Obsolete but better than nothing - Cannone da 149/35

In WW1, the Italians found themselves short of heavy artillery and were forced to rely upon some very old weapons. The Cannone da 149/35 was already obsolete when it was introduced in 1900. It lacked a recoil system and instead relied upon wooden ramps and a heavy box under the trail to handle the recoil. This forced the gun to be re-laid after each round making it very manpower intense and giving it a painfully slow rate of fire. However inadequate and obsolete, it was better than nothing. It was used throughout WW1 and the barrels continued to soldier on into WW2.

Vargas Scale Models recently released a resin 3D printed kit of this obscure artillery piece. The kit is nice. It is well printed in grey resin with minimal to no striations. The detail is good and there were no fit issues. The kit includes lots of ammo, ammo boxes, and gun tools to make a small diorama or vignette.

I was able to remove the parts from the supports, clean them up and assemble the kit in a single 5-hour build session. I use a Godhand resin nipper for removing the 3D supports. The kit was clean and well cured so no additional washing or curing was necessary. I assembled the kit using black “tire” CA from Bob Smith Industries (BSI), part number IC-2000. This is my go-to adhesive for resin kits now. It has better shear strength than the thin or medium CA’s and has just the right cure time to allow proper positioning. The fit was good, and no putty was used. I built the kit straight from the box.

I wanted to build this as an old, much used, but well-maintained weapon. I started by taking my Dremel tool with a small bur and added lots of gouges to the wooden ramps and trail box. Everything was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black and remaining striations and imperfections were sanded out. I airbrushed the ramps and boxes with Vallejo 70.834 Natural Wood followed by an application of Raw Umber oil paint. After a couple of hours in the model dryer, the excess raw umber was wiped off with a cotton swab to leave and wood grain appearance. I applied a thin coat of hairspray followed by a coat of XF-74 JGSDF OD. About half of this was then scrubbed off with a water dampened brush. Once dry, I sealed in this layer with Alclad Aqua Gloss and applied another layer of hairspray. I airbrushed a light, uneven coat of XF-73 JGSDF Dark Green and immediately scrubbed about half of that off with a water dampened brush.

The gun itself got a similar three-color hairspray treatment. I started with XF-65 Field Grey followed by hairspray and a light coat of LifeColor UA-213 Grigio Verde Charo for the base color. About a third of this was scrubbed off with a damp brush. This was then sealed with Alclad Aqua Gloss before applying hairspray and a light uneven coat of XF-76 IJN Gray Green. About half of this was then scrubbed off with a soft damp brush. It is a lot of steps and a lot of work, but this is the only technique I’ve found that yields that old, uneven beat-up look. After a dot filter of various Winsor and Newton oils, I did the detail painting before sealing it up with a final coat of Aqua Gloss.

I used the VMS Smart Chipping paint for the first time on this kit. I applied it with a sponge held in a cross lock tweezer then cleaned it up with a water dampened brush – sweet! I think I have a new go-to solution of chipping. I pin washed the details with AK Streaking Grime and cleaned it up with a make-up sponge and an old soft brush dampened with mineral spirits. I applied a bit of AK Track Wash along the metal edges and feathered with the damp brush. After a flat coat of Model Master Flat Lacquer, I lightly dry brushed the details with W&N Yellow Ochre and rubbed the metal edges with an HB pencil and some Uschi Chrome pigments. I applied a slurry of AK various pigments and mineral spirits to the wheel shoes and scrubbed most of that off after an hour in the model dryer.

All total, I put in 36 hours on this old beast - 5 hours to build and 31 to paint and weather. I’m happy with the kit and the results. I love that Vargas is doing these obscure subjects and hope that he keeps cranking them out.