WW1 8 inch howitzer and tug by King Derelict - Roden 1/72 - FINISHED

[king derelict]

With the diorama fit on me I brought this out. Its a 1/72 British 8 inch howitzer and limber and FWD truck from WW1. 

At 1/72 its tiny but there are a lot of parts; generally quite well done and some lovely fine detail pieces like the wheels for elevation on the gun. Some very thin rods and its going to be a challenge getting some of them off the sprues without breaking them.

The plan is to have this as a part time build while the Churchill is being finished and the X craft is returning to the table. There should be lots of little sub modules to play with. Today I had planned to just look it over but somehow I got started on the chassis. Its all a bit delicate with steering track rod and prop shafts all as separate pieces. The fit is quite good but there is a bit of thin flash that needs to be trimmed off some of the pieces

Given the many degrees of freedom in aligning everything I was thrilled to have all four wheels touching the ground and the prop shafts at a sensible angle.

As mentioned earlier the idea is to build a small diorama around the kit. There are no figures included in the box so I will have to find some non-aggressive WW1 1/72 British soldiers (kind of just standing around) - and face up to painting them.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

 

 

 

 

[Canute]

Interesting start to a dio, Alan. Non aggressive soldiers? Wazzat? 😉

[king derelict]

56 minutes ago, Canute said:

Interesting start to a dio, Alan. Non aggressive soldiers? Wazzat? 😉

Thanks Ken. Standing around having a ciggie rather than running around with rifles

Alan

[Baker]

I also built these models.
Nice little things 😉  you will enjoy building them.

[Landlubber Mike]

Funny, I came across this kit for the first time last night looking for subjects to include in a 1/72 diorama.  Looking forward to seeing what you do with it!

[king derelict]

On 10/20/2022 at 2:04 PM, Baker said:

I also built these models.
Nice little things 😉  you will enjoy building them.

Thanks Patrick

Its really a lot of fun. Lots of fragile parts but so far they are all in one piece still. I just started the howitzer and that is incredibly detailed for the scale

Alan

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Funny, I came across this kit for the first time last night looking for subjects to include in a 1/72 diorama.  Looking forward to seeing what you do with it!

Thanks Mike

It is going together well so far. The instructions leave a bit to be desired. I haven't worked out if I'm building the gun in towing or firing configuration. Parts numbering is a bit iffy too. I spent an hour looking for a "missing" piece that turns out I had already used as per the earlier diagrams but was a completely item. The "missing" part was still on the sprue - but with a different number. They do provide a sprue diagram at the start of the instruction booklet but the numbers there are different again.

Alan

[king derelict]

Moving along here. This is one of those kits where you sit down and think "Oh I'll just add a couple of bits to the cab before I do some work in the garden" and three hours later you are still immersed in it. Lots of fun really

The gun is very intricate and the instructions don't always show exactly where some of the parts are attached. Quite a lot of looking at old photos and the box art for some guidance or reverting to logical options when in doubt.

It all went together

 

The kit provides black tank track like plastic for the gun wheel rims. It is quite nicely detailed but the strips are too short

I tried carefully stretching the track - and it broke without gaining any appreciable length. I glued them on and made up the gap with a piece of card of suitable thickness.

 

The cab is quite nicely done with the old acetylene lamps and horn

The caisson and remainder of the FWD went together without fuss so everything got a dose of Mig One Shot black primer

I'm starting to think about the colour scheme. The kit just gives a three colour scheme for American use in late war

The FWD Model B was in general use by the British and later the American forces and the howitzer (originally Vickers) likewise.

 

Per Wiki

The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company of Clintonville, Wisconsin launched the Model B in 1912, initial production was very slow with only 18 produced in 1913. The US was the first nation to show interest in the military potential of the vehicle, with the US Army testing one of the earliest production vehicles.[3][6]

The British Army became the first military customer on March 23, 1915, ordering 50 trucks to be delivered in only 40 days.[7] An American export agency was set up with a reception base in Liverpool and a repair depot in Islington to check and service incoming vehicles before handing them over to the Ministry of Munitions. A total of 2,925 Model Bs were purchased by the British Army, 1,599 of these were used in France on the Western Front, predominantly for heavy haulage of artillery, ammunition, and pontoon bridge supplies

 

For the small diorama I have planned I want a British gun and i also think the three colour scheme will be a bear on such a small and rather fragile model so I plan to duck that and go for a single colour British paint job. As usual with WW1 vehicle the problem is - what colour? Todays research seems to suggest that the Army would take trucks, tanks and guns in any colour except white. The main colours seem to be grey, brown or olive green / khaki. Tomorrows decision but I am leaning towards a green - brown shade

I ordered some 1/72 British infantry figures from Hat and Emhar and hope some can be adapted to be standing around and looking untidy

Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments

Alan

 

Alan

 

 

 

[Egilman]

8 hours ago, king derelict said:

The main colours seem to be grey, brown or olive green / khaki. Tomorrows decision but I am leaning towards a green - brown shade

The base color for most British hardware was British Army Green which such equipment was specified to be in when delivered by the manufacturer... but as with all such rules, they eventually took them in whatever color they were delivered in...

 

But mostly they were in BAG.... BAG is a forest green, not bright, but definitely not olive nor drab in reflectance, more a dull semigloss....

[king derelict]

15 hours ago, Egilman said:

The base color for most British hardware was British Army Green which such equipment was specified to be in when delivered by the manufacturer... but as with all such rules, they eventually took them in whatever color they were delivered in...

 

But mostly they were in BAG.... BAG is a forest green, not bright, but definitely not olive nor drab in reflectance, more a dull semigloss....

Thank you very much as always EG

I spent a lot of the morning reading various opinions and looking at museum sites. There are a myriad opinions out there and some pretty limited hard information for the later years of the war.

The hard facts I found are. Britain ran out of chromate based paints by mid war and that stopped them making deep greens. Instead they were forced to use ochre based colours which produced greeny browns, browny greens, khaki and browns. The tank in the Brussels museum (which supposedly has original paint) and the tank models from 1918 at the UK tank museum are brown (described as a chocolate brown. It seems that this is such a vexed subject that some modellers will not touch WW1 vehicles for fear of being wrong. It seems to me that you can actually plough ahead within reason without much fear of being proved to be wrong.

For reasons that soon will become apparent my little set piece is spring of 1918 or a little later. So I plan to use a series of colours for the various parts ranging through from a modified olive drab to brown. I think its unrealistic to have the FWD, caisson and gun all exactly the same colour. Its likely they were drawn from artillery parks and not necessarily kept together from their initial debut.

This is likely to revert to a background project now that the X craft can be worked on.

Alan

[Egilman]

The Mk V*, (only one left in the world) in the Patton Museum is in BAG as it was delivered to them... Yes, late war they were taking them as they got them. The pattern you are using is a copy of a French two color pattern, Brown over BAG with black border stripes... the Brown would usually be streaked as it was applied in the field...

 

In my opinion it doesn't matter for late WWI, by the time they were doing extensive finished camouflages, the war was decided, it was just waiting for the Germans to understand that they had lost...

Seems like a great plan brother...

It's gonna be a stunner my friend.... a very nice subject...

Edited October 26, 2022 by Egilman

[king derelict]

Thank you very much EG. There are some weird and wonderful attempts at complicated camouflage schemes towards the end of the war with the British bringing artists in to create paint schemes. Some are incredibly detailed and complicated dazzle style schemes. In the end they mostly got covered in mud anyway.

Alan

[Egilman]

I wish they would make this in 1/35th or 32nd scales, they would be on my shelf if they were... It's a damned shame they don't do much of any WWI Artillery in those scales... that would be a wonderful addition to any artillery nuts collection....

 

Your doing a very impressive job on this one especially at that scale..

[DocRob]

This project is starting to come together nicely, Alan. I can only raise my hat for doing it in 72 scale. Guns and towing vehicles are always a bit on  the delicate side.

White Stork has some 'relaxed' WWI tankers in their portfolio (#F72034). They might fit.

Figures – White Stork Miniatures

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

I wish they would make this in 1/35th or 32nd scales, they would be on my shelf if they were... It's a damned shame they don't do much of any WWI Artillery in those scales... that would be a wonderful addition to any artillery nuts collection....

 

There is a lot of WWI artillery on the market lately in larger scales. Takom makes some and in case of the 8 inch howitzer, Roden and Resicast are producing it, Roden along with a Holt tractor as carrier

Holt 75 Artillery tractor w/BL 8-inch Howitzer, Roden 814 (2019) (scalemates.com)

8inch Heavy Gun Mk II & limber, Resicast 35.1241 (2014) (scalemates.com)

 

Cheers Rob

[Egilman]

After typing that I went back thru my records and found out that since I bought my Holt 75 tractor a few years back I haven't looked at what was available... 

 

So I when ahead and looked... (my mistake) Well.....

 

I now have a US 155 mm Gun M1917 1940 pattern with it's Diamond T 4 ton truck coming, A 1918 CS 155 French pattern (M-1917 in US service, forerunner of the 155mm Long Tom gun) to go with a liberty model "B" artillery tractor, A Canon de 155 Grande Puissance Filloux (GPF) modèle 1917 to go with the Holt tractor and the 8" howitzer & tractor you linked to above.... 

I also have another Holt tractor coming as well, but don't have an artillery piece for it...  (yet, still looking for a French 75 which was the other major piece the US army used) 

 

I also saw a resin model of the barrel & carriage for the 240mm howitzer but it's unavailable and out of production now and unfortunately it's only half the complete gun, without the base it's not compete...

 

What was I saying about resistance is futile? and all these pieces are irresistible for a towed artillery nut like me... 

 

What am I going to do with myself?  {chuckle}

 

Update: I found the French 75.... {chuckle} Now I have all the WWI US army artillery pieces with their prime movers... (except for the 16" railway gun, which was a Navy operation)

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Egilman

[Jack12477]

48 minutes ago, Egilman said:

What was I saying about resistance is futile? and all these pieces are irresistible for a towed artillery nut like me... 

 I hope the Finance Minister approves all this Military Spending 😁😁😁😁😇

[king derelict]

18 hours ago, Egilman said:

I wish they would make this in 1/35th or 32nd scales, they would be on my shelf if they were... It's a damned shame they don't do much of any WWI Artillery in those scales... that would be a wonderful addition to any artillery nuts collection....

 

Your doing a very impressive job on this one especially at that scale..

Thank you EG. I need to up my game and get to work on some 1/35 stuff. This howitzer would look really nice in 1/35. The detail would step up an order.

Alan

[king derelict]

14 hours ago, DocRob said:

This project is starting to come together nicely, Alan. I can only raise my hat for doing it in 72 scale. Guns and towing vehicles are always a bit on  the delicate side.

White Stork has some 'relaxed' WWI tankers in their portfolio (#F72034). They might fit.

Figures – White Stork Miniatures

 

Cheers Rob

Thank you very much Rob. I'll look at the White Stork offerings.

Alan

 

[king derelict]

14 hours ago, DocRob said:

 

There is a lot of WWI artillery on the market lately in larger scales. Takom makes some and in case of the 8 inch howitzer, Roden and Resicast are producing it, Roden along with a Holt tractor as carrier

Holt 75 Artillery tractor w/BL 8-inch Howitzer, Roden 814 (2019) (scalemates.com)

8inch Heavy Gun Mk II & limber, Resicast 35.1241 (2014) (scalemates.com)

 

Cheers Rob

The 1/35 8 inch howitzer looks great. I'm sure there is room on the shelf (or the cupboard or ....)

Alan

[king derelict]

13 hours ago, Egilman said:

What was I saying about resistance is futile? and all these pieces are irresistible for a towed artillery nut like me...

I'm realising that I am a complete amateur at stocking up on kits🙂

Alan

[king derelict]

12 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

 I hope the Finance Minister approves all this Military Spending 😁😁😁😁😇

Just an early attack of the Christmas spirit

Alan

[king derelict]

14 hours ago, DocRob said:

White Stork has some 'relaxed' WWI tankers in their portfolio (#F72034

Thanks Rob

The tankies look great. Just what I wanted.

Alan

[king derelict]

Well after travel and submarines I am back on this one. I started the detail painting on the cab and gun. The cab and truck body were added to the chassis and it makes an interesting vehicle. I have the fabric cab roof and the cover for the back to add but I was holding off on them to keep better access to the cab.

The acetylene lamps came up quite nicely but I see I forgot to paint the horn

The gun was fitted to the carriage and makes a quite detailed but fragile piece.

Along with the limber these have been given a coat of gloss ready for the washes and weathering. 

Hopefully I am not going to commit a fox paw here by introducing other elements to the build but I'm introducing a Whippet (Emhar) to the diorama. I haven't put the build details in to the log because I have already made a build log of a previous Whippet by Emhar. This is identical except this one is painted in the (milk chocolate) brown that came into use later in the war. I also cut out the rear hatch and posed it open. The interior is bare - its too dark to see anything.

During the earlier Whippet build I was kindly given this image

 

I thought it would make a nice vignette and I plan to use it with the howitzer team hence the open hatch.

I will need to make the canvas mudguards and add the clutter. The search for suitable figures will continue. They may not end up as exact poses but hopefully I can capture the overall look.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Javlin]

On 10/27/2022 at 6:44 PM, king derelict said:

I'm realising that I am a complete amateur at stocking up on kits🙂

Practice,Practice,Practice Alan only then will you rise in the ranks of low on cash rich in kits.

[Old Collingwood]

Coming  along  really nicely  Alan,    I know  I said it before  but 1/72  scale  can be  difficult  -   but  you  have it  sorted.

 

OC.

[Baker]

very nice work 

[king derelict]

On 12/7/2022 at 8:25 PM, Javlin said:

Practice,Practice,Practice Alan only then will you rise in the ranks of low on cash rich in kits.

My New Years Resolution is to try harder. The wish list for kits is growing

Alan

[king derelict]

On 12/7/2022 at 10:00 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Coming  along  really nicely  Alan,    I know  I said it before  but 1/72  scale  can be  difficult  -   but  you  have it  sorted.

 

OC.

Thank you for the kind words OC. I do like fiddling with these small kits especially as the newer kits have such nice detail.

Alan

[king derelict]

On 12/8/2022 at 6:32 AM, Baker said:

very nice work 

Thank you Patrick

Alan