My girlfriend saw me reading an article on Railway Guns the other day. She came home yesterday with Trumpeter’s 1/35th
kit of Leopold…The German 280mm railway gun. Gawd, what did she get me into. According to the boxtop, there are 1140 plastic pieces, two display bases, a PE fret, some wire, chain,
thread, and rubber hose. It’s nearly a meter long! I haven’t finished inspecting the kit yet but, I’ve already noticed some
slight sink marks on the rail truck suspension springs.
I hardly know where to start…I haven’t built any guns since I
built Tamiya’s Flak 88 about 10-15 years ago so, this one should keep me busy for a while.
Ray
Good luck with it Ray! I got the Dragon Leopold when it came out and looked at the Trumpeter the other day at my hobby shop. I’ll say the Trumpeter definitely has more parts!! The detail on the railroad trucks seems to be a bit better on the Trumpeter but it’s hard to say if you’ll be able to tell after it’s built. I may end up getting the Trumeter too some day if it gets some really rave reviews. I do like the options for the display base on the Trumpeter. If you’re interested someone (can’t remember the name of the company) is going to do an aluminum barrel for the Leopold soon.
Eric
Congrats Ray!
Get those pictures posted when you get it started.
Was talking to a modeling friend Friday night, and he said that (and this is probably an attempt to save money) there is a lot of molded-in detail on the Dragon kit, that is produced in individual pieces on the Trumpeter kit. From his inspection, and from some reviews of other colleagues, the Trumpeter kit should blow the Dragon one out of the water (so to speak) in sheer detail alone. I am looking forward to seeing it…
Gip Winecoff
BTW and FWIW, I think Trumpeter has just put Tamiya on notice. There’s some serious competition here.
Gip Winecoff
One of the first things that came to mind after I caught my breath is the display base. I’d like to put it on a wood base with metal rails. It’s just too big for a diorama type setting in my small house. BTW…The girlfriend is DEFINITELY
a keeper.
Ray
Does your girlfriend have a sister? LOL [:D]
Good one Tigerman! LOL. Fantastic, Ray. Keep us informed!
BTW Ray, I did mean to mention on my first post that you definitely need to hang on to that girlfriend of yours!!! [:D] [:D] [:D]
Buy her all the shoes she wants [:p]
Eric
Sorry guys, she doesn’t have a sister and I’m not about to share.
I’ve been all over the web this morning looking at pictures of the real
Leopold. It looks to me like Trumpeter has really done it right on this one.
I figure I’ve only got to study the instructions 5 or 6 more times before I start
playing with plastic. There are 26 sprues to work my way through.
Ray
Best give that girl of yours a big old hug from all of us Ray.
She is definitely quite a gift. Both her and the Leopold.
here you go Ray
http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/leopold.htm
http://www.one35th.com/model/k5/k5_frme.htm
just for all the Big Railway modelers
Thanks much, Captain.
I’d already looked at Hyperscale’s photos but I hadn’t seen the others. They’ll be a great help.
Ray
the other links got some Mad things on it like a Dragon Wagon for sale and German WW2 AAA guns
A friend of mine brought his unmade DML Leopold as well as his older unmade 1/72 Hasegawa (?) Leopold to our club meeting on Saturday. By the sounds of it, the Trumpeter kit compared to the Dragon kit would be like us comparing the other kits at the meeting.
1140 parts, and here I am thinking that sometimes individual track links were enough to drive you mad[:p].
My wife just bought me a new double action airbrush for Father’s Day. Guess we are both lucky boys Ray[:)]
Peter
Check out www.missionmodels.com for an aluminum barrel. Just one thought, would an aluminum barrel that big be too heavy for the model?
I don’t usually buy railway guns in any form but had to get a Leopold (this is the DML kit) and am having fun with it, which was my intent. My thought was that it would be fun to make some of the supply cars that went with its train, so bought a DML gondola kit for conversion… no tracks were supplied as on the Leopold. Argh.
I know, buy some tracks, but would it kill a company to put tracks in with a railway car kit?? Again… argh.
Ron.
Anyone know of some good detailing parts for the Dragon kit?
Besides getting a aluminium barrel, and the rounds from Nutsnbits, any P-E available for it?
I wonder if accurate decals with all of the shipping info. etc. will come out soon!
Ron.
Archer transfers makes dry transfers for the 1/72 rail gun, has all the shipping, weight und der detusche hoo ha you need. check them out, they most likely got the 1/35 stuff by now too