Rick Taylor shares with us a build review of the 8-Inch Howitzer M1 - WW2 by AFV club in 1/35th scale.

Read the Review

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Looks to be a real winner of a kit!

But I must add - long overdue from this hobby manufacture!

I presume the 155mm gun, based on the identical carriage and limber will not be far behind. Additionally I suspect some etch manufacture will soon provide us the appropriate etch placards and details for this weapon.

Plenty of reference for this weapon sitting in front of the court house in Carlisle, Kentucky:


Photo Copyright Michael Koenig 2005 - All Rights Reserved

Also, in past days, at the Patton Museum, Ft. Knox, Kentucky:


Photo Copyright Michael Koenig 2005 - All Rights Reserved

Hope no one minds my including roughly a book's worth of photo reference here.












All photos Copyright Michael Koenig 2005 - All Rights Reserved

So far the only detail I can find that has been left out of this model (and this simply due to molding limitations) are the bolt heads that appear on the front of the curved shield protecting the partial bullring gear and its' pinion. As shown in the photo directly below.)








All photos Copyright Michael Koenig 2005 - All Rights Reserved

Rick,
Thanks for the excellent build review. Now, I need to decide what to do with my resin AM set for the WWII backdate!
VR, Russ

Regarding talk of missing etch placards:






All photos Copyright Michael Koenig 2005 - All Rights Reserved

And a few more reference details:







This is the later design gun where this massive "grab handle" replaced the pulley used to pull the barrel back into battery when doing maintenance and repairs.









All photos Copyright Michael Koenig 2005 - All Rights Reserved

Thanks for the photos Michael, they're more impressive than the kit though that too is welcome. Don't you just love great reference material like this?

I enjoyed building the previous version (backdating it with a more-accurate 3D printed barrel & resin tires), so I am glad that AFV Club has extended the kit to the WW2 version. My only reservation would be the vinyl tires.

They should not be a reservation. AFV Club's rubber is very stable. As a precaution, I always paint the plastic wheels fully and have had no interaction between the rubber and the plastic.

I recently rebuilt an AFV Club M49A2 Fueler that was originally built in the early '90s and the rubber tires are still perfect. No issues at all. You can see them here.

I agree in part with the statements made by both Bill and Gino and like Gino. However I have had no problems, ever, with any rubber tires I have encountered. And I have been modeling trains, cars, planes and armor since the early sixties.

I think any problems found with the rubber tires are perhaps the exception rather than the rule. So with that I would say there is little reason for concern.

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I too very much enjoyed building and detailing the AFV 155mm Howitzer and back-dating it with a resin set of tires and the early limber.

M2 Heavy Limber







That center inverted "T" pin connects into the trail ends, then the screw jack lifts the trails up into the girdle (Base Trail) where they are firmly locked in and the gun is then ready to travel.

Mike,

Thanks for posting the walk around photos!

Rick

Here is the link to the in-box review on Armorama https://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/14579

Enjoy!

Rick

Your welcome Rick - hope you can make good use of them!

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Travel lock installed on the jacks used to raise and lower the wheel boggy:
Note canvas covers over screw jacking threads.

Something for both those who prefer the gun in firing position and those who favor travel position:




Please note: On the M2 Limber when the gun trails have been raised into travel position the threads of the center jacking screw are exposed and they are therefore covered with a canvas cover to protect the screw from highway dust and grime.

In the outside chance a new Mack NO model should become available sometime in the future here is the hitch that will be required to attach the 7 1/2 ton Mack tractor directly to either the 155mm or 8 inch guns:





This trail clamp (Girdle) is/was provided in the earlier AFV offering of this gun which employed the M5 rather than the M2 Limber.


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Item #4 on the drawing - the trail clamp lifting eye is the point where the chain hoist on the rear of the Mack NO is attached to lift the trails up onto the hitch.

The M23 ammo trailer employed exactly the same arrangement allowing the Mack NO to tow the ammo trailer or either gun directly without the use of a limber.

You are kidding aren't you Mike....

(Background noise: click pic save, click pic save, click pic save....)

Thanks for sharing

And thanks for the review. Very Interesting.

I need to make a correction to the above schematic:

Part #1 "Trail Clamp" (Girdle) DOES NOT COME in the current AFV kit that utilizes the M2 Limber. This trail clamp only comes in the M115 post-war AFV kit that utilizes the later design M5 Limber. The M5 Limber is however, equally correct for use with either the wartime 155mm or 8 inch guns as is the M2 Limber.

A small detail, that if I understand correctly, may have been included in the new AFV kit: the taillight and the muzzel cover for the gun when traveling - note additional reflectors as well. (Shown here on the 240mm gun barrel mounted on its' travel porte.)





F.Y.I. - I made my gun barrel travel cover by starting with a Tamiya canvas bucket molding as the end cap and then adding the side sleeve, making that from scrap sheet plastic.