Extratech:s 1/72 42cm Haubitze M.17

In the eyes of the afterworld, this gun has been in the shadow of its much more famous predecessor, the 30.5cm Mörser M.11. Which perhaps is not so surprising, as the 42cm Howitzer was produced and used in much less numbers. Only 8 was ever used in action during WW1, and this is the sum of all different makes. (Click here for more info on the 42cm Howitzer.) 

The Czech Firm of Extratech makes a kit of this gun. Extratech makes resin kits with a very high professional standard (no cottage industry standrds here), and this one is no exception. It comes in a fine, photo-illustrated box, with excellent instructions (something you can't excpect from cottage industry kits), with the contents neatly bagged. It is a so called mixed media kit, containing both resin and Photo Eteched parts. 

I find this an ideal solution, not least when it comes to artillery kits, as real world guns, with their combination of big, sturdy main parts, and a lot of finer details (braces, elevating wheels etc). And only wish that more manufacturers would do like Extratech! BUT, and this is an important but, I think that PE is best for 2-dimensional parts, and that it's not good to try and do 3-dimensional things by doing some metal fret origami. There is one such part in this kit, and it is better replaced! (Then again: it's easily done.)

The kit itself is pretty simple, actually. It consists of some 8 resin parts, and some 20+ PE parts. (Click here to see a scan of the PE parts.) Also, building the gun isn't that difficult either. Which doesn't mean that Extratech has done a faulty job in any way: it was simply the enginers at the Skoda works that did such an excellent job in the first place. The gun was a classic in it's sleek lines, and clean design. And this is reflected in the kit. (Click here to see part of the instructions.) 

The kit is hard to fault, actually. What is missing are the two compressed air cylinders inside the carriage, that were used to "top up" the recuperators. Also, there is no dial sight nor any elevating drum. But in many photos the dial sight is not to be seen (it was removed prior to discharging a shot, to protect the optics), and the compressed air cylinders are hard to spot anyway, so I can't see this as a big problem. And the small carraige that was used for transporting the shells up to the loading tray is not in the kit (it is on the cover: see above!) Anyone wanting that one will have to scratch it, which shouldn't be too hard. 

And perhaps one should try to put som backing under the PE baseplate: it will warp easily otherwise. At the same time: the baseplate was buried in the ground, flush with the ground level, so in a diorama, this really flat baseplate is the right thing.

Notice that is is a kit portraying the M.17 of the howitzer. That mark did not see action in WW1, but was actually used by the Germans in WW2. (The colouring suggestions show the gun in German guise.) If you, like me, insist on doing the WW1 gun, you will have to backdate it. Click here to read an article on how to do this.

Until then, you could really just build it as is. It is an excellent kit! I fully recommend it. Grab it while it's still around.