Today I’m featuring this real gem, the Japanese 75mm Mountain Gun Type 41 from FineMolds. As usual, before starting construction on each model, I tried to gather as much photographic documentation as possible, both of the piece on display in a museum and of the piece in action. As usual, there are few manufacturers capable of producing super-detailed models, and so I knew in advance that a lot of extra-detail work lay ahead. As soon as I picked up the various pieces, however, I realized with great surprise that this time I was wrong. Aside from a few rings and nuts, the model is almost identical to the original! Fantastic! Finally, a company that can do what it should always do: create a model identical to the original. The only downside, after so much perfection, was the protective shield, incredibly detailed inside and out, but unfortunately too thick. Rebuilding it from scratch would have been truly demanding, and I was already cursing just thinking about it. In reality, photos of the piece preserved in various museums always show it without a shield, while photos and videos in action always show it with a shield except on a couple of occasions. After some thought, and not without regret, I decided not to display it. In addition, I used the very nice metal barrel from MR Modellbau and metal ammunition from Eureka. The kit also includes four crewmen, well-modeled to match the piece but not particularly realistic. I considered replacing the heads with resin ones from Hornett, but these are a bit too large and therefore disproportionate, so the only possible modification was to replace the hands with Royal Model and ET Model ones. The weapons and military accoutrements are beautiful. Below is the model, as usual unpainted, I hope you like it.
Good job, a nice little gun. You can try to “sharpen” the edges of the shield with sandpaper to make it look thinner, starting as close to the center as you can. As you are not using it anyway, if you don’t like the effect you can simply discard it.
Thanks Varanusk, yes, it’s a very original piece. Thanks for the advice, I know the technique you’re talking about; Dragon uses it often, if I’m not mistaken… unfortunately, I don’t really like it as a solution; I’m a fan of extreme realism, wherever possible.
Is the fit and engineering good? Is it unnecessarily complicated? Ambiguous directions perhaps? In other words, is it a trouble free project, or does it have challenges?
