Das Werk 155mm Howitzer Carriage Model 1918 – Schneider (DW35023) 1:35

[Mike]

155mm Howitzer Carriage Model 1918 – Schneider (DW35023)

1:35 Das Werk

 

 

When America joined the fighting in WWI during 1917, it used French-made Schneider artillery pieces to speed their entry into meaningful combat rather than develop new equipment of their own, as they weren’t confident about the home-grown artillery pieces they’d been using up until that point.  They bought guns and the rights to manufacture their own based upon the blueprints provided by Schneider, which cost them a substantial sum but worked to their advantage, as after the Armistice the weapon remained in service through a the early days of WWII, and longer with other operators.  The 1918 variant was changed from the original to use a flat splinter shield and pneumatic tyres to improve the carriage’s suspension over the previous unforgiving steel rims. 

 

The guns were used through the 1920s as stand-ins for a proposed 105mm medium howitzer, the project for which stalled due to apathy and a lack of funding during the interval between wars.  The M1 sub-variant used air-brakes to allow it to be towed at higher road speeds without overtaking its tractor during hard braking.  They saw service at the beginning of America’s part of WWII until they were superseded by the new 155 mm howitzer M1 that was substantially different from its predecessor.  The 1918M1 lingered on the battlefield during the early part of the war until the production problems and shortages plaguing the replacement M1 were resolved, after which it fell out of use in US service.  Great Britain used 100 of the type during the beginning of WWII, although they too were retired before too long.  The longest serving guns were in use until the 1980s with Finnish forces, who have a habit of making good use of allegedly old hardware.

 

 

The Kit

This is an additive re-tool of Das Werk’s earlier French 155mm C17S howitzer that was released in 2021, commonly known as last year at time of writing.  The older sprues have the code 35022, while the three new ones have the code for this boxing.  The kit arrives in a small top-opening box with an attractive painting of the subject matter on the lid, and inside are seven sprues in grey styrene, plus two vaguely Y-shaped parts in the same colour.  A small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) is found in a small Ziploc bag, a small decal sheet and the A5 portrait instruction booklet with glossy pages with coffee stains and general wear-and-tear printed-on to give it some visual interest.  Detail is excellent throughout, with the tyres especially crisp and detailed, although the brand “Firestoner” might not be all that familiar… dude.  It’s probably a Copyright or Trademark issue, but a careful slice and a little sanding will render it more accurate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the tyres, which are made up from a central hoop to which two tread hoops and two more sidewall parts are added to replicate the detailed tread of the real thing, and don’t forget to remove the R from the branding on the side before you get too far.  The completed tyre is finished by adding a hub at the front, and a circular rear to the hub from the other side, and don’t forget you need two.  Some ammo crates are included in the box, each one containing two rounds, and you can leave the lids of the crates off, although you might want to fill the ejector-pin marks before you build them if that’s the case.  The gun barrel is made from two halves split vertically, to which a six-part breech-block is fitted to the rear later, then it is glued to a PE slide that has the edges folded up and is joined by a styrene part.  The rear of the breech is made from a further three parts, and two more parts of the recoil mechanism are fitted under the barrel, with the breech block able to be fixed in open or close position, locked in place by a single pin.  The elevation arc is a curved assembly with toothed edges that is built-up like a ladder with three cross-members linking the two sides together, which is attached to the underside of the cradle, which has a pair of recoil tubes added, plus a number of supports and guide rods, and a scrap diagram shows that some small parts would be opened up to service the weapon in case you are planning a diorama.  The completed barrel and sled are joined to the cradle, and a PE recuperator instruction panel is folded up and glued in place on the side, with a scrap diagram showing how it should look when in place.

 

The elevation axle has a gear on each end, and this is pressed against the teeth in the arc when it is trapped between the two sides of the trail, with the axle surround forward of a cross-member.  The spade mount forms an H-shape and joins to the spade with two additional small parts, to be trapped under the trail by the frame’s floor, which also has another cross-brace inserted into the front after drilling two 0.7mm holes where indicated.  The horizontal part of the spade glues to the underside of the trail, then the top section of the frame closes in another cross-brace, with two short curved parts toward the front of the frame, with the instructions advising you to test-fit them before resorting to glue.  At the rear two additional parts form the basic towing hitch for the gun.  The elevation gear is built from six styrene parts and one PE lever, plus a pair of long levers, and another on the opposite side with PE adjustment wheel, both assemblies having a scrap diagram to assist you with assembly.  You can choose to depict your model in travel mode or ready for action by using different aft pivots for the cradle, adding a cover to the recess in the top of the trail, and four spade rotation parts, which if glued in place will stop the spade from rotating.  An oval PE manufacturer’s plate is glued just forward of the spade, then the cleaning and operating tools are dotted around the sides of the trail with the T-shaped hand-spike laid flat at the rear.  A three-part channel clips over the cover on top of the trail, and the aiming mechanism is finished by adding a combination of styrene and PE parts, the two PE adjustment wheels having styrene handles.

 

An air receiver is made up from two halves and fixed to the front of the gun under the shield, which has a seven-part frame, a separate vision port cover and two individual manual brake levers on the front surface, then the axle halves are added on each side, followed by fitting the shield and the brake mechanisms so that the wheels can be slipped over the ends of the axle.  Lastly, the simple towing hitch is cut off and a more detailed hitch is glued over its location.

 

Markings

The overall colour of the gun is olive drab, but three different shield colours can add a little variation to your model, one of which is plain olive drab, the other two are camouflaged.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

 

 

The decals are printed anonymously and are suitable for this or the earlier boxing, with most of the decals plain white.  The one multi-colour decal is in good register, and all decals have good colour density and sharpness.

 

 

Conclusion

It’s a well-detailed kit of a chunky little 155mm howitzer that saw some action in early WWII after missing most of the action in WWI.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK in all good model shops.

Review sample courtesy of

 

[Lothian man]

It might be useful to know that the Tankograd Technical Manual, on first sight for the WW2 155mm M1, in fact also covers this equipment as well, albeit in not so much detail as the WW2 one, but still very helpfully. Quite a few illustrations from the manual, as well as some in-service photos of different variants. 

 

https://www.tankograd.com/cms/website.php?id=/en/howitzer-M1-m1917-M1918_6012.htm

 

The British also used them in WW2 - at least in the Desert. The IWM website has several images of pieces in (presumably) Light Stone or possibly Light Mud.