 | | Liebherr branded box. |  |  | | The blade is up. Debris protection on the cab. |  | | Excellent details on the body. The lights at the rear have protection and the bolts on the body are painted silver. |  | | The mill looks fearsome. |  | | The boom rotates to angle the tool. |  | | Protective plating on the hydraulics. |  | | Parked up ready for service. |
| 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.
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 tissue.
There is no information provided about the real machine, or the adjustment of 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 with excellent graphics 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 individual protection. A mass of rubber hydraulic lines run to the boom.
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 slight 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 enable the tracks 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 R944C is very good value for what is offered.
Overall
This is an outstanding model. It is very well engineered and the quality of the detailing in the paintwork is exceptional. NZG have done a very good job producing this model of an interesting and unusual machine.
Footnotes
The model first appeared at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 2010. In Summer 2012 a version appeared in the colours of Käpelli.
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|  | | The tray. |  | | Excellent tracks, and the dirt scraper is just visible under the cab. |  | | Fire extinguisher behind the cab. |  | | Excellent hydraulic lines. |  | | Fitted with the ripping bucket. |  | | The teeth on the bucket are very good. |  | | It makes a great transport load on a low loader. |
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