Trux 1/76 6inch 26cwt Howitzer

The 6inch 26 cwt Howitzer was developed in 1915, in order to replace two earlier British models of the same calibre. It became the standard British medium howitzer. It had a simple and sturdy hydro-pneumatic recoil system. The standard grenade used was first a 45kg shrapnel shell, but this allowed only for a range of some 8.7km, but when a lighter shell was put into use (only 39kg) the range was increased to 10.4km. The guns first real debut came at the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. It was one of the few pieces that could be relied upon to really cut through the huge barbed wire obstacles and demolish the front-line enemy dug-outs. An indication of the importance of this gun, can be given by the fact that in November 1918 guns of this type hade fired some 22.4 million rounds on the Western Front alone.

For more info on this gun, click here!

Contents of the kit:

Click on the picture for an enlarged version!

The kit comes in a zip-lock bag and is made in very light greenish resin. It comes with a basic but perfectly usable plan. The moulding is first rate: very sharp, with no air bubbles to be found, the quality is almost Al.By.

The kit itself consists of some 10 parts. This is the the best 6inch kit available now, better than the the offering of  Matador. The reason is both the better mouldings and sharper details, and simply that this is a complete gun: you get all the important parts that was there in reality, including dial sight, and elevating and traversing wheels. The accuracy is good, compared with plans in Tankette no. 30/1.

There is only one problem, and that is that the kit portrays the 6inch howitzer in its Mk2 WW2 guise, with modern type rubber wheels. If you want to do it you have to backdate it, replacing the rubber type wheels with the spoked tree variety used in the Great War. As these are pretty unusual in shape, I think that the best bet is to take them from the Matador kit. Also, the simple mechanical brakes used on the older types of wheels are lacking, and again can be taken from the Matador kit.

This kit can be bought through Trux themselves.

This is a very fine artillery kit, almost on par with Al.By:s offerings. It requires some kit bashing, however, if you want the WW1 variant. Highly recommended!