British 25 pdr. Field Gun

Manufacturer:ESCI (Kit #8045; ESCI/Ertl #8354; Revell/ESCI #H2345)

This wasanother quick-build that I wanted to build right from the boxwith little or no alteration on my part. The level of detail onthis cannon was superb, making it a perfect candidate for aquick-build.

The detailis extremely fine, with ample number of rivets, boxes, cables,and all sorts of things that I cannot identify. Another reasonfor me building this straight from the box is my lack ofreference material on this gun. Consequently, I have no idea onthe scale or detail accuracy of the kit.

Althoughthe construction was very straightforward in theory, the actualexecution was not so smooth. The left and right support arms,which extend back from the cannon mount, have a large attachmentpoint at their rear, and pinch the cannon between them at thefront. When gluing these together, I lined them up from the rear,and made sure that they fit nice and snug, but the result wasthat the front was very crooked. Due to this one misalignment,the wheel axle is crooked, the gun had to be glued on an angle soas not to appear crooked, and one of the gun shield supports hadto be lengthened to avoid the shield going on crooked (whenviewed as perpendicular to the gun). So... when you build yourkit, do not glue the two support braces together at the rear,until you have the front pieces all lined up and glued togetherappropriately.

The gunhas two options for the muzzle, one is the twin baffle muzzlebrake which I used, and the other is a barrel extension with nomuzzle brake. I went for the double baffle for its wickedly goodlooks, but the fit was not good, and the barrel required somere-shaping with putty immediately aft of the muzzle brake. Themuzzle opening at the end was also off-center, so it needed to befilled and re-drilled.

Alsoincluded with this kit is an ammunition trailer, which has thesame excellent level of detail seen on the cannon. There arespare ammo boxes, some separate pioneer tools to be glued to thetrailer and the gun shield, and some cannon shells andcartridges. There are also six excellent crew figures includedloading the gun and handling the ammunition. They are very wellmolded and detailed, and dressed for the Eighth Army in Afrika(or Southeast Asia, too, I guess). The box art on the ESCI boxshows the ammo trailer with its doors open and ammunition inside,but the kit does not provide for open doors. They would have tobe scratch-built, along with the inside of the trailer.

Theinstructions were very good, except it shows the trailer hitch tobe attached upside down. There are no decals included, but I'mnot sure if these guns had any markings. I painted my cannon in adesert tan color (Testors Acryl - excellent paint!) and sprayed alighter colored tan dust for weathering.

Postscript: After I first posted this review, I received a mail from Mark Thomas with someexcellent information. These guns were painted a sand color foruse in the Mediterranean, while in Italy and Europe it waspainted overall green, or with a brown/khaki-brown camouflage.The perforated muzzle brake which I used was seen onlate-production guns ('44 onwards), which means that I screwed upon mine (should be green only). Apparently these guns did notsport any markings, and for those of you planning on doing ajungle diorama, the Aussies liked to shorten the gun barrel andaxles, to assist in jungle movement. Thanks for the great info,Mark!