Dragon

1/35 105mm Howitzer M2A1 & Carriage M2A1

Kit Number: 6499

Reviewed by  Andrew Birkbeck, IPMS# 27087

MSRP: $27.95 Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com This kit consists of three plastic sprues of parts, together with a sprue of parts for four GIs, along with one turned-aluminum barrel part. The parts are extremely well detailed, with no flash or ejector pin marks present. Half the parts on sprue B are "not for use" with this kit, clearly indicating that Dragon plans to release a kit of the later M2A2 variant of this very important U.S. howitzer, which served with little modification from WWII until the Vietnam War. Despite the fine quality of the kit parts, the whole process of building the model is somewhat let down by less-than-perfect instructions. However, thanks to your esteemed reviewer, dear reader, you will have at your fingertips the blueprint for a (hopefully) trouble-free build. Let us now journey on and build this fine kit! Starting naturally enough with section 1, the modeler should be very careful with the gluing together of the turned-aluminum barrel tip, to parts A4 and A27. There is some "play" with the fit here, and care should be taken to avoid a mis-aligned barrel unit. The two-part breech lock, parts A6 and A7, provide the modeler with a potential problem, as they can’t be installed in anything other than the closed position, because the release handle is molded integrally with part A23 to indicate the "closed" position. Also note that once you have glued parts A23 &A24 together, you are left with a heavy seam that needs filling and filing smooth. This will destroy the raised detail on these parts. So carefully remove said detail beforehand with a sharp scalpel blade or razor blade, and reinstall after the seam has been dealt with. It also appears from my research online that part A16 is the firing mechanism for the gun and therefore is minus its firing lanyard. Use an appropriate material such as very fine wire or stretched sprue and study some detail photos of the weapon to produce your own lanyard if desired. Note that when assembling the gun slide, using parts A42 and A43 from section 1, together with A13 and A14 from section 2, you will be left with a tiresome and difficult to sand seam running down the trough. One can very carefully try to sand this out, or can apply a suitably cut strip of very thin Evergreen plastic and lay it the length of the trough, per a tip a friend gave me. Also be careful in sections 1 and 2, that you attach parts A41 and A28 at the same angle of incidence. Moving onto section 2, you will have to decide whether you will build your howitzer positioned in the towing mode, or the firing mode. You will see in the top right hand section of the instructions here, a little side diagram titled "For Fire Position," and listing part B2 with two blue tabs poking out of it. The instructions indicate that these are to be cut off part B2, but also indicate that this is optional. What is really going on here is that these tabs are to be left in place for the towed set up of the kit, but removed for the firing set up. Also while talking about part B2, note that parts A11, A8 and A33 should be glued together and then set aside for later positioning. You will note that the screw section of part A8 needs to mesh nicely with part A10 in section 3, so best to glue the three-part unit on in Section 3. Section 3 finds us attaching the gun shield to the rest of the gun. You will need to be extremely careful removing parts A17/18 and A25/26 from the sprue, as they are very fragile. Glue them first to the gun shield then carefully to the gun carriage, diligently checking the instructions for positioning. Note the back of part B4 has an opening in it, which needs to be blanked off with some plastic cardstock. In section 4, the wheels (C9/C10) have some play when trying to align with the parts B24/C11-12, so care should be taken to make sure things line up correctly, or your model will look cockeyed. In addition, from what I could glean from research on the Internet, the wheels should be a scale 40 and a bit inches, but in fact measure around 38 inches, so are on the small side. Is 5% off too much for you to stomach? It wasn’t for me. And make sure you try and study photos of the real howitzer to get a feel for exactly where parts C6/7 should be positioned. Moving on to section 5, you will note that part C22 is the gun’s aiming stakes. These therefore should be painted red and white, if one is going to be truly accurate. However, note that the stakes are "mounted" to something as part of part C22, but I am not sure what it could be? Also, if the gun is to be in the firing position, perhaps part C22 shouldn’t be attached to the model, although the box art shows a howitzer being fired, and the stakes are clearly attached to the gun?? Parts C15 and C16 can be attached incorrectly if you aren’t careful (don’t ask), so be careful to study the final diagrams in section 6 to try to see how they fit properly, or better yet, photos of the real howitzer. Also note parts C13, and parts C5. If the gun is to be built in the towing position, the pins, C5, should be installed per the instructions. If, however, you wish it to be built in the firing position, then install the pins in the second set of holes at the tip of parts C13. Then on to part C27: the instructions show this installed in the towing position, pointing downwards. If building the model in the firing position, install the part pointing upwards. Too late was this discovery made to help me with my review model, you will note! Regarding the crew supplied with this howitzer. It apparently comes from a previously-released 101st Airborne set, with some newly molded arm parts to better represent field artillerymen. One comment I read on the Internet is that these are not quite accurate for artillerymen, so check your sources if building a diorama with these guys loading and firing the weapon. There you have it then, a very nice model somewhat let down here and there by unclear instructions. But since you are smart enough to regularly visit the IPMS/USA website and look for the excellent build reviews found there, you are forewarned, and forearmed! My sincere thanks to Dragon Models USA for providing IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build this model for review.