 | | Liebherr branded box. |  |  | | Debris protection on the cab. |  | | Excellent details on the body. The bolts on the body are painted silver. |  | | Detail underneath. |  | | Excellent hydraulics on the boom. |  | | Reaching up to the tunnel crown. |  | | Stick rotates. |
|  Comment on this model.
The Liebherr R 944 C is a tunnelling excavator and as such it works in one of the harshest environments of any machine. It is made suitably robust for the task with heavy duty parts and plenty of protection to the vulnerable components. It has an operating weight of 44 tonnes.
This version of the model is in the colours of Käppeli, a Swiss family-run firm founded in 1910.
Packaging
The R 944 C comes in a standard Liebherr box style, and it is held within two expanded polystyrene trays, and wrapped in soft paper. There were no defects or missing parts on the review model.
There is no information provided about the real machine, or the model. A few spare track links and pins are included, together with some wooden pointers and this is a professional touch.
Detail
The model is compact and its chunky boom makes it look like it means business. The metal tracks are of high quality and the track frames and sprockets are detailed. Chromed steps provide access to the cab. There are no moving rollers on the frames, but they do have dirt scrapers fixed above each set of tracks. At the front a dozer blade is attached and the hydraulics for this have special covers.
The cab is unusual in that as it is a tunnelling excavator it has no door and limited polycarbonate glass in some of the openings. There are grab rails and mirrors and a close-mesh guard on the front. Inside there are pedals and joysticks, and the floor has a textured surface. Behind the cab is a fire extinguisher.
Body details are really good and there are a number of metal grab rails which give the model a quality feel. Fine grille details are matched by panel handles and painted bolt heads, and at the rear the lights have grille protection. A mass of rubber hydraulic lines run to the boom. The paintwork and graphics are really nicely applied.
The boom is very good. Silver hydraulic lines lead into rubber hoses and there are special protection plates applied all over. The friction rivets used are unobtrusive and there are a number of places where bolt heads have been painted silver - a really great detail. The only minor weakness is that the colour of the hydraulic cylinder jackets is very slightly different to the metal parts, but it is slight.
Two tools are supplied. A mill attachment has four cutting heads each with ten well formed teeth and it looks very authentic. Hydraulic lines connect into the boom. A separate ripper bucket has three very finely formed teeth and is another high quality piece.
Features
The tracks roll, and the idlers are spring loaded to tension the tracks and enable them to be easily removed.
The dozer blade can be raised and lowered, and the protection covers to the hydraulics can also be raised. Rotation of the body is smooth.
The main boom can be raised and lowered as can the stick, and there is a full range of movement of the tools. The boom can also be rotated 45° in each direction to enable the tools to get to difficult to reach places and this feature works really well.
The milling head has rotating cutters.
Quality
This is a high quality model with few plastic parts. The paintwork is exceptional with the extremely fine work on the bolt heads, metal pipes and other parts.
Price
The R 944 C is good value in the limited edition colours.
Overall
This is an outstanding model that looks very attractive in the Käppeli livery. It has great attention to detail and works really well too.
Footnotes
The model was first announced at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 2010 in Liebherr colours. This version in the colours of Käppeli was a Summer 2012 release and was made in a run of 300 models.
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|  | | The parts out of the box. |  | | Parked up. |  | | Heavy protection to the hydraulics. |  | | Protective grilles on the rear lights. |  | | Excellent hydraulic lines and fire extinguisher behind the cab. |  | | Excellent looking tracks. |  | | Very good cab. |  | | Fitted with the ripping bucket. |
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