grey (recommended colour) is very dark and wipes out most of the pre-shading so I'll have to be careful of that.

[Rufuss666]

Got a bit more done yesterday. I moved on to the small bridging sections and fitted the etch then primed and pre-shaded everything ready for paint. the fit between the bridge and wheel sections was pretty bad and needed a lot a filing to get in its whole.



COCK UP OF THE DAY: Super glued one of the photo etch pieces on upside down and forgot 4 pieces for each small bridge, I didn't see them in the instructions some how

[Naedrux]

That thing is huge, even in 1:72 scale! Good luck with it, I'm curious as to seeing what it'll finish up like.

[InitialProduction1]

Wow that is REALLY coming together nicely, and man I have been there, when it comes to my model glue attacks, I'm in one now with my rye field tiger, I feel ya brother, again awesome work.

[Rufuss666]

Cheers peoples. Got quite a lot done today although I pretty much forgot to take photo's along the way but I will do when I build up the courage to tackle the other side. The paint colour has turned out nicely (Mr.hobby H32) and in the right light you can just make out the shadowing. I'm doing it pretty much as new because it wasn't around long and didn't see much action so just some light weathering to be added later. Today I sanded and fitted 110 of the little bugger wheels you can see, another 110 to go.




Cock up of the day: superglued PE piece to my thumb

[InitialProduction1]

That is freaken awesome Rufuss, nice paint work. And who hasn't supper glued parts to there fingers or thumb, Hahahaha.

[Rufuss666]

Just a little up date. Barrel section almost done now, can not paint the barrel because I waiting on my Alclad paint. Will be joining the two sections together today. I spent two days getting rid of the seam line along the barrel but finally happy with it now.

COCK UP OF THE DAY: I was not looking where I was squeezing and I broke one of the hand railings and knocked off a couple of pieces when I dropped the bloody thing but caught it before it hit the floor.

[Avgas]

Crikey, that's a big 'un.

[InitialProduction1]

Very nice.

[Stokesy44]

Man alive that is a big sucker! Looks great so far, what a superb beast!!!!

[Homerlovesbeer]

Struth what a monster! Terriffic!

[Rufuss666]

cheers guys. got a bit more done this week. built and painted the rear sections, now on to decaling and weathering the trucks. The instructions are wrong for the decals. they are mis-printed are show the decals OVER the top of the hand wheels and hooks on the trucks although it looks like they are telling you to put them behind the hand wheel but if you look closely you can see writing on the handles and another decal is shown overlapping from one section into the next on the small bridge but it shouldnt. none of them should have been behind or overlapping anything. started weathering as well using humbrol dust wash, mig oils and nuln oil. The rest is going together well and still enjoying the build.
#

[Naedrux]

And I expect you'll... You'll place this monster in a room somewhere? When it is done, that is.
That's a ludicrously large model, I reckon it'll turn out ludicrously well when it is finished!

[InitialProduction1]

Amazing build Rufuss, decals can really make a build, come alive, it also can make you want to do a Forbes Hutton on it. Hahahaha. but am I right. think I should shorten it to the "Hutton crush" anyway awesome build buddy.

[Rufuss666]

My new alclad paints arrived today so I was able to get the barrel done at last. I painted it all the the field grey then used alclad black gloss (that wasn't glossey at all??) then the stainless steel. i'll add some oil staining ect later. The alclad over a good gloss base looks awesome, I did a test on an old kit and it looked very realistic.

[digger303]

excellent work.
What a beast of a gun and they actually built two of these. Imagine having to spend a precious month just to ready the firing area for this monster before it even fired a shot.
In this scale is this fiddly to build ?

[InitialProduction1]

WOW, THAT'S SWEET!! That's coming to life, very cool Rufuss. Never used the new silvering paints, or should I say technique? Anyway very cool.

[Rufuss666]

so Ive been a bit lazy on keeping up the photos ect but I'm kind of into the final stages now. Ive had to back track working from the bottom up gluing and fitting railings and getting the final weathering underway. I'll do a quick mist over later with the grey colour to tone it down when I do any touch ups at the end. I used humbrol dust wash brushed and airbrushed, mig oils and citadel nuln oil. I'm pretty pleased with it at the moment, think I'm going to leave it now before I go toooo far. Fitting the hand rails was a huge nightmare, took me nearly 4 hours between the ladders and rails


On to assembly of the barrel section now. no more pictures until the 'final reveal' now

[InitialProduction1]

No more pics till done? Well that's BS. Hahaha. Rufuss man your really pulling out all the stops my friend. Just amazing.

[Stokesy44]

That paint and weathering job looks amazing. Cannot wait to see it finished.

[demarcation]

Wow!!

[Rufuss666]

so she's done. finished it last week but still needs a matt coat when postman pat delivers it. i'll take some more photos and stick them up eventually after ive painted the base as well. what do you think?

[OneSmallStep1966]

That's stunning you've done a suburb job on that monster kit, well done.

[InitialProduction1]

That is just a work of art and beauty, i really liked watching this one come to life Rufuss, even in 1/72 that thing is huge, did you have to add a room on to your house hahaha.

[Kevthemodeller]

WOW.................what a kit looks amazing.

[HIghAltitudeScale]

Good Lord man that thing is huge, and you did a very nice job on it!

[digger303]

good job
bloody huge though even at 1/72....must have used a serious amount of paint...Bunnings must have loved you.....

[privatepete]

Hi absolutely brilliant, you known your next build will seem a bit small unless you're going to top this

[Rufuss666]

I will try to top it, maybe trying the 1:35 soon. Thanks guys, appreciate the positive comments.

[digger303]

I will try to top it, maybe trying the 1:35 soon. Thanks guys, appreciate the positive comments.

your car is going to be spending some time on the street then.......It will be a terrific build I'm sure. I have the Leopold, but don't have the confidence yet to paint it right. So will be watching with interest.