Is there any decent modern U.S. Artillery models out there?
It seems like it is getting harder and harder to get ANY US artillery pieces these days.
Things I am looking for is a current towed U.S. 105mm howitzers and 155mm howitzers as well as current 60mm and 81mm mortars.
Have a wonderful labor day weekend!
The current state of US artillery is as follows:
The current 105mm towed is the M119. I only know of a Austrailan resin kit. It looks good on the internet but I have not heard from anyone on it. I am thinking of getting one myself.
The current 155mm towed is the M198. There is a German company and the same Austrailan company who make it also in resin.
The M198 will be repalced shortly by the M777. Who knows when a kit of that will be made.
Mortars are tough. Unless you go the M106 SP Mortar from Tamiya, again I think you are in speciality or resin.
Your other artillery is the M109A6 155mm SP howitzer. That kit is from Italeri and the M270 MLRS which is from Dragon.
I have been collecting and cataloging all US artillery since WWII in 1/35 (or close) The two resin kits above I have not aquired yet so I can’t offer any comments.
I will try to post soon my list of equipment and matching kits if you or anyone is interested.
Rounds Complete!
Thanks Redleg12 for the info!
I have the 1/35 U.S. Paladin (which I’ve been building for a friend who just retired from the Artillery corp) and MLRS.
I’ve been collecting and building U.S. field guns/artillery pieces and it is really hard to come by.
So far, I have 105mm howitzer from Italeri, 155mm from testors and 75mm pack howitzer, which I had to get the resin kit from some Polish manufacturer.
I just hope that more artillery/mortar kits will come out soon.
As stated above, there is not a huge amount of arty models out there, especially modern. I have the Airmodel M198. It looks to be a pretty nice kit, I haven’t built it yet. There are actually quite a few mortars out there, they are just hard to find and usually by smaller resin/metal companies. Check out Mortars in Miniature to see what is out there. Hopefully we will see some more modern arty pieces soon.
There also is the mortar supplyed with the LAV-M. It comes with the field base plate and two different frames. How correct it is I don’t know as it’s much more modern than any I’ve ever been around. Yet it looks correct. I also think somebody makes a 4.2" mortar, but who I can’t remember at the moment.
gary
AFV Club also makes a 105mm Howitzer in 1/35 scale of the type that was used from Vietnam thru Desert Storm by Airborne,Airmobile, and Light Divisions, I dont recall the nomenclature offhand. It is a very nice kit. Modern US mortars are non existant in mainstream 1/35 scale save for Tamiya’s Vietnam era Four Deuce kits in either the SP or dismount mode.
The howitzer you are referring to is the M102 (my favorite). The M102 came into service in the early 1960s and was a unique weapon in that it was made almost totally of aluminum with the exception of the recoil system and barrel. At 3,400 pounds it was almost 2,000 pounds lighter than the M101 which was still around since WWII. The gun was designed specifically to rotate 6,400 mils (360 degrees for non artillery people), be airlifted by helicopter or droped by parachute.
The M102 was in service with light, airmobile and airborne units until the M119 was fully fielded around 1995.
I commanded a battery of M102 in the late eighties. It was a great weapon
The AFV kit is also good. I would pair it with the Eduard PE set. If you want to build it with a prime mover, different units used different prime movers but in general the M998 Hummer or the M35A2 duce are both correct.
This was one of my first builds after coming back to the hobby. See the pair of duces below
Hope this helps
Rounds Complete!
The mortar in the LAV-M is supposed to be an 81mm mortar. It isn’t very accurate nor is it well detailed. It would take quite a bit of work to make it into an accurate piece; same goes for teh rest of the LAV-M kit.
Tamiya’s 4.2" mortar is pretty nice, with a little bit of work it can be turned into a really nice piece. Same goes for their M106A1 Mortar Carrier. With the MR conversion set, it can be converted into a current 120mm M1064A3 Mortar Carrier as well. Her’s how it can turn out.
Ditto on the M102 as well. AFV Club’s kit is a great little model.
Here is a pretty complete listing of US artillery pieces available:
There are quite a few.
Italeri does an M101 105mm towed howitzer, M1 (M114) 155mm towed, M108 105 SP, M109 through M109A6 series of 155 SP, M107 175mm SP, M110 through M110A2 series of 203mm (8") SP.
AFV Club has an M102 105 towed, M59 155 Long Tom towed, M115 8" towed, M40 155 SP.
DML has the M270 MLRS.
Academy has the M12 155 SP.
In resin, Mouse House from Australia and Airmodel both have the M198 155 towed gun. Mouse House also has the M118/M119 105mm towed gun. S-Model from Poland has a Pack-75 towed gun as well.
That should get you started.
Adding to the list from Heavy, these are some he missed or are OOP
Self Propelled
Add to the list above, M7 Priest - 105mm - Ilateri, M8 - 75mm - Tamiya, M4A3 - 105mm - Tamiya and Academy (Academy is the better kit), M40 - 155mm gun - AFV, M41 - 155mm - CMK (resin), M52 - 105mm - Hobby Fan (resin), M55 - 8 inch - Revell/Renwal 1/32 scale OOP. No kits avalable M37 - 105mm - (M7 Priest on M24 chassis), M43 - 8 inch - (M40 with 8 inch replacing the 155mm), M44 - 155mm, M53 - 8 inch
Towed
Add to the list above, M65 - 280mm Atomic Annie - 1/32 scale,Renwal/Revell OOP
Missle
M667 - Lance - Hobby Fan (resin), M50 - Honest John - 1/40 scale, Adams & Life Like OOP, M398 - Lacrosse - 1/40 scale, Revell OOP, M38 - Little John - 1/40 scale, Revell OOP, M?? - Corporal - 1/32 scale, Revell OOP, M?? - Redstone - 1/48 scale??, Revell OOP. Not avalable in kits Pershing
This list (between Heavy and I) I think covers Field Artillery since WWII both cannon and missle. If anyone sees something we missed please let us know.
The only other items which some people add but are not truly field artillery are Recoiless Rifles, Anti Aircraft Artillery (though through the late sixties the were part of the FA branch) and Anti Tank Artillery. Those are for another list in another thread.
Hopefully this gives your enough to collect and build.
Rounds Complete!
Thanks for the info Gino and RedLeg! I knew I could rely on you FA guys!
Whenever I go to hobby shops or website, I see like several types of Tiger I’s, Panther’s and so on, but hard time finding artillery pieces. I hope Dragon or Trumpeter will expand their artillery/field gun lines soon.
Yup, between the two, that is a pretty complete list. I was mainly focusing on Modern (post-WWII, Vietnam to present) US artillery systems. If you want to go foreign, there are quite a few out there as well:
Italeri also has the Russian Katyush MRL.
DML also has the SCUD-B.
Revell of Germany has German versions of the M101, M109, M110, M270, and the Panzer Howitzer 2000.
Eastern Express has a Russian D30 122 towed, BM-21 MRL, 2S9 122 SP, and a few others.
Trumpeter has the British AS-90, and a few Chinese copies of the Russian 2S3 and a 2S3 chassied MRL.
There are lots of obscure foreign guns in resin as well.
For more info on mortars, check out the Mortars in Miniature website. It is full of info on just about every mortar model out there. Some great pics as well.
Gino, if you were staying modern, why did you include the pack 75?? Wait…I forgot they are still in service at every flagpole!!!
Just kidding.
Once you leave US artillery as Gino stated there is even more all the way to Dora!!!
If you want to expand US artillery, try to match the towed wepons with their tow vehicle. Also could build the vehicles which support artillery.
Just some other thoughts.
Rounds Complete!
when I was on Dewey Canyon there was a battery attached to the 196th up on LZ West. We were holed up at the very west end of the mountain, and they were at the east end maybe a hundred foot higher than us. Went up there and did a real look over, and the first thing I noticed was that the howitzer reeked with build quality, but seemed a little awkward from what we all were used to (guess you get used to it). Noticed while I was up there that they were constantly fighting “displacement” during an extended mission (they almost always shot east or northeast). The gun seemed to not like the idea of shooting out of a parapit (note their parapits could have been built a little better). But I also noticed how easy the gun was to shift from say three two hundred to five six hundred. So much easier than with the old 105 or a 155 howitzer. Always wondered if it was any more accurate than the M101, and did it repeat missions anybetter? M 101’s were famous for shooting all over the place when doing charge sevens at a lower elevation. Lastly; I assume that the flower looking antenna replaces the aim sticks. Am I correct? Used to love trying to find the right ones to get those little green and red lights turned on in the dark. Then just about time you were ready to shoot the light would go out. Remember when you have six pigs shooting 360 degrees there’s a bunch of stakes out there!
gary
actually they did use a few 75mm Pack howitzers in Vietnam. ROK’s used a lot of them as well. Then there is the second effective use for one of them! When you go thru the Cold Weather Survival School in Alaska you and the rest of the guys get to dismantle one and carry it up to the top of a mountain. Then reassemble it!! Anthony Herbert speaks of this in his book (the second chapter will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck).
gary
Gary
I have worked with both the M101 and the M102. The M101 is a simpler gun to maintain, easy to emplace but it relies on its trails to hold it in place. It has a fixed recoil length and thus at low elevation and charge 7 it transferred most of the energy to the trails which in loose or muddy soil would move the gun. If you did not pick up the displacement you were always out. And any down time after firing you would try to re-lay.
The M102 was a complicated weapon. The breech had a number of small parts. The aluminum frame would not rust but had to be checked for cracks. It was held in place by its center base plate which was staked in. If you were going to fire charge 7 you had to use the long (36 inch) stakes and pound in all eight. At that point as long as the ground was not loose, the gun was very stable. The good thing was the gun had a variable recoil so at high angle you did not have to dig the stupid pit the #1 man would fall into.The M102 had slightly longer range (12K vs 11.5K).
Given a choice, I like the M102.
The flower looking item is a camoflage net pole with a net spreaded on top.
As far as the aiming posts we used collimeters (scratch built one in the top right, look like a telescope). We still put out aiming posts and if you used them you always went nuts tring to figure out which one is yours, if you could see the light!!
Thanks and good luck
Rounds Complete!
To my knowledge not as full firing batteries and early in the war. That fits my time but I’m sure a little before Gino.
The howitzers up on LZ West were setting atop a virtual bed of rock! Offered fir support for Baldy and Ross (I assume they’d reach Baldy). Yet they were laid out in the normal parapit. There was no digging high angle pits up there. You either jacked the carriage up or turned the mission over to the local mortar teams. With 155’s we used nothing but parapits except for one event with the 101st near downtown Quang Ngai. This nearly cost us our lives by not being able to shift the tubes , and when we finally did (one tube at a time while the others were shooting), we wound up doing two secounds on the fuse with a charge one green bag. That’s almost too close, but we didn’t know anybetter. I do remember shooting high angle twelve minutes past midnight on Dec. 26th. It was horrible! Really hard to load the rounds without dropping them, and using something homemade for a rammer staff. That would make a great diorama, and (for me anyway) would almost be funny.
The collimeter you guys were using; was it like the older parascope we used? Where you dialed in the numbers and moved the tube till you got the “near-far-line?” And then there was the once in while dropping the primers or worse yet dropping the firing lock under the tube with the round loaded and ready!! A lot of it is funny now, but not so funny then. I could write a book on stupid events that took place with howitzers. Sometime when I’ve got the time I’ll have to tell you about shooting H&I’s. You could write a book on events just on that alone !
gary
only time we ever saw one, was when it was being towed by a jeep. And then there was usually only one in that platoon
gary
Not sure why I put the Pack 75 on the list. It is a nice little model though.
75mm Pack Howitzer is one of my favorites. I wish Tamiya re-release their 1/35 kit.