Dora 1/35

[Fledermaus]

Hi people! Work on the ammo cars continues, so here we go…

It is time to make the cool air conduits connectors, flexible tubes were connected to this
So air conditioned air can circulate from one car to the next, this was needed to keep the
Powder charges at a low temperature to maximize its performance

In this photo you can see the cars connected with the flexible tubes


The connectors, two on the front and two on the back






To make this I used a piece of aluminum tube 12.4mm x 3.30mm


You need 4 for each car


A disk of .70mm x 13.6mm is glued to the back of each piece


Next another 13.6 disk is trimmed down to 12.4mm leaving 3 “ears” of
About 1.5mm equally spaced around the disk


The disks are trimmed to 12.4mm (the same diameter as the tubes) with a file


It should look like this




Using a knife the ears are cut open in the middle so a bronco models wing nut
Can be glued into it




I used two small pieces of styrene and glued to the sides of the wing nut


The wingnuts are to hold the cover in place when the conduits are not used
It all looks like this when finished, you need to make 8 of it in total


Now the conduits are glued in place, 3mm over the upper step and 8mm from the
top corner of the doors




Next the brake system is made, for this a piece of square styrene 4.7 x 4.7 4mm long
Is used.




The front is covered with a piece of styrene

[Fledermaus]

I used the hand wheels from the dragon cars and a piece of 1.2 x 11mm long rod
With a small base 2.5 x 2.5 of .40 styrene to finish the mechanism

The finished brake system




Now I started the doors,


The doors are already cut from the front panels, so only the details need to be made
I started with the hinges, made from .90 x 5mm styrene rod cut in 4 pieces


The hinge plates are made from .30 styrene 2.5 x 2, 12 pieces for each set of doors


The doors in place with the hinge pins


The small top door hinge plates are .70 styrene 2 x 2.5mm with a .30mm x 20mm
Styrene rod




The doors handles are made using part #B4 from the dragon cars




The part is trimmed to shape






With the addition of the rails the cars construction is finished













The opened doors are being painted, that’s why this are
Missing now on both cars

A size comparison with my dragon stug III


Painting of the cars is almost finished, thanks for watching

Abdin

[Glaurung]

I really love your attention to detail and the correctness of your scratch work.
It has been one of the most enjoyable build to follow so far.

Slow but steady - keep it going, mate.


Kristjan

[Fledermaus]

HI friends, sorry for the long time after the last post, I’m in the stage of painting this monster and it is so time consuming due to the size of the parts. Here are some photos of the almost finished painting ammo wagons.

First is the correction to the wagons balcony hand rail, I made this the same on both sides and
It was wrong, one side is open for the elevator platform to land on it, and the other is a normal hand rail open in the middle.

Here is how it was made the first time, just one hand grab bar on an L


The L was shortened and the other parts added, now it is correct for this side






After correcting both wagons I made the markings as close to the only photo I have of the originals as I could using two sets of archer dry transfers, I combined from both the Leopold set and the Rail car set.


First the wagons are painted with panzer grey, then some coats of panzer grey with white followed by some weathering with powders, oils wash and some dry brushing






The rails are painted and the interior received some dusting with powders






This is the only photo of the side of the ammo wagons that I have showing part
of the markings


The markings are applied and more dust with the powders

[Fledermaus]

Here I did an alignment test with the elevator to make sure everything is ok


Still working on the paint process of all the cars and bridges, hope to finish soon






Finally the base made the base for Dora, it measures 3’’ tall by 2’ wide x 6.5’ long


The underside with all the reinforcements, hope it is enough


The table is 6 foot long


As soon as the paint is finished I can start laying the tracks and making the terrain.

Thanks for watching!

Abdin

[Glaurung]

It's nice to finally see some paint on this model. The railroad markings adds quite a bit of realism to the model. And the photo that shows many of the cars side by side, gives some hint of what a massive build this is.

Can't wait to see more,

Kristjan

[Fledermaus]

Kristjan thanks!! and yes it is massive, that photo shows only the cars and
the bridges, there is still a box with the barrel, hands rails, ladders, trunnions
loading platform, ram base and so on. still lots to paint and weather. plus still need to finish the tracks and the base slowly getting there. forgot to mention the figures

Abdin

[Lost legionar]

We have reached the threshold ... well actually you have Din! But I guess we are all in to see a new pinnacle in your project! Always facinated by your work. I hope I will be able to see it again in person.