The M198 Howitzer, produced by Rock Island, has long been on my want list. In my "in between years" as a Thirteen Bravo, I had chiefed one of these guns, and was anxious to add it my collection. I was initially hesitant to order one, as I had heard it was squash cast. I recently read that it had been redone, and ordered one from Airmodel Simon Modellbau.
I was immediately impressed when I received it in the mail. The kit consists of 133 pieces of very nicely cast resin, a turned aluminum barrel, a photocopy of the parts layout, a 1:35 three view drawing of the howitzer, and a two sided instruction sheet. The resin has not a single air bubble in the entire kit. None of the parts were warped, misaligned, or otherwise unusable, although a few of the lifting handles for the trail had broken. I would have replaced them with brass in any case just for strength. On the back of the three view drawing is also a camouflage guide, provided sample MERDC schemes and listing the colors offered by several of the most popular paint brands. The instructions are of a quality seldom found in a resin kit. In fact, the drawings are as good as most injection molded kit instructions.
Unfortunately, I could not find my photos of the actual howitzer until I was almost done with the build. There are a few deficiencies in the kit, which I'll address where appropriate, but to be fair, I think some of the problems stem from the model being based upon an earlier version of the howitzer.

I pretty much ignored the instruction sequence for the most part, making my own changes as necessary. The first steps involve constructing the carriage assembly. I pinned the trails to the base with 2mm brass tubing, but left off most of the smaller details to avoid breakage during assembly. As I mentioned earlier, I replaced the trail handles with brass wire, as well as the spades' carrying handles, which were a bit out of scale.
The base of the carriage is where the detail is the most lacking. The is a portion on either side, in front of axles, which needs to be completely milled off. I then added hydraulic lines from fine brass wire, and protective conduit from .060 channel. I then added jacking pockets to the cylinders on each side, and more hydraulics. The drive unit housing (the M198 has a small motor to assist in emplacement if necessary) needed some reshaping. I also scraped of the cast on levers and added some from brass strip. The rear of the base also has three sections of conduit for the brake lines. I made these the same way as I did for the front. The lines run along the right trail to the brake unit. This unit, by the way, is incorrectly placed in the drawings. It should be flush with the top edge of the trail, and about 1/4 farther forward. Speaking of brakes, now is the time to add them. The left and right axle assemblies are quite lacking in detail. I spun two disks, 14mm in diameter, from .010 styrene for the disk brakes. I sanded them a little more to give them scale thickness. These slip onto the fatter, inner portion of the axles. I then fashioned some rudimentary calipers to fit over them.
The wheels were the next problem. On the real thing, one of the continuing problems was tires blowing out, as they're not rated to carry the 15,740 lb. cannon. In a bind, these could be replaced by one from the prime mover-the 5 Ton. However, the kit supplied wheels only have six lug nuts, not the required ten. I thought of casting some from Accurate Armour's Scammel Commander trailer. They're the right diameter and have the correct bolt pattern, but have lightening holes in them. The Italeri M925 are similarly inappropriate, not to mention having the wrong tread pattern on the tires. I finally decided to just leave the kit wheels on with a snug fit, with the hope of finding a better substitute in the future. The one easy change is on the hub: The kit hub has bolts on it, whereas the real thing has a smooth faced hub. It's much easier to correct than the lug nuts.
I moved next to the canon assembly, consisting of the tube, three yokes, a base, rails, and the recoil assembly. It's a good idea here to place the tube in the yokes during assmbly to insure their proper alignment. The breech assembly consists of five pieces. There are no threads on the breech block to portray the interrupted thread locking mechanism, but that's just as well. The breech pretty much has to be assembled in the closed position as it serves as an anchor for the other pieces. It would require quite a bit of care to keep the resin pieces attached to the outside of the slick aluminum barrel with CA glue. Save the muzzle BRAKE for later as well. It a very fine representation of the real thing, consisting of four pieces, but there's no attachment point other than gluing it flush. I plan to insert a short piece of brass tube into the brake and the barrel for added strength.
I then moved on to the side rails, each of which consist of two halves. DO NOTattempt to cement the front yoke (part38) to them now. The part is 2mm too narrow, and will require additional work later anyway.
The towers (the upright portions of the saddle) are also two sided affairs. Assemble them with the elevating pistons trapped in between, and attach them to the saddle base. The base needs a little detailing here as well. Two rounded squares of styrene, placed front and back between the towers, will make the biggest noticeable correction.
Now here's where I really went out of sequence: Slide the two side frames into the towers and onto the elevating pistons, and pin them in. I used tubing rather than pins, which I'll explain later. Attach the gun cradle to the side frames. Now you can add the front yoke to the side frames. It needs a square of 1mm styrene added to each side. I made them slightly oversized and sanded them flush with the yoke. I then drilled 2mm holes into the yoke, and the ends of the side frames. I pinned the yoke in place and glued it. The reasoning behind all of this is for added strength when sanding everything smooth. There are of course weld seams on the real thing, but not where the kit parts join together. Add appropriate missing bolt detail to the front and bottom of the yoke, along with a big angular hook shaped piece underneath. Additionally, you 'llneed to add some sort of piston, whose function is unclear to me, underneath the left side. Insert a rod that runs all the way to the rear of the cannon assembly.
We're almost there...
Replace the kit chronograph mount. It is a very finely cast piece. Unfortunately the real thing is chunkier and larger. It extends above and beolw the left side frame and is mounted with four very long bolts which run across the top and bottom of the side frame.
Next is the travel lock. Again, it's a very nicely done piece, but its proportions are wrong. It is too long and too narrow. I am in the process of corecting mine now. Its two mounts should be located on the centerline underneath the side frames, but the lock's narrowness forces you to place them to far inboard. That's not too much of a problem unless you want to correct the mounts themselve, which, according to my photos, are wrong. Each mount should have reinforcing gussets front and back, and two coming out perpendicular to the frame. This can't be done convincingly with the mounts in the wrong location. Here's a good time to explain why I think the mounts are wrong: Originally, the mounts had no gussets, and the travel lock would often fail during transport, damaging the equilibrators and other components. The gussets were added later. The lock itself was beefed up as well. The kit may very well be based upon an unimproved example.
The shroud over the recoil assembly is my next nitpick. And it really IS a nitpick. The shroud is perforated, to allow for cooling. The kit shroud is solid. That said, it would be nearly impossibly to replicate. Even if you create your own PE shroud, the holes are so ridiculously small they'd barely be visible. In fact, in most photos, the shroud appears solid, unless photographed up close. I decided to leave well enough alone.
Here's where I added the sights-the pantel on the left side, and the direct fire sight on the right. The reason I used tubing to mount the side frames is so that I could insert brass pins into each sight, and then insert them into the tubes. This gives a little added stability as the gluing surface is fairly small. Glue the pantel level, and the direct fire sight in line with the tube. By the way, the direct fire sight is not the same as in my photos, and I was unable to trace it to any other kit I have. Again, I'm willing to attribute this to an older version perhaps
Lastly are the equilibrators, which help balance the gun and make it easier for the crew to make quadrant changes. You get two different lengths of accordion covered pistons. Even so, you'll probably need to adjust their lengths to get them to fit whichever elevation you're posing the gun in. The problem with mounting them is that there should be rectangular holes on the front portion of each tower to accept them. There are none. I'm going to have to try and carve them out of the already assembled towers, as this is quite a noticeable omission.
All in all, I give this kit a solid "B". It may seem I was a little harsh, but I had the benefit of a slew of photographs. To be honest, without them I'd have never noticed any of the problems, save for the omission of the disk brakes and jacking pockets. I paid EU51 for the kit, and EU16 for the shipping-a bargain in my book. And since I did pay for this myself, I've got no dog in this hunt.
Compared to other resin kits I'd put this on par with one of my favorites-Hobby Fan. (BTW,expect a review of their FH70 when time permits.)
Now that I've nearly finished the kit, and completed my collection of modern US artillery, the M198 is about to meet its end. It will be replaced soon by the XM777, which should be quite the scratchbuilding project.

This is a product review that should be published here on Site. Do you have photos of the model - in-progress and completed?

Gunnie

Great review. Gunnie is correct, do up some photos and lets get it up as an article in features section. I too may be getting this kit soon, thanks for the pointers.

Ummm...
Pardon my ignorance, (I'm a noob) but since the review appears above, is it not considered published here?
As for the photos, I went to pick them up today, but it seems my camera didn't survive my last ski outing as well as I did. They're all out of focus, including the Apache engine photos. I will try again soon, however.

Excellent review. I have this kit as well as the Mouse House kit. I can't wait to start them now after reading your very good review.

Nope, not really. In a few days this post will be burried under several hundred new ones and difficult to find. Once it is published as a review article it will be included in Review Section of the site and availale through easy to use review search engine.

Pawel

No - what I mean is turning this into a formal Kit Review. Forum posts, especially on a large site like Armorama, disappear quickly. You've posted useful information that other modelers will be interested in - and may not hit the Search Function to find. This can be easily formatted into a Kit Review with its own page and photographs.

Anxious to see photos of the subject - and - to add it to the Site.

Gunnie

Thank you for clarifying. It 'll give me a chance to correct the numerous spelling errors as well.

Bump

Yup, great review, as I stated above. I had forgotten about it. Did you ever get a chance to submit it in the review section?

No, I ended up being gone quite a bit right after that,
As of today, I'll be in your neck of the woods for a month, at Anniston. I just pop in at home once in a while so the kids remember what I look like.
By the way, tracks arrived in good condition. Thanks.

Glad you got them just fine. Have fun here in AL.

I still hold out the hope that the M198 will be made in plastic someday.

Thanks for the review, it was most helpful and enlightening. Hope to see some photos of the finished product if you get a spare minute down the road sometime.

Looking forward to seeing your pics. I plan on getting this kit.