Dear friends, today I’m pleased to share with you a build from last year that was put on hold because I couldn’t find a professional 3D printing service that could reproduce some of the key parts of this kit with the level of detail and robustness I need for the realism I aspire to. That was until a couple of months ago, when I finally found one and was able to proceed with printing.
My first choice was the resin model from Criel Models, which was extremely disappointing! Along with it, I also purchased a set of closed and open ammunition crates, which, fortunately, were well-made, unlike the ammunition, which I immediately discarded. Secondly, I turned to the Special Armor kit, with higher expectations. Indeed, the kit is definitely of a higher quality, but still requires extra detail work. The most important super-detail work involved 3D reproducing, based on drawings I made, the shield, plowshare, and wheels to replace the originals. I then added the two-piece ammunition (shell and grenade), remaking the muzzle and breech of the piece (the latter handcrafted from a resin block), adding rivets to the carriage, remaking the elevation and traverse controls, and various detail additions in photo-etched and resin.
The kit is completed by the beautiful Model Victoria resin figures from two different sets: an Italian mortar crew and an infantryman. I replaced the hands of some of them with those produced by Royal Model.
Here are the photos which, as usual, show the super-detail work and the assembled piece with the addition of the crew in the typical “nature” look. The highlight of this build, at least for me, is the shield, whose two halves are held together, as in real life, by a wing nut clamp and a bracket. I hope you like it.
Antony you have created another masterpiece! The attention to detail is outstanding even though I’m not familiar with this gun. The addition of the crew figures is the icing on the cake!
Idea – 10/10. Modelmaking – 10/10. Scratch-building – 10/10. Photography – 10/10. Antony you’ll have to try much harder to disappoint us, this is just beautiful and I hope it becomes a full vignette
Wow, that is pretty impressive modelling. It almost seems a shame to paint it and cover up that hard work. The crew have come out well too, they look as though they belong with it. One minor question; this is a “Gebirgskanone” (it says on the box), so should the crew be Alpini, with the trilbys and feather? I don’t doubt they wore helmets in action too, but I believe, like the Bersaglieri and their cocks feathers, they also wore feathers on their helmets?
Thank you so much. In fact, I’ll tell you right away that my modeling stops here for the very reason you mentioned: all the detail would disappear. For the rest, yes, it is a mountain gun that the Italians, from what I know, used on all fronts except Africa, and they also used it as an anti-tank weapon, not just as a howitzer. And, again from what I’ve been able to ascertain, it was used not only by the Bersaglieri and the Alpini but also by common units. So, in this scenario, I’d contextualize it with its use by Italian infantrymen belonging to some division in Greece rather than in Russia. But if you have information that contradicts all this, I’d immediately put pens on their helmets because they, in addition to their caps, also had pens on their helmets.
Original choise not to paint for better detailing but I would prefer to paint the soldiers.
Superlative work, may I suggest to work around jacket neck and bandolier ( jacket neck opened and ammunition poich in bandolier) of fourth soldier? He is a policeman in militar service and some conversion to artillery soldier is necessary to bring the best like the rest of work
Hi, thanks for your appreciation. Yes, he is indeed a policeman, I forgot to edit it in time for the photos, so the shots show him as he is. Thanks anyway, it shows your attention to detail
