introduction

The 105mm howitzer was one of the most produced weapons of WWII. Unlike smaller caliber weapons, the 105mm had the range (more than 11,000 meters), and packed a punch with a 50 meter kill radius. It was useful, both for penetrating the jungles in the east, and keeping pace with the fast-moving armies in Europe.

It started as the M2A1 towed, then was mounted on the T19 HMC and M7Priest HMC. Along the way, it also was the M3 Mountain Gun and the upgrade of the M7 (the M37). There are kits available for all of these except the M37. The 105mm is still in use today with the M119 howitzer. An excellent overview of WWII 105mm ammunition can be found here.

AFV Club has released a set of “Ammunition Crates and Containers for 105mm Howitzer” that will be useful for any dios from WWII up to modern scenes using the M102 or the M119.

the review

Ammunition crates and containers for the 105mm howitzer are a staple of artillery. This kit gives you all the possible packaging that was used for the 105mm ammunition. For those of us who have served in the artillery and on the 105mm, this kit will even transfer well into today with the fiber tubes.

An artillery scene means ammunition and dunnage (empty ammunition packaging). Most of what has been produced to date from the resin manufactures has been good, but costly. For the same price as some of the resin manufacturers, you are getting almost two-four times as many packaging parts.

Styrene Parts:
Upon opening the box you are presented with 2 identical sprues, a large decal sheet and a small photo etch sheet.

All of the parts appear to be well-molded. First, you get is two types of two round ammunition crates, end opening and top opening. There is four of each crate in the kit. Next, is the 3 round packaging; again two types, the wooden cage and the 3 round end caps for connecting the fibers. Then there are the individual heavy cardboard fibers for each round. These fibers protect each round and help keep the powder dry. The detail is excellent as the fiber tubes even have their spiral wrap. There are 22 fibers in the kit and 4 of them have removable end caps. Lastly is the heavy-duty metal canister, and there are 12 of those in the kit. For details of the use of each of these, refer to this site.

The detail discussion will explain all the packaging and give you some good ideas for modeling.
All of the different possible types of packing for almost any scene you may want to create.

Added Parts and Accessories:
A photo etch sheet is included with the kit with the strapping and buckles for the crate bands. These appear much nicer than the molded-on bands from some resin vendors.

Lastly the kit includes a detailed decal sheet for the WWII era HE rounds. The decals are very complete for marking the different crates and tubes. The interesting note is the lot numbers are different for each type of tube and for the two round crates and none of them match. Normally on a weapon they would try to have all one lot of HE (high explosive).

Instructions:
The kit includes a back-of-the-box instruction for the assembly and decal placement, and is relatively simple. There is also a paint chart for different brands similar to most AFV Club kits

The list price is not even close to what is on the streets. Shop before you buy. You can find the kit for 30% of list!!

conclusion

This kit appears to make a great addition to any 1/35 scale collection. You can never have enough ammunition and this kit gives a good stock to the ASP (ammunition supply point).