Dragon Models have just sent us images of 6499 105mm Howitzer M2A1 & Carriage M2A1. The Photo-Report can be seen:

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Jim - Thanks. It will be interesting to see this kit and the detail included. The question is in what price range will the put this kit?? If it is a marked improvement over the old Italeri, it could do well in the $20 range.

I'm sure in the fall we will be reading about a 105mm HCM half track!! If they include all the ammo racks etc, that would be a good kit.

Rounds Complete!!

Great news. I echo all of what Redleg says. Now we just need a M777 and a few other peices to be kitted.

Hi
very nice looking. & even better with a set of crew figure's.

Looks good !!
I hope a M5 3" anti-tank gun is in the works too.
The figures wearing cold weather gear would lend well to a BOTB setting !!!
Cheers Jim

jjumbo

That is a definite "SUHWEET!" Very much looking forward to this one coming out.

Mike

I am very happy to see images of the kit, and figures with it. Maybe someone will make a crew for the PTO at some point. This is starting out well for US artillery. I hope we will continue to see new releases along this line. I wouldn't ask for too much, just the 37mm, 90mm AA, 155mm1918, 155 and 8 inch and a 240mm to pair off against the big German guns already made, of course with crews and towing vehicles. But I will get this to start with.

A PTO crew is exactly what I was thinking about. I've been considering a 'Canal 105mm dio for a buddy of mine who was in the USMC Arty arm after graduation from Annapolis. The figures have always been a sticking point for me. When we get a set of those, I am going to be one happy camper.


Cheers,
Mike

[quote] The question is in what price range will the put this kit?? If it is a marked improvement over the old Italeri, it could do well in the $20 range.

quote]

Four crew members and what looks like an aluminum barrel, this is going to be more than 20 bucks!

A very welcomed release

Metal barrel with rifling,gun crew and not to mention the exceptional detail.

Its something near 30 years since a plastic 105mm gun has been released.
Dml have gone that extra step and included a gun crew.Excellent .

Hats off to DML well done again .

Cheers
Michael

When DML redid their Pak 40 with gun crew, it was around $25...but the price came down over time. This one will likely follow the same pattern but either way it's a great addition to the Allied camp as well as for artillery enthusiasts.

wouldn't mind adding one of these to my stash, hmm. was this the same gun mounted on the M7 priest? if so it wouldn't suprise me if dragon released a priest next considering all the sherman variants and i'd imagine they'd pull off a more accurate representation than academy's which i've heard is a mixed bag, details from early versions and late versions mixed in i'm sure if i'm wrong on that count some one will correct me. Ant

Definatly getting it.

Yeah Baby! Yeah!

The way I see it the figures are the US Airborne Bastogne set that was already in the M4A3/76 BotB kit (and released seperately). Just like the figures in the first PaK 40 release. unless they put in new arms/hands there will be some surgery needed to fit 105mm rounds into the hands. There were no new arms in the PaK 40 release...

But of course good news anyway!

Cheers!

Hey guys,

I have the Italeri 105mm Howitzer w/6 rounds that I built from a single kit several years ago, I think it is in pretty fair shape for the age and well detailed. I also somehow managed to keep the base from a really old 105.. or 75mm kit, the one with the holes for the fence posts!

As I have been looking for a crew of 4 or more I was blind! I had them all along and had given some thought to converting the DML 101st Airborne to a crew, looks like DML was on the same wavelength as they released the kit 6499 with the same four figures, duh! why didn't I think of that ealier. But hey great minds work alike.

Anyway I am going to save the MSRP of $25 + for the DML kit and have already started conversion of two of the 101st figures. Judging by all the reference photos I am about on the money with three of the four figures as the rifleman from the 101st kit is fine in another diorama. The three standing figures will serve the 105 Howitzer of old!!

Italeri works fine for me as do the older DML figures from the 101.

This gun has been a workhorse for almost 70 years. Amazing that it took 30 years to re-kit it. Dragon's new release looks exceptional and it has endless possibilities, I'll be picking up at least one.

The kit has tremendous possibilities. I might get one to add to the Italeri M7

Besides WWII & Korea, I know for a fact many ARNG units had them well into the 1980's. The 104th FA & 258th FA from NY went from these to M109 Paladins in 1993. You could have gun crews in HBT, Jungle Fatigues, OG-107's or even BDU's.

I haven't seen the 101st set, and I was wondering when DML announced that they were using it as the crew, because the Airborne didn't have this gun. How difficult is it to convert the Airborne uniform to the standard uniform?

John

Does anyone have any photos that would show the style of wheels as included in Dragon kit in use during WW2? I have plenty of photos of post war howitzers with these wheels, but all wartime images I was able to find show simpler solid dished wheels with just a single hole on one side... (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Truck-towes-105mm-howitzer-africa-194243.jpg

Pawel

Hi Pawel
Here's one, but the tires are different (these have been released by Masters Production, set #35031 and Trakz set#TX0133):
"Members of the 442nd RCT fire a 105-mm Howitzer during the battle for Leghorn" (12 July 1944 -Castellina Sector, Italy) :


and another large one from Flickr (showing the same wheels as above) :
France July 1944

HTH
Frenchy

And the biggest question:

Who will produce the after-market set to make this into the Bundeswehr version (with new barrel etc)?

Frenchy,

Both howitzers on those photos have later style straight two-layer shields, not earlier bent one-layer shield as in DML kit. So I believe these howitzers are M2A1 on M2A2 carriage. I would like to see M2A1 on M2A1 carriage (as in DML kit) with such wheels - I'm afraid that DML made an error including those wheels.

Here is a nice photo showing correct M2A1 carriage wheels: http://www.usarmymodels.com/AFV%20PHOTOS/105mm%20HOWITZER/IMG_0279.jpg

Pawel

I'm just happy to be getting some Allied artillery kits.....especially with figures in Winter gear! ( Are there any injection molded Commonwealth figures in Winter kit out there?) When I first started modeling I thought the Germans fought the Second World War by themselves!?

Things have been getting much better for Allied armor and figure modellers in the past several years thanks in large part to companies like DML, AFV Club, Academy, Masterbox and MiniArt. I look forward to the release of every new Allied kit. I might not buy every one....but at least now there are choices!

Jeff

OOOPS...I'm must confess I didn't pay enough attention to the shields At least Trakz made some M2A1 carriage wheels (TX0132) if need be :



Frenchy