Mörser Karl on Railway Carrier

[Paul A H]

Mörser Karl

1:72 Hasegawa

 

 

Mörser Karl was a German siege mortar developed in the late 1930s by Rheinmetall and named after General Karl Becker. Seven examples were complete, bearing the names Adam, Eva, Loki, Odin, Thor and Ziu (the seventh was a test version and was not named). Although few in number, these weapons were present at some of the key events in World War II including the sieges of Brest-Litovsk and Sevastopol, the Warsaw Uprising, the Battle of the Bulge and the fighting at the Remagen bridge. Hasegawa’s Mörser Karl has been around for a good few years now and will no doubt be familiar to many of you. On opening the sturdy top-opening box, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a brand new kit; all of the parts are crisply moulded and there is virtually no flash present anywhere. The only downside is the large number of ejector pin marks, including some in awkward places such as the rail wheels.

 

 

 

As this is the version that includes the railway carrier, construction begins with the rail bogies, two of which have to be assembled. A small length of rubber pipe is provided to represent hydraulic lines a nice touch. The instructions are worth a special mention at this point; I’ve often found model artillery pieces to be more complex than most models to put together, mainly because they don’t contain many easily recognisable parts such as wings or turrets. Happily Hasegawa’s instructions are superb and include clear diagrams as well as photographs for each stage of the build – no excuses for going wrong then! Construction of the huge 60cm mortar begins with the mortar barrel itself before moving onto the chassis, running gear and the mount for the mortar. The tracks for the mechanised mortar chassis are the old fashioned rubber type, but are nicely produced nonetheless. If you choose to mount the mortar on the railway carrier, you can either use the injection moulded track provided or build your own. The bogies are fully articulated should you wish to pose the model on a curved section of track.

 

 

 

Three marking options are provided but I can’t tell you anything about them as the painting instructions are in Japanese only. Although the diagrams are black and white, they appear to show one grey vehicle, one dark yellow and one in three tone camouflage, presumably dark yellow, green and brown.

 

Conclusion

 

Although this kit has been knocking around for a good few years it’s still a cracker and should provide a good few hours of modelling fun, either as a model in its own right or as the centrepiece of a diorama.

 

Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for

[Moofles]

Bit late to comment on this, but wow this looks epic, combined with leopold railway gun, would look ace.

[thx6667]

IIRC the railway bits from this kit are straight from the Leopold?