Convoy:s 1/76 German 7.7cm Feldkanone 16

Pretty soon after the start of the war, the Germans realized that their standard field artillery piece, the FK 96 n.A. had some serious drawbacks, and that it was often only because of the numerical superiority of their field guns that they could hold their own against the field artillery of their opponents, which often had both a greater range and a greater effect. Therefore, development work was started on a new Field Gun, a gun that was introduced in 1916. The main differences were a longer gun tube and and increasing the elevation by fitting the tube on the carriage of the old lFH 98/06. At the end of the war, the German Army had some 3.020 FK 16 in use - which was almost as many as the older FK 96 n.A., of which there were 3.744 in service. The FK 16 was employed in the 20-ies by the much reduced German Heer, and in 1934 a modified model was introduced (the FK 16 n.A.) that was still in service some Divisions in the early years of WW2.

The British firm of Convoy make the only small scale kit of this artillery piece that I know of, beside the one made by Bandera, which unfortunately is poor. (Convoy also sell the 1934/WW2 version, the FK 16 n.A. - it comes with a different barrel.) The kit is made in White Metal, comes in the small zip-lock bag, holding also the instructions. It consists of 15 parts (of which 6 are representations of the whicker ammo containers so typical of the German WW1 Artillery). The parts are well moulded and the details for the most part sharp. The wheels especially, are very nice. In contrast with many small scale Gun kits out there, this one does not lack the essentials of any artillery piece: I am thinking of such things as the dial sight and the trail spike. They are here alright! 

My main complaints are that the elevating and traversing wheels don't come as separate items, but are moulded integrally into the cradle and the carriage - they must be replaced - and that the gun barrel itself is a bit too thick: it is closer to a scale 10.5cm tube rather than a 7.7cm one. The Gun shield is also rather thick. But still, this gun is warmly recommended.

The kit can be ordered directly from Convoys own web site.