Part 2: The Build

The Nebelwerfer, German for smoke launcher, was a towed rocket launcher that may be better known as Screaming Mimi or Moaning Minnie as Allied soldiers referred to it because of the noise it made when fired. Its development made it the first multiple rocket launcher. Two types were made, the 41 and the 42. This kit builds the five barrel 42 which fired 250 lb rockets over 8700 yards. It has removable rails inside the barrels though that allows it to also fire the smaller 75 lb rockets of the 41 version. One drawback of the Nebelwerfer was that when fired it left a large smoke trail, making it easy to target for Allied soldiers. The kit is the first complete kit by Lion Roar. As I mentioned in the in box review, it is an impressive kit from the moment you open the box. I will go into the build in this part. I opted to start the build with step 3 which is the base. This contains the majority of the styrene parts and I figured it would be a good thing to ease into the build. I would now have to agree with myself after going through the other steps. Not only that but it gives something to hold the barrels later in assembly. It is a pretty straight forward assembly with great fit and no cleanup of parts. There are some small parts that are injection molded but just think of these as warming you up for later. The only thing I have to point out here is that part A14 does not go on part A59, A60 is where you want to put it. The base also goes on through step 5. Step 4 has placement of one part, far contrast from step one which has about 150. Step 5 is the wheels and storage box. The wheels need a little bit of clean up since they are resin cast but the little area where the tread is distorted from the molding is easily covered up by putting them on the bottom. Or you can rescribe the tread pattern. You will need to flip parts A42 and A41 to the others called out position. Now that the easy part is done, let's get back to step one. Get comfortable, you'll be here a while. There are a total of around 140 photo etch parts, the 5 barrels and a whole one plastic part in the first step. Good thing though is it is a lot of repetition so you can get into a pretty good rhythm. A real good piece of advice here is to really pay attention to the instructions. When it shows putting the barrels into b1 there is the do not glue symbol. While it will be complicated to keep the barrels still, do not glue them yet. If you glue them you will not be able to glue on the bolts (b6) to the interior parts of the barrel grouping, and you will not be able to put them on before and then slide them into b1 and b2. I figured that one the hard way. You have the heads up though. I would recommend putting the rails (a13) inside the barrels with them separate though. Once you are ready to put on b1 and b2, I found it easier to put on b1 first. Like the instructions say, pay attention to the position of gaps, this will help once you add the ignition parts later on. Ok, now you can get started and I will check back with in a few weeks.

All right, now that the hard part is done and you feel like a master model builder for succeeding on to step 2. Step 2 is not too complicated other than running the ignition wires. Just cut the wire as close to size as you think you need and play around with the bends until you get them right. It may be easier to attach part C10 to the end of the wire instead of trying to put it into both parts while they are mounted. Only other advice would be to pay attention to the alignment of part C3 which attaches to the mounting brackets.

Since we all ready covered step 3 - 5, we'll move on to step 6, the barrel mounting. I found that part A34 which is the shaft for the elevation handle gets pushed to the side once the side mounts are put on, no real way to avoid that though. With care you can have the gears be functional for the barrels to elevate up and down. Personally I glued them solid because the weight of the barrels will cause it to drop all the way down, especially if you toss in the great turned aluminum shells that Lion Roar also has available. When you attach the two part brackets (A36, A2) (A37,A3) be sure to only glue the top 1/3 and that you have a gap in the bottom section. The final step, which is an accomplishment to get to and I have never felt more proud to get to the last step, is attaching the barrels to the base and adding the final details. There is a box on the side that has a photo etch cover. On part A9 it shows a mounting hole for part A4. It is on the wrong side of the part. Just shave off the mounting pin on part A4 and attach it. There is no method of attaching the barrels to the base and have it turn and not come off. I opted to glue them in place since leaving them loose caused them to fall to one side. There is also a ignition box to attach as the last part to a .5mm plastic tube. From videos I have seen of the Nebelwerfer in action, it seems like the tube is going to be a pretty good deal short. In the videos it shows the crew in cover a good ways away since when fired it puts out a pretty good bit of fire. I finished mine in Dunkel so that all the great detail would show better than in a dark grey. There are no markings to put on it.

My conclusion of this kit is two glue covered thumbs up. While it is a very challenging kit, most challenging that I have done any way, it turns out as a very nicely detailed model. The price is a bit higher than styrene kits but with the time spent per dollar spent, you'll probably get a better value in the end. Granted I really don't want to know how much time I spent on it. So if you have been thinking of picking this one up, grab it and enjoy one of the most detailed kits available. Thanks to Dragon Models USA, Lion Roar and IPMS for the review sample.

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