How or Can this be done without a lathe?

[dennis thompson]

So here's my first work in process lathe project. It's a 7" by 2 1 \4" dowel, soon to be made ( hopefully) into a boiler for a model steam fire engine. So far it only cost about $ 50 per inch 😊IMG_20200303_191838_hdr.jpg
Added a clearer picture

[Jim Becker]

Oh, look...it's actually doing a dance in anticipation of all the boiling it's going to do. LOL (blurry image) Seriously, nice job. Like I said previously, that will be a very handy tool for what you do.

[Pete Staehling]

I made lots of similar wooden parts before I had a lathe.

If having a hole through the center os okay turning it on the drill press becomes easier. A bolt through the center makes it easy to chuck in the drill press. Making it square then octagonal then 16 sided using a plane makes the turning easier. In fact it isn't too hard to keep going with the plane until you switch to sandpaper and not turning it at all. It requires a little patience, but isn't all that hard if you take small careful steps. A template of a half circle the desired diameter is helpful as you get close to the final size and shape.

As others have mentioned there are many other options as well.