35.5cm Haubitze M.1 from Soar Art Workshop

35.5cm Haubitze M.1 was a German Heavy Siege howitzer which saw service between 1939 and 1945. It was developed by Rheinmetall before the Second World War to meet the army requirements for such a huge siege weapon. Total of eight 35.5cm Haubitze M.1 were produced during the war and they saw service in France and at the Eastern Front of course. It weighted 75 000kgs and the barrel was longer than 8m. The shell weight was slightly less than 600kg, so you get the idea what a beast we are talking here. Not much information about this weapon is left, and since siege howitzers are not usually war movie stars, it is doubtful that we can find plenty.

Soar Art Workshop did it again with 35.5cm Haubitze M.1. They did it a while back with their humongous Dora in 35th scale, and now they are adding another beast to their line. Although smaller in size, this thing will be huge once built in 35th scale. The box is said to be around 50cm by 35cm by 10cm which is quite a packing. It is also mentioned that the Japanese company will add projectiles inside /probably metal ones/ as well as real springs for the movable parts of the kit. It is very freshly out, so it is not yet exactly clear what we will be getting. It is clear that the instruction booklet is A4 and made from great material, featuring around 30 pages. It is also certain that the moldings will be of a great Japanese quality. Second to none.

The price seems to be high, above 100 Euros per kit, but with that size of the box you can imagine what we are dealing with here. Also, having in mind their enormous Dora kit, I doubt that Soar Art will give us something small anytime in the future.

The release of this kit is great news because we are having a lot of movement on the howitzer market lately, especially with Takom’s kits. Somehow armor modeling developed itself into tractor, artillery,truck and what-not modeling, which is good. I bet that there are a lot of fans of howitzers, and Soar Art thought about them with 35.5cm Haubitze M.1.

More info about this kit will be published as soon as possible.