Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $39.95 This is Trumpeter's continuation of releasing kits of the same type just before or just after Dragon releases it. I believe its good competition for both manufacturers. The question is, which choice for the modeler? Trumpeter's kit comes in a 9"x 12"x 2" box that has art work showing the gun being towed by a Sd.Kfz. 7 prime mover. Since Trumpeter printed no lettering on the box art itself you could conceivably cut it out and frame it if you felt so inclined. Contained in the box are six light gray sprues individually wrapped consisting of 257 pieces. Along with this you are supplied with four rubber tires (2 wide and 2 thin), one turned aluminum barrel, two brass sleeves for the elevation struts, 100mm's of chain, and two separately molded support arms that are molded on three sides and left hollow on the bottom. Trumpeter also supplies a 16 page instruction manual and an 8-1/2"x 11" color profile showing all five views (left, right, top, front, and rear.) in a standard dark gray finish. The detail is very crisp but there is some flash in closely molded areas of some pieces. No decals are provided and a very brief history is printed on the sides of the box only. I do not know yet if the gun can be assembled to allow both firing and travel configurations or just one configuration but I will let you know during the Build Review. A few months ago my son graduated Army basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and while I was there I visited the Ordnance Museum where one of these 15cm guns was on display. Unfortunately I only took one photo of it knowing that it was too much of an obscure subject for anybody to release a kit of and instead concentrated on burning up mega pixels taking tons of photos of the German towed 88mm, M7 Priest and M31 that were also on display there. Then it figures that Dragon and Trumpeter would release this kit almost simultaneously (kicking myself in the butt). It's just the way it goes sometimes I guess. There is a full build review coming soon. See also, on the IPMS Review website, a review of the extensive Griffon Models Update Set for this kit.

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