EMHAR:s 1/72 18 pdr QF Field Gun
  By Stephen Brezinski

This was the standard British light field cannon of WW1, official designation of QF 18 Pounder: QF for quick-firing, a designation adopted after the introduction of breach-loading recoil operated guns which were much faster to fire since they did not have to be re-layed after each firing like a non-recoiling gun muzzle-loader. 18-Pounder refers to the weight of the projectile fired. Gun caliber was 84-mm. This weapon was equivalent in use to the French 75-mm model 1898, and the German 77-mm FK 96 and 77-mm FK 16 guns of the period.

Gun assembly and a painting guide are on the back of the box. Box art and gun assembly instructions I rate as good. Two guns are included in the kit and four sprues of duplicated figures. Unfortunately only six poses are included. I would like to have seen a full gun crew of six to ten figures.

The gun and figures are molded in a light gray, semi-soft urethane plastic. For the medium used, the gun and figures are very well molded and with little if any flash (which is what I would expect for a new mold). The gun has much better detail than most all-metal kits and many resin kits in this scale. There are even small elevation and traverse wheels. An interesting detail touch is wrapping of a coil of rope (string in this scale) around the recouperator. I am not positive but this may have been done for man-handling the hot gun after extended firing? The shield is overly thick which I think is unavoidable in the scale, and it has no detail on the rear side.

Overall I recommend the kit for wargaming or as a decent display model.

Below you can find three pictures of a finished EMHAR 18-pdr model (click on the thumbnails):

          

And to get some additional info on the 18-pounder, click here!