Anyone here ever build or see the Hasegawa 1/72 Leopold.

I ordered the Hasegawa kit from Squadron, rounding it out with some other stuff. Squadron tends to be a little more expensive but reliable and quick. So when the order comes (after being asked daily by my son) we crack the box only to find the round out stuff and no railway gun. Squadron doesn't backorder or notify. Sheeesh.

As a consolation prize, I built a lego Leopold with my 3 yo, it ended up taking about two hours and was over 3' long. They have a lego train set, so it's on a track with motors and elevator for the gun. Pretty cool, had to be rebuilt after a coupla crashes.
When my 5 yo saw it, he immediately improved it with figures and other details, preparing to repel the 'bad guys'. I stopped short from explaining that those ARE the bad guys.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ausf I was originally thinking: Get the Dragon 1/35 for myself, 1/72 for the 5 year old and let the 3 year old do the 1/144 (He makes these awesome Railway guns out of Lego Train parts so he may be ready). Upon further consideration I realized the insanity behind that.

Where's your sense of adventure? I could use some company in this wing...it's very lonely...

QUOTE: Originally posted by ausf I was originally thinking: Get the Dragon 1/35 for myself, 1/72 for the 5 year old and let the 3 year old do the 1/144 (He makes these awesome Railway guns out of Lego Train parts so he may be ready). Upon further consideration I realized the insanity behind that.

Yes, that would be insane and unresponsable behavior for a parent. You should know better than that.
The smaller the child, the bigger it's toys. So get the 1/35 for the 3 yo, the1/72 for the 5 yo, and build the 1/144 yourself.

Ausf, it's great you can share the hobby with your son..!

built three so far,two for my self and now i am working on one for a friend. i am including a german engine with coal car to go with it.

Domi,
I've got the the Dragon 1/144. It does look sweet. Tiny alum barrel, PE, rubber figures and all.
I'm doing a mini group build with my son. He'll build the 1/144 and I'll build the 1/72 myself. He just started Kindergarten and has more builds done than me (All Dragon 1/144). We're going to spend an hour or two together each Monday night before his bedtime and Football for me. Should be neat.

Duke, I ordered it from Squadron for $21.

I was originally thinking: Get the Dragon 1/35 for myself, 1/72 for the 5 year old and let the 3 year old do the 1/144 (He makes these awesome Railway guns out of Lego Train parts so he may be ready). Upon further consideration I realized the insanity behind that.

Shame you don't want to do the 1/144 kit from Dragon. It is said to be really sweet! It includes a one-piece turned metal barrel, and figures.. It's still nearly 6in long...

I have Hasegawa's Morser Karl built in 1/72 scale, and if the Leopold is anything like the Morser Karl kit, it was very well molded, went together smoothly, and had very good detail for a kit this size. I had no problems with the Karl, so the Leopold should be worthwhile if you can find it. I've been trying to find one myself, but I cannot pay some of the wild prices asked for on Ebay.

Yeah, I picked up one a couple months ago, and it looks great!!

the molding was still crisp as far as I could see. I'm hoping to do it up a bit.

I have one , and I built it straight , out of the box . An older kit , but looks great. Super detail it and you will have a winner!
Frank .

Yes, it is a 30 year old kit. I've seen one done up really nice and I've seen others built straight OOB. I guess it depends on your level of skill as to how well it turns out.

Eduard recently released a photo etched set for the 1/72 Hasegawa Leopold. It is #22013 and you can see the instructions here: http://www.eduard.cz

I had a friend build it about 15 years or so back. He won a third at a show with it. I seem to recall he said he'd had some trouble with the longer parts being warped, but he said he just super glued it from one end and it straightened out. It looked good to me, but then I know very little about rail guns.

That doesn't look bad at all, at least it's something to work with, Thanks Peter. The Tiger from back then wass disappointing when compared to RevellAG. I may have to pick this up...

You mean this one Ausf:




This is one my friend Wayne finished only a couple of months ago. He has had it since the 70's, and did it for our club display at a railway show. The last pic shows it up against the new Trumpeter one. The Hasegawa is a pretty good kit, especially given its age. I don't know if current mouldings would be as crisp after all this time, but ask to look in the box. I'd say go for it.

Tried searching through Google and couldn't turn up jack except for a 1/72 reference site that stated that all Hasegawa offerings are basically '70s kits reboxed, so take that for what it's worth I guess.