I think it is done... after several years of working on the big "Dora" in scale 1/35 from Soar ART Workshop, several pauses, restarts and lot of modifications and work on that big thing... a great kit, but also some problems, mistakes or wrong sizes ... All together the final kit is a giant... and looking amazing. But for its high price I would have expected some less mistakes in the kit ... and some parts with more details ...
But with some additional work it will become a great, impressive gun model .....
First I want to show you a short survey of what I have used and what I have done to the kit ....
Which additional material have I used? And for what?
- plastic stripes, profiles, ... in different shapes and sizes for the new walk ways, the frames under it, for detailing other parts, for hand rails and ladders.
- brass pipes for walkways, aluminium profiles to strenghten the modified gun barrel from the inside, for other detail works
- foto etched parts from other kits or with additional stuff such as hand rails, switches, mesh, used all around the kit from different brands and scales...
- buffers from RB Modells (turned brass) for each wagon
- balsa wood for the floor of each wagon
- wire in different diamaters and material
- ammo shells made of Aluminium from Schatton models
- figures from Masterbox ("Women at War"),, Trumpeter ("German artillery crew", 2x "German railroad gun crew"), MiniArt ("German Artillery Crew", "German Tank Crew Normandy 1944"), ICM ("German Staff Personnel", "German armed vehicle crew")
- wire rope for the elevators
- chain in different sizes
- food and bags from Reality in Scale
- and some other stuff which I had as left from other kits
Which colors have I used?
- the main painting was done with German Grey from Tamiya, highlights and shadows were made with different lighter greys from Tamiya and Lifecolor
- the bare steel on the wagons was painted in dark iron from Tamiya
- the wooden floor was painted in oil colors, then German Grey and salt used for the used surface
- details of the hole kit were painted mainly with different colors from Lifecolor
- bare metal at the gun was made with rub'n buff and polishing powder from Uschi v.d. Rosten
- Weathering was done with different oil colors, washes and filters from AK Interactive
- clear coat matt and shiny from AK Interactive and Valleyo
- figures were painted in colors from Lifecolor, Tamiya and Revell Aqua
- bare metal at hand rails, used areas, ... was made with a graphit pensil and stell powder from Uschi rubbed with a finger ...
The main areas which I have modified, the main changes which I did ...
- the kit provides 4 wagons which was wrong. I have divided each in two and made all together 8 single wagons as base for the gun
- the wooden floors of the wagons was made with balsa wood instead of the plastic parts
- turned brass buffers from RB Models were used instead of the plastic parts
- all walkways were made new with plastic profiles, brass stripes and pipes and aluminium mesh as new floor
- all hand rails were lowered 1cm or - if two parallel handrails 0,5cm under and 0,5cm over the middle horizontal part
- all ladders and steps were modified and corrected in their size
- the gun barrel was cut in different sections, each shortend and corrected in length and form... installed aluminium parts to strengthen the new gun barrel
- the engine room was modified, walkway, additional exhaust on top, modified exhausts on the under side and a full engine inside, visible through the open hatches
- modification of the cable winches of the elevators and the crane hooks
- new ammo made of turned aluminium in correct size and shape
- modification and detailing of the loading mechanism on the upper plattform
- several details added which were missing in the kit or not correct
- made completely new decals on the computer, printed and added ....
- and lot of more....
If you want to see more about the making of the kit please have a look at my website were I have explained everything in detail with lot of pictures.
I hope that you like the result ....
... some details ...
Oh.... I think these were lot of pictures.... I am sorry for that
Thank you so much for your interest in this project!
Cheers,
Micha
