Introduction

Riich Models are a relatively new company to the market and have already produced some outstanding models; their Universal Carrier comes immediately to mind. After many years of waiting British and Commonwealth fans have now finally been given a new 6pdr AT gun. The Riich Models kit is of the Mk IV and a welcome addition to the ever growing range of Allied Models. It’s ironic but not surprising that rather than one new offering we now have several coming onto the market at the same time, from Bronco with their 6 pdr Airborne version and AFV Club with their 6pdr Airborne and late version. A bit like busses really, wait forever and then several come along at once.

Riich Models are a sister company of Bronco Models and that’s apparent from the moment you get the box, so let’s have a look at the parts inside:

Our thanks to Chris Meddings of Inside the Armour who provided the sample for review.

The Kit

The kit comes packed in a sturdy box with a nice picture of two 6pdrs deployed on a road in NWE. The box also displays the manufacturers and product details. Inside the box are 4 plastic bags, two sealed bags and two ziploc plastic bags containing the parts. A 10 page folded A5 booklet contains the build instructions and in the kit I received there was also a small 2014 catalogue of Riich Models ever growing range of kits.

The instructions are laid out in a clear logical fashion and are of the exploded picture type, the build consists of 16 steps, but the numbering has gone wrong and step 11 is not included as page 5 ends with step 10 and page 6 starts with step 12. This appears just to be a miss-number rather than a missing step.

The kit consists of two main sprues of parts for the gun contained in one sealed bag, one sprue of ammunition and ammunition boxes, a small ziploc bag containing the metal gun barrel, rope and wheels for the kit and another with a small PE fret and ammunition markings for the shells and boxes.

All the parts look free from any flash and are very sharply and nicely reproduced. Any injection pin marks I could see appear to be on the inside of the trail legs and a couple in the curve of the main protection plate, none of which would been seen when the gun is assembled. All of the other parts look clean and crisp.

You can see the influence of Bronco in the layout and detail of the parts. The 6pdr was not a large gun by artillery standards and there are many small parts to deal with but as the devil is in the detai,l I don’t think modellers will be disappointed with this product.

Marking’s for the shells look accurate and you will need patience with the overall build. You get 5 mixed rounds, 3 for use on the gun and two spare and two early and late ammunition boxes on the 3rd tree. There are also several open and closed shell packing sheaths and a spent round or two.

The metal barrel is quite light and does away with any issues that many arise when joining two halves of a plastic barrel. The Mk IV had a slightly longer barrel than the previous Mk’s of gun and also came with a muzzle brake, which is catered for in the kit. The wheels come in a ridged type of black plastic to which you add the rims. A section of cord is provided for the tow rope for the gun.

The gun can be built with the breach in the open or closed position, and if you build carefully the gun should be able to elevate and traverse, you can also finish it as a towed version, or with the trail legs open in the firing position. To round thing off a small fret of delicate looking PE is included.

Unfortunately I had no specific plans when the kit came up for review, but from all the information I had the gun looks to be very accurate in detail.

Conclusion

The 6 pdr anti-tank gun became the main stay anti-tank weapon of the British Infantry Battalion and RA Anti Tank Regiments. It had considerable stopping power and was usually towed by a Lloyd Carrier or in some cases a Universal Carrier. It remained in service long after the end of the war and was adapted by the US with some minor changes.

This is the first of the new 6pdrs I’ve looked at and it is an impressive looking kit. The attention to detail looks excellent, clean up should be minimal and providing you build with patience you should have a very decent representation of the actual weapon.

My only reservations are the hard black plastic type wheels. As this is my first encounter with this type of wheel I’ll reserve judgement until built.

As a standalone display or attached to a vehicle this kit fills a big hole for the Allied builder. Light years ahead of the old Tamiya kit it should prove popular. With a fair number of small parts you will need to take care not to lose anything during the build.

Riich Models are to be congratulated for taking up the challenge and producing an up-to-date kit of high quality for a much longed for replacement for the old Tamiya gun.

References

British Anti Tank Artillery 1939-45 - Osprey Publications