Hello,
I’d like to ask a question about those interesting models. I collected them all in the recent years. It seems they form an ideal basis for more detailing but I neither know their exact model nor the scale seemed me to match with each. These guns are:
Revolutionary War Cannon (this looks rather like a 1/16 kit)
24 pounder naval gun (that’s ok. this is one of USS Constitution’s main guns. but is the scale correct?)
Civil War Field Piece (This too seems like 1/16)
Gatling Gun (A very weird Gatling, it’s just a plain tube ! without any barrels and mechanism so typical of Gatling guns. Also it rather looks like 1/16)
World War I 75 mm artillery piece (Oh this is a true enigma. It is CERTAİNLY not a “french 75” and indeed does not look like any end 19th-early 20th century artillery piece that I know. Any help ?)
Cheers
These are old kits originally put out by Palmer Plastics. The originals included brass plated parts and the non-plated parts were molded in “correct” colors so no painting was necessary. Life Like reissued them in the 1970s and Squadron reissued some of them in the 1990s under their Encore label.
They were made when scale accuracy wasn’t that big an issue to modelers. I think they may have been originally produced in the 1950s or 60s.
The deluxe version of the 75mm field gun included a caisson in the original Palmer boxing.
This site has some info on the original Palmer line: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/OtherUSA2.html
There is a French 75 from WW I here locally, if you could post a pic of the box art I could confirm if it’s the same.
I remember building the 24 pdr and civil war cannon long ago and also a WW I field piece(not sure if this is the one).
Rob, Claymore; thank you both for help. I menaged to learn about exact designations of models and their scale via aurora models e-mail group archive.
“revolutionary war cannon” is in fact a 1/16 scale Gribeauval 6 pdr. field cannon with a totally distorted, caricatural barrel.
“civil war field piece” is a model 1842 12 pdr. Howitzer, again 1/16.
“Gatling gun” is one of the very late, 1890s marks for naval use; 1/16.
“75 mm World War I artillery piece” is a model 1902 3 inch US field gun. Only this is approximately 1/24.
Of the five models, the naval 24 pdr. and 12 pdr. howitzer are sound models but the Gribeauval only has its carriage which can be of use (and only with some surgery). Gatling is pretty uninteresting and basic; 3 inch gun somehow lacks detail. However, all are good bases for conversion-superdetail projects.
Thanks again for help
I have the 75mm but no instructions. Does anyone have a set they would scan and email or copy and mail me?
Thanks