1/35 Dragon 105mm Howitzer M2A1 Vignette

[dmminiatures]

While I wait for many things to dry on the Shinmeiwa....and to reduce boredom, i though i would start working on this small diorama. I bought this kit a while ago and only partially build the kit (figures, a bit of the gun).

This "smart kit" is really good. i was not expecting that I got a turned barrel. the pieces have fine details, and the figures that comes with the kit are well cast too.



Some of the fine details offered by the kit





as the construction progress, its clear that this kit is going to be a winner.

[dmminiatures]

Some of the main sub assemblies: barrel, carriage, cradle, and the trail. again level of detail is amazing. no flash in sight. mold lines almost non visible and is very easy to scrape and clean.

[dmminiatures]

Inserting the sliding breech into the cradle. the lower part of the breech is a bit too wide and wont fit into the cradle. A simple 0,5mm cut to the lower of the breech using a cutter is all you need.

[Paul]

That one is going to be an interesting piece, Monty.

[dmminiatures]

Thanks Paul - need to sharpen my "other" modeling skills, not just planes. LoL. Any way, its been fun so far, kinda felt a bit relieved not doing any cockpit work haahaa.

Here is how the barrel, cradle, and carriage fits all nice and snugly.



And the trail gets to be glued too. at this point, construction is smooth. I did not follow 100% of the steps in the instruction sheet

[dmminiatures]

The idea was to do a small vignette of the gun with four crew members. like this staged image. I have constructed the crew many months ago because it was just the most easiest thing to do (havent cleaned the seams yet).



I have been scrounging for reference photos and I think I will have the vignette "somewhere in the Ardennes"

[dmminiatures]

progressing uneventfully with the Flat Black preshading



and progressively spray a mix of olive drabs, greens to a lighter shade to stimulate depth.



The shield will come later after i have done some weathering on the carriage, cradle, barrel, and other parts.

[dmminiatures]

Setting the gun aside, work continues on the base vignette. I use a thin Styrofoam to shape the contour and held it all together using PVA glue.



Next is applying the DAS paper mache using my fingers. I have a very rough sketch of what the dio will look like, but to in too much detail. eventually, I revisited my sketches and made alternate changes based on new findings or references materials i got.



what the surface looks like after covered with DAS paper mache. just need to wait to dry before I move on.

[lawman56]

Looks great so far! I love the figure poses, and wish they weren't in cold weather gear, or I would have grabbed the kit and used the figures for my Priest dio. I probably still could have, but didn't feel like modifying them to fit my time frame (early Spring 1944).

I've heard and read pretty good things about the Dragon "Smart Kits", but had no idea there was so much detail!

Can't wait to see how the whole thing comes together

[dmminiatures]

Thanks Joe, - Agree - these 'Smart Kits' are fabulous. I would buy another if I could get my hands on one.

I too had the early impression that I could make a vignette for spring or summer. But going back to the box after a while, i realized the only way I can make this work is if I build a winter dio. I have never done snow before, so this will be a challenge.

Another thing that caught me was the figure poses. I took the liberty to work on the figures FIRST right after I bought the kit and left it on the shelf of doom for months. I Found out many months later that the pose needs some adjustment if I wanted to show the soldiers in the right poses in serving the gun.

There are a lot of pictures out there in Google that shows the correct posing. Luckily for me, the modification are just on the arms. So the first thing I did was to dismantle them



...reposition them at a pose that would suite the need of serving the gun. I use internal copper wire that I super glued. and then fill the void with Tamiya epoxy putty.



The guy on the background is supposed to hold a round, but I see no purpose if having that. the figure is better suited in holding a phone in one hand and the breech block operating lever in the other.



In this image, the guy on the left (holding a 105mm round) also had its arm altered because the original pose just won't cradle the round.