German 80 cm K(E) Railway Gun "Dora" by CDW - Hobby Boss - 1:72 Scale

[CDW]

As soon as I finish my current MRAP project, I plan to start this massive 1:72 scale German 80cm Railway Gun "Dora".

The finished model will measure in at a mere 44 inches in length. This thing would be a monster in 1:35 scale!

 

[Baker]

I have also wanted to buy / build this kit.
But my cabinets are almost full 
I follow with great interest. Good luck 

[Papa]

Where can one display this monster. It’s over a meter long!  That will be one impressive model. 

[Roger Pellett]

Amazing project!!  If my mental metric conversion math is correct, the real thing would have had a bore of 32in.  That’s twice the bore of the main armament of an Iowa Class Battleship.  Am I correct?  Was this actually built and used?

 

Railroad guns are fascinating.  The museum at the Washington Navy Yard used to have one of the ones built for service in France during World War I.  It was built around a Battleship gun- 16 or 14in.  If a kit for one of the WW I guns was available I would be tempted.

 

Roger

[yvesvidal]

Yes, what a monster. I guess, the intent was to send "candies" all the way to Britain.

 

Yves

[Egilman]

3 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Amazing project!!  If my mental metric conversion math is correct, the real thing would have had a bore of 32in.  That’s twice the bore of the main armament of an Iowa Class Battleship.  Am I correct?  Was this actually built and used?

 

Railroad guns are fascinating.  The museum at the Washington Navy Yard used to have one of the ones built for service in France during World War I.  It was built around a Battleship gun- 16 or 14in.  If a kit for one of the WW I guns was available I would be tempted.

 

Roger

Actually yes it was... Schwerer Gustav 31.5" gun... (Schwerer Dora was the second one built) Designed in the '30's to be used for the destruction of the heavy forts of the Maginot line....

 

Very impressive piece... 

Gustav was used in several locations during WWII and was destroyed by the germans to prevent it from falling into soviet hands. Dora was used during the siege of Leningrad along with "Gustav". ("Dora" was also set up at Stalingrad and ready to fire when it was abruptly withdrawn to prevent it's capture by the encircling Russians) They are the largest and heaviest artillery ever used in combat.... (both the British and Americans had 36" mortars during WWII but they were test pieces and never actually deployed) Dora fired a 7 ton shell to 54 miles and was capable of piercing 7 meters of reinforced concrete or 1 meter of face hardened armor steel. The design's greatest success I read from a book a fail to remember the title of, was destroying a concrete underground ammo bunker that was 92 ft underground..... (and an underwater ammo depot under 32 ft of water and 10 ft of reinforced concrete)

They were building an even larger gun called the "Langer Gustav" which was abandoned after RAF bombing of it's Essen building yard damaged it.

 

Reminds me of the railroad guns the US Army Artillery Corps used during WWI.... (the largest of which was an 18" bore)

[CDW]

A gun like this begs for a diorama. 

 

[Old Collingwood]

16 minutes ago, CDW said:

A gun like this begs for a diorama. 

 

Yep!   thoroughly  agree.👍

 

OC.

[CDW]

If you read through the Wikipedia article, it says the Germans had plans to extend the gun's range to 100 km with a barrel extension. 😲

[Egilman]

1/35th scale?

 

Gustav

 

A real shame they don't have one in stock..... {chuckle}

[Jack12477]

Saw this bad boy at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and the shell at the museum at Picatinny Arsenal when I was stationed there in the late 60s.  Little David mortar.  I don't think it ever saw service. 

[Canute]

How did Anzio Annie fit in with these large bore guns?

[popeye the sailor]

Awesome model.........always wanted one but never pulled the trigger   I be watch'in this one!

[Jack12477]

15 minutes ago, Canute said:

How did Anzio Annie fit in with these large bore guns?

Anzio Annie

[mtaylor]

Didn't they have a WWI Paris Gun at Aberdeen?  Or am I thinking of a different gun?   I was there mid-70's on trip to validate a manual I wrote for the M-901 and recall seeing some super long gun.  Might have the so-called "Atomic Cannon".

[Roger Pellett]

According to Wikipedia Anzio Annie was at Aberdeen and since 2005 has been on display at Ft. Lee, Petersburg, VA.

 

I believe that the American railway guns that fought in France during WW I were actually Navy, using 14in battleship tubes and Navy crews.  Again, according to Wikipedia the Army built some guns using the Navy barrels on improved carriages but they had not been shipped to Europe when the war ended.

 

The gun with it’s carriage on display at the Washington Navy Yard s one of the 14in guns that fought in France.  It is impressive.

 

Roger

 

 

[mtaylor]

Thanks Roger for the info.  So it must have been Anzio Annie then that I saw.   They had so much stuff there it just incredible.

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, Roger Pellett said:

According to Wikipedia Anzio Annie was at Aberdeen and since 2005 has been on display at Ft. Lee, Petersburg, VA.

 

I believe that the American railway guns that fought in France during WW I were actually Navy, using 14in battleship tubes and Navy crews.  Again, according to Wikipedia the Army built some guns using the Navy barrels on improved carriages but they had not been shipped to Europe when the war ended.

 

The gun with it’s carriage on display at the Washington Navy Yard s one of the 14in guns that fought in France.  It is impressive.

 

Roger

 

 

You are correct Roger, the largest gun used by the Artillery corps was a 14" railroad gun, they had five battalions of them two were attached to the French Army and the other three to the AEF.... The largest gun we ever actually built and deployed was a seacoast weapon. 16" Bore and it was installed on the western approaches to the Panama Canal..... There was consideration and plans made to build an 18" weapon but it never came to fruition cause it became readily apparent after WWI that the airplane's ability to range hundreds of miles behind the lines delivering bombs really made railway artillery practically useless... (but we had them until the late '30's)

Here is the 1917 manual of what the Army had in 1917..... the largest being that aforesaid 16"er...

 

Description of 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 Inch Seacoast Guns and Their Breach Mechanisms  US Army Ordnance Department--pdf

 

There are a bunch of links on the web about the Navy and their service in France during the war with the Railroad Artillery Battalions.... A very interesting read.... (and some short videos as well)

 

EG

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Didn't they have a WWI Paris Gun at Aberdeen?

No, the Versailles treaty required the Germans to turn over a complete "Paris Gun" to the allies but they never complied with it. And the allies, with the occupation of Germany, never found one.... all that was discovered/captured was the mount for one near Chateau Thierry. searches of the government archives never came up with the plans either... The Germans very effectively destroyed almost everything about those guns....

 

They did build a couple of updated versions which they used in WWII to shell southern England across the channel several times, they were captured by american forces shortly after D-Day... (that might be what you saw but I can find no record of them ever being put on display) 

 

And Atomic Annie was on display at Aberdeen for many many years....

[Baker]

This railway gun has probably been in action one time. At the siege of Sevastopol in 1942.
It fired 48 rounds in 5 days.

 

An idea of the size of the projectile and the charge

[Baker]

7 hours ago, Egilman said:

They did build a couple of updated versions which they used in WWII to shell southern England across the channel several times, they were captured by american forces shortly after D-Day... (that might be what you saw but I can find no record of them ever being put on display) 

A 21cm K 12 (E)  (the specs are from other cannons)

[Haliburton]

Any updates on this project?

[CDW]

Soon😀

[popeye the sailor]

Anzio Annie got it's name from the seige at Anzio Italy..........I believe the Germans actually named it Richard.  Richard and Leopold were sent over to Italy to aidse in the seige........they expended their ammo,  but failed to  do much damage before they were moved to Cititaveccia, ahead of the allied forces.  when they saw that they couldn't get the railguns out of Italy,  they scuttled them........Richard was badly damaged,  but Leopold had minor damage.  Leopold was brought to the U.S. and on display in Aberdeen, Maryland.....but there is another K5 on display in Petersberg Va.

 

might be a mix up........Leopold might have been named Anzio Annie,  and Richard was named Anzio express.  these are the nicknames that the allies called them,  because of the sound the shells generated.  I bookmarked some sites if you would like them.  I need to get back to Leopold one of these days 

[yvesvidal]

Squadron is taking pre-orders for Dora: 

 

https://squadron.com/1-35-soar-art-dora-railgun-plastic-model-kit-preorder/

 

Expensive kit but monstruous.

 

Yves

[CDW]

8 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Squadron is taking pre-orders for Dora: 

 

https://squadron.com/1-35-soar-art-dora-railgun-plastic-model-kit-preorder/

 

Expensive kit but monstruous.

 

Yves

At 1:35 scale, that will be a HUGE model. It will take as much space as your model ship.

[yvesvidal]

Yes, at 1/35th scale, it is a small model easy to display: 

 

 

and if 1/35th is too small for you, then there is 1/6th scale: 

 

 

Yves

Edited May 9, 2023 by yvesvidal

[popeye the sailor]

can you imagine..........if that gun can actually fire! 

[CDW]

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

can you imagine..........if that gun can actually fire! 

His neighbors would be a tad unhappy methinks.

[mtaylor]

5 hours ago, CDW said:

His neighbors would be a tad unhappy methinks.

Maybe not... depends if he was firing at street racers at night.