Matador Models 1/76 4.5inch QF Howitzer

After all the unexpected setbacks suffered by the British in the Boer War gunmakers were asked to submit new designs for a Field Howitzer, and the one done by the Coventry Ordnance Works was chosen. The new QF (Quick Fire) howitzer entered service in 1909, replacing the old 5inch BL howitzer. In 1914 the British 4.5inch (114mm) Field Howitzer was perhaps the best piece in its class in the world. It weighed 1.368kg deployed and fired a 15.9kg HE shell to a maximum range of 7.5km. The design was simple and reliable. It had a box trail which allowed for 45° elevation, and it had 3° traverse to the left and right, and a steel shield which was sloped back to such a degree that a special hatch had to be made for the dial sight. Recoil was controlled by a so called variable-length hydro-spring system. Over three thousand had been built by the end of the Great War; New Zealand, Canada and Australia all received some. Also, in 1916 400 were sent to a hard-pressed Russia. 

For more info (including detail photos) on this gun, click here!

Contents of the kit:

Click on the picture for an enlarged version! 

The kit comes in a small illustrated card-board box, typical of Matador Models. It is cast in White Metal and consists of almost 20 parts. (Notice that the kit also contains a limber for this gun.) This is actually a good kit. It is accurate, and few details are missing. For instance, the kit includes a sight! And you can also find the small hand wheels used for elevation and traverse, and the traversing spike at the rear of the trail as well! The wheels themselves are well detailed. There are small amouts of flash to be trimmed off, but nothing dramatic.

My only complaint would be the barrel, which looks a litle bit overscale to me. But then again I am rather hard to please when it comes to Model Artillery! 

As always with Matador, the kit comes with a set of very good plans.

You can get this kit from Matador Models own site.

This is perhaps the best Artillery offereing from Matador Models this far, and a good kit it is. It will only require you to do some work in order to produce a very good replica of this important WW1 gun. Highly recommended! Oh, I wish that Matador would do more WW1 Artillery Pieces. They sure know how!