QRF 15mm 5.5" guns

While my 20mm and 6mm British are amply equipped with heavy artillery, my 15mm chaps are somewhat less well supported. As I'm apparently consolidating on 15mm as my scale of choice, I though it was time to get some heavier pieces than just 25pdrs. Purists look away now, but at a pinch they will also do quite nicely as Soviet heavy guns, the sort of thing to be found in Breakthrough Gun Artillery Divisions.

So, off went an order to QRF, purveyors of fine scale model artillery.

Here are the finished things, nice chunky models with a definite feel of the Airfix kit about them!

I'm normally a bit nervous about assembling metal guns as they can be exceedingly fiddly. Some manufacturers can be relied upon to go together well (Peter Pig) but others are a bit variable. These were nice and easy however, the trails fitted well in their locating lugs the barrel just squeezed in between the trunnions. 

There was very little flash, just a bit on the trails and a mould line on the barrel which came off easily enough. My Airfix 5.5." guns have gunmetal breech blocks, but I did a fair degree of looking at photos of real ones and painted seems to be far more common so I left them in the base colour. I particularly liked the detail on the tyres which drybrushed up very well.

I did try and source some bareheaded gunners in shirtsleeves, and while they are readily available in 20mm, it would have required a moderate amount of conversion in 15mm and in the end didn't bother. Serving a heavy gun in full battledress and fighting order does seem a bit odd, but hey ho. A couple of the supplied figures are in leather jerkins, which I thought was a nice touch. At the end of the day, they are figures in brown with green helmets, so from a distance will do as 'Russians' if need be.