Fine Scale Factorys 1/72 M-Gerät 42cm L/12 Howitzer 
(Dicke Bertha)

"Big Bertha" (or properly Dicke Bertha, which means "Fat Bertha") is arguably the most famous of all guns used during the Great War. The problem is that very few know exactly which artillery piece this name pertains to. Both the 21cm Cannon used to shell Paris and the Austro-Hungarian 30.5cm Howitzer have been given this name. But in reality there was only one Dicke Bertha, and that was the German 42cm M-Gerät Howitzer.

The M-Gerät started out as an attempt to make a very large mortar, bigger than any of the other Minenwerfers that Germany Army fielded, and also capable at attacking at a much longer range. The German Army already had a very heavy howitzer in the shape of the 42cm Gamma-Gerät, but that piece was extremely heavy and needed 10 railway cars to be transported. The new gun was to use the shell from the Gamma-Gerät, and also be lighter and easier to transport. 

The new gun was first tested in 1913, and it weighed only 42.6 tons in firing position. Special motor tractors were built (by Daimler) to pull the gun, that was dismantled for transport into five loads when moved. In June 1914, a second copy was delivered by Krupp, and in September the same year first M-Gerät Battery (of two guns and 283 men) was put into action against the Liége forts. During the war 10 more were produced. These batteries were used both on the Eastern Front and in the West - were they among other things supported the German push against Verdun in 1916.

It was in all respects an impressive gun. It could shoot a 810 kilo heavy HE grenade (Langgranate L/3.6) 9.300 meters. (Later there was also a lighter grenade, the Kurze M-Granate L/3.1, that increased the range to 12.250 meters.) The maximum rate of fire was 10 shots per hour. The M-Grät was used against fortifications and other static targets: its grenades could easily penetrate 1 meter of reinforced concrete. But it was not quite the Wunderwaffe that the German Propaganda claimed. If the grenades exploded prematurely they simply produced impressive craters but often nothing more. But if they entered into the target, the effects could be simply horrendrous, with one well-placed shell capable of knocking out an entire fort. So the respect it commanded was still not unfounded.

For more pictures of this gun, click here!

Click on the pictures to see large versions

The kit comes packed in a blue box, typical of Fine Scale Factory, with the parts packaged in two ziplock bags. 

The kit itself consists of some 45+ parts, all done in white metal. The moulding is good, most details are sharp and there is only small amounts of flash. Still, this being a white metal kit, means that there are those inevitable moulding lines to be sanded off. The reason that white metal was chosen as the medium is that some of the parts are very delicate - like some wheels, or a couple of towing hooks - and that they are difficult to get right in resin. Also they are not as brittle in white metal. There are also parts to build a small crane, to handle the grenades, and one grenade. (Note that FSF produces an extra small kit, containing extra shell cases and grenades just for this gun.)

The kit is so-so in accuracy. It lacks in detail here and there, but the kind of detail that is easy to put in yourself. Some of it will require a lot of work. (For instance, the Rad Gurtel, i.e. the wheel belts, are just plain squares, where in reality both the face of the individual blocks and their attachment to the wheels had more details. Also: here they are shown as a mixture of short and long blocks - in reality there was only long - and also there are too many of them!) Also, the barrel is way too long (it should be shortened some 11mm) and also it lacks taper! I've substituted mine for a bit of brush handle with the correct diamater. Also, the breech is without any details at all: it just a blank end. The shield is of slightly wrong shape and also lacks braces to the back. It cries out for additions. And a lot of finer details are simply not here, like braces. Also, the shell crane is portayed as a separate item - an impossibility for pure mechanical reasons: it would topple over right away - when in reality it was fastened to the left side of the carriage, and in addition to this: it is of the wrong shape. And the "table" near the breech, was in reality much smaller: as it stands it will cover the breech, making the gun impossible to load! (See one of the photos above and also the photos of the big model in Paris on the page on the gun.)

All artillery kits are a bit tricky to build, but this one will require extra care, not that the kit is difficult per se, but simply because the gun had a quite complex structure. But still it is nothing that you can't handle with some superglue and a bit of patience.

But brother, this kit will require a lot of work... If you want to know more of what needs to be done, click here! 

It comes with a good plan. No painting instructions are provided, but this one could be made out really colourful, as this was a type often sported so called buntfarbentarnung, i.e. multicolour camouflage, often consisting of spots of yellow, brown, green, sometimes even white, over a base of feldgrau. To see my finished model, click here!

You can get this kit from Tracks & Troops or directly from their own site. 

The German firm of Fine Scale Factory are among those who also caters for the WW1 Modeller, and in their line of kits you can find many rare and unexpected types. This is one of them. I'm afraid that it contains a lot of errors, big and small, and it lacks detail. But the basis is sound, and with a lot of work you will end up with a fine model of a legendary artillery piece.