M1897 75mm Field Gun (French)
"The French Mademoiselle"

You can tell a lot about an artillery piece by their nicknames. M1897 has more than any other field piece that I know of: "The French 75", "The French Mademoiselle"; "Soixante-Quinze" or simply "The 75". It is also the only artillery piece I know of to have its very own cocktail - Champagne and Cognac.

This was a revolutionary artillery piece and is the first modern cannon.
It could accurately fire 15 rounds per minute and 30 rounds per minute for short periods with a good crew.

For such a famous cannon, it has been poorly represented in 1:35 scale. IBG came to the rescue with their excellent kit. I built this straight from the box. It was primed with Krylon rattlecan flat black and painted with Tamiya. I used W&N oils, and AK enamel weathering products. I chose to depict it in the American Expeditionary Forces 3-color camouflage scheme (black was considered a shade not a color).

All in all, this is a nice addition to my collection.