Just carried this back from Mong Kok last night.
The box sure is long, and I can imagine people asking whether it's gonna be a doll.
The box's length sure looks like you can put a 1/3 scale doll in there. So, is it really a Dollfie? Has Q really fallen for this now?
Well see it yourself after the jump.
Here it is:
It's a Dora (or Schwerer Gustav) railway gun. Yep, not a doll there, and it's not any figures or Gundam-related stuff. It's some military stuff I've been longing for a long time. Years literally.
To be precise this is a 1/144 scale pre-assembled and pre-painted model of Dora railway gun. With the lack of time and skill, building one of these will be quite a pain (even for experienced modellers), and even getting hold on an unassembled kit is not easy too due to its rarity. I managed to get one of these completed models with a reasonable price after encountering someone on a forum who happened to have got one recently.
An A4 size 'cover' for the box. The gun itself seems to be a bit too long as it overhangs by a lot, but I'm not going to complain too much about it.
A very bite-size history on the gun itself: The 80cm K (E) railway gun was the biggest artillery gun ever made in history. 2 were made by Nazi Germany, named Schwerer Gustav and Dora. Schwerer Gustav was used in action against Sevastapol, while Dora was supposed to be used against Stalingrad but had to be pulled out as Soviet encirclement threatened. Neither of the guns survived the war, possibly destroyed by their own crew to prevent capture by enemy forces.
At least my little secret ambition has now been nearly fulfilled. I just need to unpack it very carefully over the weekend since it's very delicate and there's a lot of foams packed around the gun to keep it safe ^^
By the way sorry if I got you fooled there thinking I got myself a Dollfie ^^;
Holy Crap... What scale is that thing? I want one of those. >_<
ReplyDeleteIs this a smaller version of the big one you showed me last month?
ReplyDeleteWas'nt this one of those rail guns that was planned to bomb raid paris?
ReplyDeleteThis is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond my league... (as I'm bad in colouring and detailing).
ReplyDeleteBut my God... It's humongous... :o
wow.. what an huge project.. working on this sure gonna take a lot of time and efforts.. its an big challenge..good luck to you man.. any way.. how big is this thing when its complete assemble?
ReplyDelete@ coffeebugg:
ReplyDeleteThis is 1/144 scale. You can get it as a kit or pre-assembled and painted like mine. Although you can also consider the 1/35, if you have that much space ^^;
@ Adun:
Yep this is the smaller version of the one we saw in Mong Kok. It's still pretty to carry home though!
@ Mikee:
I think you are talking about the Paris Gun, which was built and used in WW1.
@ bd77:
It comes built and painted already~ I won't have the skill to make one that good, at least not within a short amount of time.
And yep it's huge ^^;
@ seven6398:
Ah this one is pre-assembled and painted already. I could get the kit if I wanted to (which is equally rare to find), but the effort required to build and paint this is something beyond me at the moment, and like many people time is not really on my side these days.
I've yet to open it, but based on the official specifications the length of the whole system should be around 33cm, and when the gun is fully elevated it can dwarf a Gundam for sure!
Wow big box o.o that thing looks so badass haha!
ReplyDeleteI have only assembled a chibi Exia before and it is a great deal of fun. I'm interested to move on to bigger stuff like your railway gun here =).
that's some rare and awesome stuff you got there! :D
ReplyDeleteand it's in scale with HG kits!! Xd
by the way,
care to exchange links? :3
Ah yes, my WWII history is coming back to me, though I remember the Schwerer Gustav more than Dora. A friend of mine was quite big on it and the siege of Sevastapol, mostly because of this particular cannon...
ReplyDeleteA very intimidating piece of military equipment to be sure!
Whoa that's pretty big!
ReplyDeleteThat would be cool to see once it's assembled
@ guuzen:
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that this gun actually existed, it makes it even meaner!
I usually collect smaller models, mostly 1/144 scale, but this is most likely the biggest one I would ever collect in this scale.
@ hiroy_raind:
Rare indeed~ I've been waiting to get my hands on one for years!
Since I'm a fan of 1/144 scale and a small fan of WWII stuff, this is no doubt a "get" in my book, ever since I got interested in collecting 1/144 military miniatures ^^;
No problem on link exchange. Will add you shortly!
@ gundamjehutykai:
Schwerer Gustav has a richer history, as it did get to fire in anger, whereas Dora never really got to see action at all apparently.
Being the biggest gun ever made in history, the size sure is intimidating in any scale!
@ blood on the mirror:
Still need to dig space out of my shelf, but will try have pictures of it once I got it set up!
woaah a Dora!!
ReplyDeleteI saw it yesterday at store.
it's even bigger than gunpla PG box.
Very interesting. Congratulation on the purchase. ^^
ReplyDeleteI don't really know much about military history, so the read on the background of this artillery platform is very interesting. Thanks for the links. Despite their destructive purpose and the evilness of war they served in, I can feel the romance behind the design and the passion of those who love military model kits. I do admire the design of such weapons and would definitely love to see the details if I get to see the models.
I came across a model kit of this particular 1/35 Morser Karl-Gerat from trumpeter when it was being introduced in Model Kit World (Hong Kong hobby magazine) years ago. The actual size won't be as awesome as Dora, but the model kit itself seems really nice. ^^
@ divinelight:
ReplyDeleteYep the box is definitely longer than the recent PG Gunpla boxes, as well as the 1/48 Mega Size RX-78-2! :o
@ Ngee Khiong:
Thanks for the compliment. ^^
The Dora gun sure shows power with its size and appearance. The "romance" is actually what I had in mind too - despite the horrors of war, we probably won't get to see the size and art of such weapons anymore due to evolution of technology. Such scale models will however serve as a historic memoir of how grand such things could be in the past.
Ah yes the 1/35 Karl-Gerät. I've even come across 1/35 completed models from Dragon Armor series - it's still quite a beast I must say. Though I was quite tempted to buy their Tiger II that were nearby (but I decided to stick with 1/144 at the end). ^^;