ALAN'S 1/35 GERMAN SIG 33 HOWITZER MSRP: $12.95 By Ray Mehlberger

HISTORY

The series production of artillery pieces of this type began in 1933. Eventually each infantry company of every Wehrmacht infantry regiment was armed with two.

WHAT IS IN THE BOX?

Hot on the heels of the BISON II kit by Alan (which your's truly reviewed in the February issue) is this new kit of just the SIG 33 weapon on its wheeled carriage.

A little bit of deja vu sets in here, because one of the parts trees and the decal sheet are common to this kit and the previous BISON II.

The parts trees don't have letter codes...but all the parts are numbered. The first tree that is in both kits holds the gun barrel, gun trail, ammo boxes, two sizes of ammo, breech block etc. (85 parts here) Because this tree was also used for the Bison, you get extra parts...not used for the wheeled version of the cannon. These are some ammo bin parts, six jerry cans, the gun shield (you get a new., different one this time) and two Bison road wheels...so these are all candidates for the spares box.

The new tree of parts holds the carraige parts, the outer and inner wheel and tire sections (this puppy had double tires on each rim), a new shield piece, ground spade parts, and some odd looking rockets (these intrigue me...as I know zilch about them in conjunction with this weapon), etc. The cannon can be set up with two different options...with the trail set up to be towed...or in firing condition. These options are carefully called out on the instructions. (65 parts on this new tree)

I noticed an error on the instructions. The ammo box bottoms are called out as part no. 82, but on the parts trees they are numbered as no. 83!! No. 83 on the parts trees is actually one of the two sizes of ammo rounds given. So be forewarned here.

The small decal sheet is identical to the one in the earlier Bison kit...as previously mentioned. It holds stencil markings...in white for the ammo...stencils for the lids of the ammo boxes...a divisional marking of a white moose head (anybody know what unit that was??)....the woman's name "Uta"...Afrika Korp palm tree and swastika...and a azimuth chart.

The instructions is a single sheet, four page folder. Page one gives the history of the cannon in Russian, German, English, and Japanese. Pages 2 through the top of page 4 gives us 10 assembly steps. The bottom of page 4 is the decal and painting drawings.

Conclusion

This looks to be a excellent little kit for the money. A gun crew to go with it would have been nice though. Like I said earlier, I wish I knew more about those two rockets that are provided. There are two stabilizing fins to glue to each of them too in step 6 of the instruction sheet. The long tubes behind their warheads appear to me to have to go down the barrel of the cannon?? Anyone know the answer?

Highly recommended.