Honest guys, I’ve been building. I just haven’t been good at posting. I finished this beast in April and just needed a rainy day to post…
In the Vietnam war, the US used the M114 155mm howitzer which was designed in the 1930’s and began service in 1941. It was a rugged, reliable, and accurate weapon. However, it was getting pretty long in the tooth and its range of only 15km was too limiting. The replacement M198 design began in 1969 with fielding beginning in 1979. It sported a range of 22km with conventional ammunition and 30km with rocket assisted projectiles (RAP). 1,600 units were produced, and it was exported widely. The US used it into the early 2000’s when the M777 was fielded.
The kit is Trumpeter No. 02306, M198 155mm Medium Towed Howitzer (Early Version) in 1:35 scale.
The kit was released in 2009 and it is still the only offering in styrene. It holds up well with no real accuracy issues. This kit depicts one of the early fielded units. It lacks the pressure gauges, positioning wheels, and Gun Display Units / Section Chief’s Assembly electronics that were added later. The kit includes a DR-8 commo wire reel on one of the trails - something that I never saw and couldn’t find in the manual or in photographs.
No one has released a PE set or metal barrel for the kit. It is a good kit, but I couldn’t help myself and detailed the trails. Without a PE set, I cut and bent brass shim stock for many parts. I enhanced the model with:
• Scratch built airbrake lines and 3D printed gladhands
• Custom decals for unit markings, stowage stencils, and for the many placards and warnings
• Added bell rammer and brackets to left rear trail
• Added mattock and handle to left inside trail - scratched brackets
• Added weld beads to trails with Archer resin decals
• Added PE footman loops to trails
• Scratch built M90 chronograph bracket
• Scratched brackets for loading tray on left inside trail from brass shim stock
• Added sledgehammer to left outside trail and scratched brackets from brass shim stock
• Added retaining straps from lead strips with PE buckles.
• Added locking pins and retaining wires to travel lock
I decided to paint it in the MERDC Grey Desert camo scheme using the pattern from US Army TB 746-95-1. After priming with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black (rattle can), and pre-shading with Tamiya XF-2 White, I drew the camo pattern on with a sand-colored pencil. I then airbrushed the sand color with AK RealColors RC084. I applied silly putty to cover the sand-colored areas and sprayed the Field Drab areas with AK RealColors RC085.
After removing the silly putty, I brush painted the two “small” colors in the MERDC scheme - black and yellow earth using Vallejo Black 70.950 and Vallejo FS30257 Desert Yellow 70.977. After sponge chipping the spades with XF-10 Brown, and the edges of the aluminum alloy trails and platform with XF-54, I detail painted and applied the custom decals made by Mike Blackwell. I sealed everything up with VMS Satin before weathering. As the US Army, is very serious about maintenance of weapon systems. I used a light touch on weathering using AK enamel weathering products and Winsor & Newton oil paints. The unpainted recoil area of the barrel was rubbed with AK True Metal AK461 gun metal wax.
It’s a big gun and takes up a lot of space in the display case, but it looks decent in there.
ROUNDS COMPLETE!
