80cm WWII German WWII German 80cm Super Heavy Railway Gun DORA

The kit was honoured with the Model of the Year 2007 award at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg.

The largest plastic model kit (polystyrene plastic) of a gun ever produced, including photo-etched parts, screws, spiral springs, aluminium tracks and a plastic track bed. The gun barrel is 1300 mm long and can be mounted movably (can be swivelled upwards). The kit contains 96 black plastic moulded parts and 147 separate parts, including 80 running wheels, 16 parts for the undercarriage frame and 6 parts for the gun barrel. The largest and most elaborate guns in the world that were actually used were called Dora and Schwerer Gustav. These special guns are often mistakenly referred to as railway guns, but the short tracks were only used for mounting and as a firing curve for aiming. The Krupp company built the two giant guns between 1937 and 1941. The guns had hydraulic crank-operated breechblocks and each gun consisted of a mantlet and a barrel, which were mounted in a cradle. This was mounted between two long gun carriage beams, which were mounted on the eight 5-axle bogies via intermediate beams. The entire load was distributed over 2 parallel tracks. The gun was powered by its own generator, among other things for the electric motors on some of the axles for the precision aiming system. The only combat use was during the siege of the fortress of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. From 5 June to 2 July 1942, 48 armour-piercing shells were fired at the city’s fortifications, later a further 5 shots with explosive shells (4 at sea and one at Maxim Gorky I). Another target was an ammunition depot 30 metres underground and under water containing the entire ammunition supply of the Sevastopol fortress for 2 years. Sixteen shots were fired at this target and a high column of smoke was observed.