No thanks Luis,I am confident in my ability to resize mine.Have you started the brake system,yet?
I recommend assembling a few wheels and axles,and using them as guides to position the brake shoes the correct distance on the beam the shoes are attached to.

For Tim's question above about why an AP shell...

To penetrate through to underground installations...at Sevastapol, just one round from Dora went through 20-30 feet of sea, the seabed and into an undreground/sea amo area where it detonated - another spin on "one shot, one kill"!

Help on parts location. Does anyone know where parts numbered R8, R14 and R15 are located. 2 of each. My instructions don't show these parts although they are on the trees and tree pictures. Similarly with parts P14, 8off. SI have scanned the instructions but cannot see them anywhere unless I have missed them.

How have you attached the PeEplates to the decks.
Did you have any problems when assembling the two halves of the main structure together. I was going to fit parts of stage 14 C8 & P8 to L3 and L4, same for P1 and P2 spray everything and then fit the remaing parts of stage 14 and 20. Then V3 and P24. Would this work.

I don't have mu instructions at hand. As for the pe grids on the rail cars,I used superglue,and be careful.There are specific holes which must line up with the decks .There are boxes which have mounting pins which must go through those holes.
Attaching the 2 main "halves,I made sure they were painted before mounting the gun assembly between them.It seems to require 5 hands. Could you post some pictures of your progress?

Has anyone bougth the nordland models dora decals. If so has anyone from the uk had a problem putting there full postcode in.

On the saga of "is the barrel right/ is the barrel wrong?" and whether Soar Art is going to replace the barrel, I have been chatting with Oliver from Soar Art ([email protected]) - at the moment Soar Art does not intend to do so until it has definitive references one way or another. To my eye, the 'out of the box' Dora proportionally looks the same as the various photos supplied with the kit and available online.

Beautiful and massive wanted one since I saw a preproduction model at a show in Chicago. I thought the Karl was a daunting task with all the weathering and painting needed. Cheers mate you have really impressed me I will be using this thread for future refrence when I finally get mine. And to add A dio woud be even larger I was thinking about it and eek ......

I have bought the decals from Nordland Models. I live in Scotland and I used Paypal .They cost 31 Euros including postage and they came within a week. They are very thin and require great care. The decal can break up or the colour comes of the backing. Use a high gloss varnished background to apply them to and then matt down once applied. Use Microsol and set with care. There are many different decals and they do enhance the modelI e-mailed my details to their site with my info and they e-mailed me back with details and then I used paypal. If you want to contact me directly let me know via this site.

Micro scale sells an aerosol spray to coat decals if disintergration seems to a possiblity.

Tom I'm new to this site and what lead me to it is I'm getting ready to by the DORA.
My greatest hobby is model railroading but in my younger teen years I built and painted
a lot of military models mostly ships.One that I have sitting in what we call the train room
now waiting to be built is an 8 foot long YAMOTO.I've had her for ten years along with 5
other ships around that size.Some how I gaind intrest into the history of the rail guns and
came across the LEOPOLD KARL and the DORA .I found your site threw google and man I am impressed .I have joined the kitmaker website number 1 and I'm also going to by a 1/35
scale LEOPOLD and a 1/35 scale KARL and the mighty DORA and with the help from you and your friends information and pictures I will get threw this and hopefully she will come
out looking as good as yours.Great job my friend great job

Leigh,
If you are going to build the DORA make sure that you have the decals before hand as you have to put some in awkward places. Doing so after the build will be very difficult to position them. Also make sure you spray the surface to stop them breaking up as per the note above. DORA out of the box has taken 8 months from the start and on average 4 nights a week. It takes 14 - 16 tins of Tamiya Panzer Grey XF63 to spray the model. The base needs to be strengthened at the joints. Barrell will fall under it's own weight and the mechanaism has to be trimmed to make it work. The wire structure around the barrel was replaced with brass wire. No major problems with the builds and this audit trail from other builders shows up any problems. I needed to use a plastic weld to dissolve the plastic as polystyrene glue would not soften the plastic to get a bond. 4 bottles used. Wash all of the palstic as some of it is covered in a ot of mould release agent. Paint will not stick over the oil. fit of parts is reasonable for such a large model and plenty of filling and sanding awaits you but it looks good once built. I will post a picture once I have applied the decals and that is it finished.

I have built the Karl mortar which is more complex on the bogies as detail is better. I have the Leopold to build yet and the BR52 Locomotive engine from Trumpeter. Voyager (http://www.voyagermodel.com/) do brass/resin add ons for the BR52 and Eduard (http://www.eduard.cz./) do brass for the Karl and Leopold.

Happy building.

Tom

Thankyou very much for that information .I am sure it and much more will be greatly needed.
I don't know how far you have gotten with your decals but I had heard that they did not come with the kit or there are a great deal more that did not come with the kit . But any way I did some googleing and I found a company named ( Nordland Models ) There is a group they carry by the name of ( Bubi Decals ) who make the entire spread sheets for the 1/35 Dora
Rail Gun.It comes with everything including a book on instructions an diagrams.I am going to put in an order next week.It will run me about $55.00 and there is nothing small about this project and I guess thats why it is so challeging.Here is the web site if you or any one else would like it ( www.nordlandmodels.com ).

I got a scare the other day I called my distributor to order the Dora and he said he sold the last one the day before . I was under the assumption that the company Soar was only going to make a few and distrubute them out and that was it .I was afraid I had missed my chance but my dealer said that was not the case at all that he had another order in and was expecting it in three weeks so OK I'm back on course (Whew) The Karl and the Leopold are on there way so far so good.

Thankyou again Tom for you advice you can best beleave I will be using it
GOOD LUCK

Does any one know where I can buy 1/35 scale german figures for the DORA ?

For figures I wouls suppose any german Artillery crew by Dragon may have enough poses.Good luck buying ENOUGH to properly crew the weapon.
i only have 1 man on mine,for scale.

Holy guacamole that thing is massive! Now you need to pick up a 1/72 scale Gato sub kit....

Leigh,
Sorry been on holiday since your last posting. These are the decals I bought from Nordland made by Bubi. Buy them but as I said before be careful as they are very thin and the surface can break up. Spray with something to prevent this and spray the background with gloss varnish to avoid silvering. See previousostings from members. Matt down when finished.

As for figures go to this site and search on Dragon and look at 1/35 figures http://www.hannants.co.uk/ or http://www.dragon-models.com/ or the USA Dragon site.
I bought the artillery figures DML6201 and the DN6231 . You will find lots of figures to suit . Try the Tamiya and Verlinden WEB sites as well. Also Historex agents UK to see many resin figures.

I will send in pictures soon when I can find a large enough space to take some shots.
Keep in touch.

Try this link to see the decals http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/nordland/bubi55012l.htm

Hay Tom
Good hearing from you .I hope you enjoyed your time off.
Thankyou for the info on the figures . Much of my family wants in on this project.
So it might not be to much of a problem adding a great deal of military figures to
the scene.
Oh also I think I read where some one wanted to set up the crane that went along with
the erecting of the dora.There is a company by the name of (PLASTRUCT) .
Thay are an International supplier of architectural educational and hobby model parts
We use them alot in model railroading.They make in all scales in styrene tee beams,
I beams,zee bars,deep channels,H columns.We use them mostly for building bridges
until one day one of our members built a 75 story building under consrtuction using nothing
but structural shapes from this company .Beams, conduit ,water lines ,wall covering,the works,Here is the web www.plastruct.com.
Oh by the way the 1/35th scale Leopold and Karl came in the mail yesturday.
Well thats all I've got for now take care Tom It's time for me to drive the firetruck we got
a call.

Leigh,
A friend bought a kit a few months back.He also, is planning a LARGE diorama of the Dora under construction.

Carl
Then I think if your friend has not found the materials for the job then Plastruct is the way to go.They will have everything he will need.The biggest problem is finding a good picture of the crane assembled.The track configuration is basic ,a siding to bring the supplies along side the main line and a lifting point and basic switching which makes that simple, but the correct angle of the A frame and lean of the beams (in scale ) to support the weight seeing the gun was assembled in sections that would need to be eyeballed to kind of get that right.

Maybe a little bit of a big undertaking but imagine the finished product ,With the gun herself not yet totally assembled a lot of detail on the ground such as rope,rigging,tools, DORA parts and don't forget scafolding ,a couple of rail cars and an engine.Yes sir what a sight.

You should put a Kubelwagen or truck or something on there, too. That would really show off the size.