Leopold German railway gun by Popeye the Sailor - 1:72

[popeye the sailor]

I had started the thread about trains...this medium is interesting.   there are many different aspects that make up this hobby,  from simply having a small layout,  to a layout that spans a large area.  to expand the thread {log},  I was going to purchase a few more pieces to build,  whether it be train car or structure.....it didn't matter....I still feel that this medium deserves to be exposed to more light.  there are many accomplished folks out there...and their work is extraordinary.!

    ....but I can do that in the other log.....here we can focus on the military......and the roll the railroad is and was used through history.  model railroading has set of military trains....a few still on the market........but vintage sets can be found.  my son gave me this one......he got it from a fellow who was selling his home.

     it's from an older set........produced later by another company.   this wet my appetite.......I should have save some of the pictures from the research I did on them.   the itch did calm down and I came back to earth.........but it would come back.  looking through oldmodelkits, is when I saw the Hasegawa kit of Leopold,  a German railway gun.  it wasn't overly expensive either......but I gave it an honorable mention to the admiral as a joke....."Hey Honey.......there's Leopold again!"

     out of the blue one day,  she asked me how Leopold was doing.  my reply was,  I didn't know...and I looked it up {not like I haven't been keeping tabs on it}.    sure enough,  it was still for sale and I was ok'd to order it........I was ecstatic!   of course,  with the kits I've been ordering,  I had better get going and learn to read Japanese......the instructions are printed as such!  looking into the history of the railway gun,  it goes as far back as the civil war.....yes sir........the U.S.   the Confederates mounted 32 pounders on simple rail cars....and I'm sure the union side had a few too.  other countries had them too......during the first world war,  the French had more than all other countries combined.   the start of the war left France with little in the way of artillery,  and this was a way they could get the heavy stuff there quickly.  some credit the French for the railway gun......but the concept and the design was formulated by the Russians.  early on,  they were just mortars and short barreled cannons on rail cars........in the 19th century,  they got bigger.   naval calibers began use to get heavier firepower inland,  in strategic positions,  where battle ships couldn't reach.  4.7"........7.9"........9.2".......... big Bertha was a whooping  16.53"!  there might be larger calibers,  but any hole one can stick their heads in,  is pretty big!   Leopold {and Robert}was one of two railway guns to be sent to Italy,  to counter the American landing at Anzio.  the Americans nicknamed them Anzio Annie and Anzio express.......derived by the sound that the shells made.  they were there from February to May of 1944,  and after spending the last of their rounds,  they were moved to the coast al town of Civitavecchia for evacuation.  this failed,  but by the time American forces closed in on them,  Robert had been totally destroyed.....Leopold was only minimally damaged.  it was moved to the states,  to the Aberdeen proving grounds in Maryland for evaluation,  later in 2011,  to be moved to Fort Lee,  Virginia.  

  two challenges in the development of the rail gun was transverse effects and recoil.   three types of rail guns were developed.....the non transverse mount,  the car transverse mount,  and the top carriage transverse mount.  the non transverse mount relied on the curvature of the track to adjust direction,  the car trans mount allowed the car bed to pivot on the trucks {but it was very limited},  and the carriage mount amounted to a turret mounted on the rail car.  elevation wasn't too much of a problem........pistons raised and lowered the gun barrels to the telemetry required to hit the target.  recoil was divided in four methods....

...cradle,  top carriage,  sliding and rolling.   cradle means that the gun recoils in it's carriage and retarded by hydraulic buffers.  it is then brought back to firing position by springs or hydraulic means.  Top Carriage is that the gun recoils in it's carriage,  again being buffered by hydraulics,  and brought back to firing position by the same means.  sliding recoil is when the entire car recoils with the gun,  with the trucks fixed in position;  while rolling recoil is when the entire car itself  rolls on the track to counter recoil.  some rely on anchorage to arrest the recoil.......the platform anchoring is the car is jacked up and chocks of sorts are placed between the car and track for support.  in some cases,  a special platform is built into the track beforehand to base it on.  ground anchorage is when the car is anchored to the ground by tethers attached to counter weights buried in the ground around the area.  on some {I'm sure},  hydraulic driven legs {utilized by some construction equipment} were used to aide in leveling and anchorage.  the size of the gun indicated what method was used.  the Germans even had plans for a gun that could leave the track,  by using two Tiger II tank chassis,  but it was late in the war and was abandoned {don't think that this didn't get my gears turning  }.   more on Leopold soon  

[popeye the sailor]

when I got the kit,  I was happy to find that the kit was in very good shape.  it was still in the packing bags,  except for the main part of the body,  which was tucked in with the contents.

here,  the bags are removed,  since seeing that there were a few parts that were off the sprues,  I searched the sprues to see where they go.  they have a diagram off all the sprues on the back of the instructions,  so it wasn't too hard to do.  this is a really nice kit........only a trace of flash if any at all!

 

these sprues are identical....mostly the truck parts.  comes with a base {2 parts}.  

the housing {the larger loose part}  juts off the right side of this panel....a bit of the tab can be seen.  all parts accounted for  

 

 

and the railings with the decal sheet stuck to the plastic.  it's a safe bet that this is an older kit.....the kit was produced as early as 1975.   judging from the yellowing and condition of the decals,  and that one of the bags literally crumbled as I handled it....yea.....it's an older kit.  I'm really liking how large the kit is......one part of the base is 10 inches long.  I put them together.......

 

the ruler is 18 inches long.  as an after thought,  I put the body on to show the length.

I've ordered the decals and they are in transit.  once I get them,  {not that I need them} I can start.

[Baker]

I build this kit years ago.

Good Luck, i follow with interest 

[mtaylor]

The so-called Paris Gun of WWI taught the Germans a lot about long range big guns.   I'm in on following this one.

[Canute]

Always interested in things railroad. Led on, Denis. I'm in.

[Moonbug]

Hey Popeye, good to see your fine work again! 

[Edwardkenway]

Settling in for a good build! 👍

[popeye the sailor]

hello all!    welcome to a log that I hope will be uneventful.......knowing me.  I wanted to put this in the train log,  but it's far removed from the normal trains one sees.  I've seen quite a few pictures of the finished model,  and it looks like I've got my work cut out for me.  I think the display base will be harder than the model.  

I forgot the box art........I like the grays,  but I also like the sand and rust {best description of the colors}.  haven't decided which way I will go.  I also had a look at the 1:35 kit.........what a monster!  I'm hoping to see the decals this week,  but they are coming from Germany......It's been about a week now since I ordered them.  I did remove the decals from the bag they were in.......they weren't stuck to the point of ruination,  but the yellowing is very prominent.   keen to note that some of the variants were motorized and could move under their own power.......Leopold and Richard were not.  at this time,  I haven't done anything.....I just want to give you all a warm welcome     big welcome to you Bug!.......it's so nice to see your look'in in  

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looks like its going to be awsome Denis  - got me  camping chair at the ready.

 

OC.

[Jack12477]

Denis, you should add Thor to the collection.  I built this model ages ago.

 

[Canute]

Denis, have you ever tried to whiten decals by putting them up in a sunny window pane. I read it somewhere, but can't find the source of that factoid.

[popeye the sailor]

I know about the window method Ken,  but the plastic created marks on the decals and I don't know if that would show up after putting them on.  it also takes time for it to work as well.  another thing I noticed,  is that the sheet doesn't have decals for the trucks.  I've seen a few of the models with them,  and I think the sheet that I ordered has them.   a chigger in the armor,  is that the carpenters we've had runn'in 'round here,  are to do the front step area,  where our mailboxes are located.  the knucklehead took them down yesterday to begin work,  and we didn't get any mail.  they are back up at the moment,  so we'll see what mail we get today....I hope they are in there.

 

I've seen the Dora kit......Hasegawa also released a kit of the 60cm Morser Karl 040,  which is a mortar too.......I think it's a 1:72 scale kit as well.   Dora could be removed from the trucks and travel under it's own power.  believe me.......I've had thoughts runn'in though my head.  I constantly think of the tank driven variant........sounds easy in theory.   scratch build the main body,  and get two 1:72 scale tigers to put under it.  good thing there are roots sticking out of the inner walls of the rabbit hole........currently,  I'm clinging to one of them .......mustn't get sucked into the abyss!

 

on another good note.......I have the instructions now in English!  I didn't realize it,  but Scalemates has them for download,  but I didn't bother to look at them.  another search brought me back to their site and I took a peek.........paydirt!    I took a browse through Britmodeler this morning,  but found no useful info........I would have thought that a log or two might be there........but no,  just the Trumpeter 1:35 kit {a couple logs}.  that is a very nice kit too!

 

has anyone experienced any problem getting mail from Australia?  I heard about a problem with the mail in that respect  

[Jack12477]

Here's Thor dismounted from the Railroad carriage with its loader in 1:35 scale. Yea I went down the rabbit hole with that mortar.

 

9n

[popeye the sailor]

well........I'm glad you made it back in one piece     you have a very nice set there.........you consider the weight of each one of those shells.  the ammo fired from Leopold weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 lbs.  

 

definitely worthy of a diorama  

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

has anyone experienced any problem getting mail from Australia?  I heard about a problem with the mail in that respect

Outside of allowing 6 weeks time, no...

[mtaylor]

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

Outside of allowing 6 weeks time, no...

Sounds about right.  Until the airlines start flying regularly there, expect delays.  Oh.. the backup at the ports here in the States aren't helping either.  

[popeye the sailor]

no problem then......I'll chalk it up to misinformation     there's a lot of that going 'round,  I hear tell.

 

well.......I told myself I would wait,  but 12 sets of truck wheels had my mind going.  how was the fit?  ease of truing them up?  before I knew it,  I had removed the parts that start off the trucks.

there are the air tanks,  the spreader bars,  the wheel bearing sides and the base,  which is the bottom of the trucks.  24 bearing caps locate along the outer bearing sides,  but I can add them late. 

 it's so nice to have the English instructions......now if I can just find them for the Missouri and the Shokaku.   this amounts to 24 wheels and 12 axles, and I found that they fit rather loose.  I assembled two of them so far,  and getting them to roll true is a pain.....going to take a while to assemble them all.  I will build a jig.......as you can see,  the instructions stress this as important {and I do too}.  I assembled the terrain base to use as a guide for the wheel assemblies in the beginning,  but there is too much side to side play to adequately true them up.  so I took measurements to make a wooden jig to do it.  

as I planned this out,  I kept my fingers busy,  assembling the air tanks and the bearing sides of the trucks.  two spacers are used for each truck.  the two sides were  joined together,  and then set on the truck base to dry.

I made sure that there were perpendicular as well.

first stab at a working jig failed.......no wide enough,  nor long enough.  I later figured that if it was long enough,  I could do at least one set of wheels at a time.  the wood thickness was a problem too.....once together,  the wood looked warped.  so,  the second time,  I used some thicker strip wood and I cut the pieces longer.  the front was closed off as a stop for the wheels.  in theory,  as I assembled them,  I'd stick them in the jig,  and they would butt up to one another,  wheels equal in true.  the finished jig was tested and I saw that there was still play in the fit.  I cut a strip out of the Leopold box top to shim it up.

I made up four more wheel sets to put in there.......it was deep enough to fit them all    there still seemed to be a little bit of play still,  so I added another strip of thinner material to take up the play.   my first attempt can be seen here.

 

I made sure I labeled this one.......once made I put them in my small tool box...........some I can't even tell you what I made them for    ya never know what the future holds......   these will dry for a while.........once set long enough,  I'll make the other set.  with all this drying,  I looked ahead to see what else I could do without upsetting the apple cart.  the gun barrel assembly is an assembly step all in itself,  so that's what I did next.

some minor clean up,  but nothing major {less than I've had with other models}.  the recoil chamber was assembled that the bracketing was fitted,  but as you can see......not assembled.  the barrel fit together pretty good.  there's still some sanding to do though.   well......those fun loving,   whacky carpenters are outside now....using the garage that I rent.......and sucking on my electricity {from the garage}.......so the admiral wants to go and do errands {apparently, they are back to arguing again.......{lover's spat} }.    one's an older cranky b..... and the other just found his identity........you figure it out!     so,  I end it here.......later I may get back to it,  if I feel like watching them walk by the window another hundred time,  indulging on my hospitality,  especially since they didn't ask,  nor did I give permission........the landlord's gonna hear about it {but that's another story}.

    

Edited October 30, 2021 by popeye the sailor
correction

[Egilman]

6 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

later I may get back to it,  if I feel like watching them walk by the window another hundred time,  indulging on my hospitality,  especially since they didn't ask,  nor did I give permission........the landlord's gonna hear about it {but that's another story}.

Simple solution,,, wirecutters... {chuckle}

Edited October 30, 2021 by Egilman

[Baker]

29 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Simple solution,,, wirecutters... {chuckle}

better :
Barbed wire, land mines, booby traps... 

 

And, nice work on the Leopold

[mtaylor]

11 hours ago, Backer said:

better :
Barbed wire, land mines, booby traps... 

 

And, nice work on the Leopold

If those don't work, I suggest a laser firing from space.

[Roger Pellett]

The Port of Duluth, MN provides the best long distance rail access to the tar sands oil fields near Edmonton, Alberta Canada.  For that reason, during the past twenty five years there have been several heavy lift shipments of very large oil refinery reactor vessels into the port for shipment to the tar sands.

 

Some of these reactor vessels were heavy enough to require shipment via Schnabel car.  The Schnabel car was developed in Germany and used during WWII by the German Army to transport very heavy guns. The car transporting the Thor gun above is an early version of the car.  There are several of these heavy lift railroad cars in the US, the largest designed to transport Westinghouse nuclear reactor vessels.

 

For several years, this particular car was parked at the Port of Duluth to handle tar sands heavy lift traffic; there were no longer any nuclear reactors to deliver.   In July of 2005, the company that I worked for received a contract to fabricate special components to modify the car for an upcoming shipment. It required welding some very high yield strength steels.  I remember investigating HY80 submarine hull steel.

 

The heavy lift ship arrived at the port in late summer, with the vessel loaded directly from the ship to the car, but shipment from the Port to Canada was delayed until ground had frozen in the winter.

 

Roger

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

I recall seeing a picture of one of these cars Roger.......I'll have to look into this   

 

I'll see if Marjorie can help with that Mark   

 

mid work week.........haven't done much,  although I did have an urge to assemble the other set of truck wheels.  I won't do it now......I've had a few beers,  listened to some 'rockus' music....until the admiral cried 'uncle' 🎶  I'm a confirmed Sabbath fan,  so I'm sure the 'metal' weighed heavily on her  

 

I received the Peddinghaus decals.......and YES!!!  they have decals for the trucks!  more on this when I come to earth and get through the rest of the work week.

[FriedClams]

Very interesting model Denis - I look forward to following your progress.

 

Gary

 

[Egilman]

5 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

I'm a confirmed Sabbath fan, 

Nothing better to set the atmosphere when your playing with knives and glue...... {chuckle}

[popeye the sailor]

I'm more 'newsy' when building......probably why I like working at my desk.  I can sit and read articles and of course,  catch up with you fine folks here on the site..  I can also window shop.......very dangerous for me.  the admiral cringes when I get updates from oldmodelkits   

 

as mentioned,  the decal sheet from Peddinghaus has the decals for the trucks,  which will be a nice touch.  I haven't seen anything as far as the origin of the trucks...whether they were designs for it,  or if they were modified from existing  train cars.

these are the same decals as from Archer....they need to be cut out exact......close to the images.   I did get the second set of wheels assembled during the week.

the tape was removed from the gun barrel and the seams were sanded....looks pretty good,  but I need to do a bit more.

....and as can be seen,  the recoil mech has been assembled.  will be fine tuned when dry  

there's more to add to the lower carriage....got a few things to do today.   once life is out of the way,  I can get some play time in    I'm also working on the paint......gonna try and use the White Ensign brand,  since I have some of the German colors.

[Old Collingwood]

Looking good Denis  -  lots of yummy  detail  there.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

I wish I could say the same OC.........read on.  today quickly went sour,  when I realized what I had done.  can't tell you how many time I fitted these parts....I thought I had it down pat....none the less,  I still managed to cement the recoil mech upside down  

the recoil tube should be neatly tucked between the brackets with the curved sides up,  so it can be attached to the barrel.  the round tubes in each side are the shock absorbers.......shafts back is correct.  of course,  I made sure that this assembly is cemented real good.......now I have to figure out how to take it apart.  it took a while,  trying not to damage it too much......the front ends of the absorbers faired well,  but the shaft ends did not.  at least I was able to save the pieces,  so it can be scabbed back together..

the parts were cleaned up of the dried glue and welded plastic.  where the front and rear ends of the tubes are,  tabs were trimmed off to better accept being rejoined.  when the fit was good again,  it was re-glued and clamped.

the shock absorber housings haven't been added yet.......they slide over the shafts at the rear and cement to the barrel breech.  the shaft have to be rebuilt.

it's a mess right now.......you can see where the tabs I trimmed off were to fit.   the shafts need to be exact for the housings to fit correctly.  each housing has a hole to accept the shafts......I drilled them slightly larger to make it easier.  the end of the main recoil tube {the round part with all the bolts}  should have a hole in the center,  so part B 16 will fit.  it has three pins coming off of it,  the center being longer that the outer ones.  instead of drilling the hole.........when the time came to add the part,  I simply trimmed some of the center pin off,  enabling the other pins to touch their respective places on the shock absorber housings.  there may be a little bit of cleaning up left to do......it should be unnoticeable when it's painted.

 

that's how it's supposed to look........I can't believe I did that    just to see what reaction I would get,  I showed it to the admiral and mentioned that I should get another kit.  I got an unsympathetic "make it work!"  I'll have to come up with a new angle   

 

I did get to look at the supply of White Ensign paints......I unfortunately don't have the color I'd like to go with.

Homepage | White Ensign Models

from what I've seen,  they cater to ships......little on armor,  and nada on planes {as far as paints go}.  I wanted to do the dark yellow......looks tan to me and the camo is a red / brown.......it's current scheme at the Aberdeen museum.  most rail guns were painted in the original German Gray....I have either Dunkelgrau 2 or a darker Schiffsbodenfarbe III Grau1.  I have some Norwegian grays too.  Leopold started out in the German Gray,  later to be painted in the dark yellow.  likely some time before the war's end,  it received the camo,  as is seen today.

[Old Collingwood]

We have all been there  Denis  - I cant count the number of kits that were trashed  when things went wrong  for me  - at least you was able to save it  - and to be fair   -  I could  not tell the mistake without you mentioning it  - thats a  credit to you  for fixing it.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Denis, good save of the kanone.

 

Something for all us plastic kit builders to keep in our back pockets is to put the glued item into the coldest freezer you own. I've left cars in there overnight and the parts can be popped off. It helps if the freezer is as cold as you can make it. May help us save a situation such as Denis ran into. Can't unglue with acetone; melts styrene. Alcohol won't normally work on our plastic cements. Could pry parts off, but you will likely mess the parts up before the joint fails.

[mtaylor]

16 minutes ago, Canute said:

Denis, good save of the kanone.

 

Something for all us plastic kit builders to keep in our back pockets is to put the glued item into the coldest freezer you own. I've left cars in there overnight and the parts can be popped off. It helps if the freezer is as cold as you can make it. May help us save a situation such as Denis ran into. Can't unglue with acetone; melts styrene. Alcohol won't normally work on our plastic cements. Could pry parts off, but you will likely mess the parts up before the joint fails.

I've never heard of freezing the plastic models.  But if it works, it works.   I'll have to tuck that away in case I do plastic again.