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HÄT's
1/72 7.7cm Feldkanone 16 | |
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On
the Real Thing | |
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The most obious fault of the FK 96 n.A. was that, although it could fire above 5.600 meters, the tail of the gun then had to be dug down into a pit, in order to allow the tube to be raised further. A quick and dirty solution to this was devised by the firm of Rheinmetall. It consisted of mating the tube of the FK 96 n.A. with the carriage of the lFH 98/09. This allowed the tube to be elevated up to 40 degrees, making it possible - with much ado - to reach a range of 7.800 meters. This became the basis for the FK 16. The first FK 16:s were issued to the troops during 1916. It is not surprising, that a gun designed in a hurry, and then rushed into production during the shortages of war-time, suffered a number of faults and problems. The troops, however, liked it: now at last they could compete on equal terms both with the French "75" and the Russian Putilov m/02. Also, it could be emplaced in a much more free manner than the old FK 96 n.A.. Also: it proved to be a stable platform, with the recoil being well controlled by the carriage. A really big problem that no one was able to solve, however, was the weight of the gun: it was considerably heavier than the FK 96 n.A.. This was no problem during the static warfare up to 1918, but when the German Offensive started in March that Year, this became an obvious draw-back. The FK 16 was simply not as mobile as the FK 96 n.A. At the end of the war, the German Army still 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. After the war it was used in both Germany and Belgium, and saw service in the first years of WW2. For
much more info on this gun, including detail shots of a
surviving piece, click
here! |
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| On
the kit by Stephen Brezinski | |
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There box states there are 88 pieces
in the box. On four sprues of 23 pieces each I counted 92 pieces. [Oddly
I got five sprues in my box not the regular four sprues.] The detail
is okay for the medium of soft plastic, and this plastic is much
softer than figures in Revell and matchbox sets. The plastic glues
well with both cyanoacrylate (super glue) and with liquid model
cement.
The biggest thing I don't like is the
gun barrel thickness/diameter. It's too thick in diameter for a
77-mm but too long for the 105-mm. I ended up cutting mine off on my
first build and replacing it with a shorter aluminum tube to make a
105-mm howitzer. [To make a correct 10.5-cm FH16 there are more
features to change than just the length and diameter of the gun
barrel but look to your references for these.]
Like most HÄT kits this one can be
found at most good stockist, like
Hannants in the UK,
Jadar Models in Poland,
F&S
Scale Models or Tracks & Troops
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On
the kit - and a diorama built around it |
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At first I decided to use the Hät kit of the 77mm FK16, but I compared it to my scale drawings, and found many mistakes. Come to think of it, this kit doesn’t get any of the dimensional information right. The gun tube is too long and sits too far back, the wheels are too large in diameter, the track width is too small, and the carriage is too long and has the wrong shape. I therefore scratched a new carriage, but I used the shortened Hät gun tube with a new breech added, and I replaced the wheels with the ones coming from the Revell 10,5cm lFH18. These are of the correct diameter and have the correct number of spokes. See photo’s 1-3 for comparison.
Photo 4 shows the partly painted gun in the partly painted gun pit. Photo’s 5-10 show the completed gun pit. The bunker is a plaster cast of an M (Magazin or storage) bunker. These were mostly used to stow ammo, but were also used as command posts. They were built in 1st, 2nd and 3rd lines.
The flowers and ferns are actually, believe it or not, kits by the German Firm Busch. They are supposed to be in 1/87 (Ho), but critics say they are grossly over scale, so that makes them perfect for 1/72. The tree (hardly visible in the pictures) and grass are by Heki.
The figures are a mixture of Hät, Preiser and Revell figures. The ammo crates are casts from a master that I made myself. I am not too sure if the depicted loading procedure is correct, as this gun was separately loaded. I could not find any reference to it, so I left the figures as they were. Besides, I have been working on it for the last 9 months due to lack of time, so I was getting bored with the subject... :-) The shell that is about to be loaded is a 1915 HE shell, the shell with the blue stripe is the ‘long’ field gun shell. |
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On
the kit |
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This set by HäT is another one in their very impressive WW1 effort. In each box you get 4 guns, 4 caissons plus 48 figures. Very good value! Like HäT's other products they are aimed at the wargaming market, but they are still soo good that they are interesting for the modeller. They are made in SOFT plastic, making them difficult to work with - no filing here! - and tricky to paint: the paint is subject to some annoying peeling. But these are minor drawbacks. The plastic is of a new kind that takes glue pretty well, but it's still tricky to make paint stick 100%, so once painted they have to be handled with care... I will not review the figures that much. I think that they are very good, some of them excellent, with nice, relaxed poses, making them very useful for diorama work etc. They also lend themselves easily to conversion work: with minor modifications some could be made into late-war Austro-Hungarians. The gun itself comes in five parts: two wheels, carriage, shield and gun tube. The basic shape is accurate, and so is the size. My only real gripe is the barrel, that is way too thick. It could actually go for the 10.5cm variant, that used the same carriage and shield, but if scale thickness is considered, it is probably closer to 15cm than to 7.7cm. But this is easy to correct! A modeler will probably swap the barrel anyway, to get one with a hollow end, and then you will off course get one in scale thickness. The caisson is also fine, and will only need some additional details (plus six horses!) in order to make a very nice replica! It IS simplified. (It is,
as mentioned, like most of HäT's products, aimed at the Wargaming Market. I
have no beef with that.) Obviously, if you want a modellers replica,
it will need detailing: the foot rests for the shield seats are
lacking, the breech has no detail etc. The good news is, that it is a very fine basis
for such detailing work! In my book, a good kit is not one that is
perfect, very few are, but one that lends itself to this kind of work.
And this one does that, very well! |
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Verdict |
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Stephen Brezinski: Overall it's a great wargaming piece but
needs work for a display model. |
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