Leaving LZ Vegas / 155 mm Howitzer M114A1

Howitzer is now complete 

Breech, lock and hot red barrel (just primed with red) 

Barrel subassembly, parts of upper carriage and sighting mechanism 

 

Tyres painted and most of the gun itself complete 

Gun and carriage both almost complete but yet separate. Xtracrylix flat varnish gave satin sheen? 

Ammo and charge canisters painted and decaled 

Overall view. Sergeant lits smoke while waiting on radio, with pistol holster on top of radio box. His men pack unspent shells with his M-16 nearby. 

Aiming post (tall red-white rod on foreground) is not quite vertical, I see. There were two on the kit, but both were in stowed position. I left one on the right arm of the carriage and sawed the other off and glued it together. 

One shell ready to fire. Again, not very realistic as it has fuse on while in real life they would have screwed correct fuse on only after knowing what they were firing on. 

Figures are from Masterbox but depict WW2 artillery crew. So I had to modify them a bit. 

It took me a while to understand why Vietnam artillery pictures had this circular trench dug around the gun. At that point I already had constructed the base so trench is not perfect, unfortunately. 

 

 

 

Breech kept open is not very realistic but I wanted to show the lock 

Packing unspent shells for transportationg while still maintaining readiness to fire 

While waiting on the horn for final signal to leave, sergeant lights a smoke