Tuesday, 26 May 2020

QRF 15mm SFh 18

Unlike the Allies and Russians, the Germans didn't have an overabundance of medium and heavy artillery. Obviously they had some, but not on the same lavish scale as AGRAs, Breakthrough Gun Artillery Divisions etc. My 6mm Germans have plenty (including a Karl Moerser), and even my 20mm Germans have a K18 100mm gun so I thought it was time to get a heavy gun for my 15mm Germans, although I have been known to use WW1 Schneider 155s when th need arises - just as the Germans did.

So, I picked up a QRF 150mm heavy field howitzer.


Here it is, and it is quite a large piece, certainly compared to a 105mm Le FH. As with all the QRF guns, it came with a crew (four figures in this case, as is common with all their heavier guns). Unlike the Pak 38s, it required some assembly. It had a single piece trail, separate wheels and single piece gun mount and barrel. The pieces fitted well although I held it all together with blu tak while it dried.



View from the business end. 


And from the breech. There is better detail on this than the Pak 38s and I should maybe have given it a wash to run into the crevices. The crew are an assortment of figures, mostly carrying shells, one with a binocular range finder and they have a range of headgear (helmets, side cap, field cap).  

I am fairly sure they are the same as the crew which comes with the 88mm Flak 36, and one of them has a couple of ammo boxes on his base which is a nice touch (you can just see them in the photo).



View from the side. You can just see the figure with the range finder, I have one of these based separately to use as an FOO and it usually draws admiring glances. The gun itself I did in field grey with a liberal coat of dust  so it will do for the whole war. The crew I did in a mix of field grey and reed green. I should probably have filed down the peak on the field cap, but I couldn't be bothered.

One nice thing is that the gun itself is the version with the longer barrel without a muzzle brake, so it will also do nicely as a sub for a 100mm K18. K18s were sometimes pressed into service as bunker busters, or even improvised AT guns (as 6th Panzer did in 1941 when faced with T34s and KVs at Rasenei). 

2 comments:

  1. I like that. Useful to have.

    I guess in the war when the Luftwaffe as a tactical air arm was at its peak the lack of artillery was less of an issue and when they tide turned the deficit couldn't be fixed.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. It also reflects a different tactical approach, with more emphasis high tempo decentralised combat operations which precluded lavish (and slow) artillery fireplans.

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