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Building the Dragon 25pdr w/ Trailer

Step 2

Here we deal with assembly of the gun barrel, breech, and cradle. As can be seen by the parts laid out in the photo, there is a reasonable number, and there is the option of two different cradles. I chose to go with the cradle design which features on the guns on which I do restoration work; I suspect that it may actually be a later cradle design, although I need to do a bit more research to be 100% sure of that. An aspect of the cradle design in this kit that I like is its ease of construction, the plate under the cradle allowing both sides of the cradle to locate on positive connection points. If you wished to depict the 25pdr at the point of firing, in other words with the gun barrel in recoil, then you’d need to do some scratch work to depict some of the parts that would become visible during recoil as they are not included.

The two piece gun barrel looks good and accurate, and the connection point ensures both alignment and rigidity when assembled. The bad part about this is where it connects to the breech, as it makes the breech look plugged, due to the solid end of the barrel filling the area where the shell would be inserted. The breech is not without issues, needing to be filled around its joint line. The handle that opens the breech is depicted in the instructions in the closed position, and connection points are provided for a closed breech position only.

In order to depict the sliding breech in an open position you’ll need to very carefully drill out the base of the barrel, remove a connection lug on the opening handle, and fill the corresponding locating hole on the breech. This seems to me a lot of work for a recently released kit, and disappointing from a company such as DML. It should also be noted that the firing lock is moulded on the sliding breech, and this will need to be removed and some detail scratched in its place if the gun is to be shown as a towed piece.