FSF:s 1/76 German 150mm sFH 13 Lang Howitzer

Fine Scale Factory make a White Metal kit of the 150mm Heavy Howitzer sFH13, one of the most important pieces in the arsenal of the German Artillery during WW1. The variant shown is the late model with the L/17 barrel, also called the sFH13 Lang. The outline and shape of the kit is in general OK, but there are also some problems: the outline of the trail is wrong, and so is the breech: it should be shorter, bigger and with a wedge-type of closing. And it is also really lacking in detail. For instance, there are no elevation wheels, the inner details on the shield are suspect, there is  no dial sight, no breech handle, and the earth spade lacks it's upper part. 

As many other Artillery kits, this can be used as a basis for a lot of detail work, and if you are willing to put it into this kit. But it will take a lot of time, especially if you want to correct the really big problem: the outline of the trail.

After long consideration, I've decided to leave the trail as it is: it would be too much of an effort to rectify this, as this would mean building a whole new trail - and the difference is only possible to spot from certain angles. But a new breech is a must. I've made it from resin. (It is a good idea to save block of resin from resin kits, as it is a very good material to work with when it comes to thicker parts.) And then the work is about adding lots and lots of details, too numerous to name. I have done this, be referencing to photos of the real thing, to be found here on Landships. You can see all these details on the photos below, most of them in white or dark-grey plastic. Note that a nuimber of details are missing still, among others the dial sight, three hand-wheels and two shield braces.

I think this is another example of a Great War era gun, where the master builder evidently made the model just from a couple of photos, and not too good photos at that...

If you want more info on this gun, click here!