Ace 1/72 10.5cm German Howitzer leFH 16

Overview

I couldn't find much on this piece, so here's the entirety of the Wikipedia entry:

"The 10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 (10.5 cm leFH 16) was a field howitzer used by Germany in World War I and World War II. It shared the same carriage as the 7.7 cm FK 16. Guns turned over to Belgium as reparations after World War I were taken into Heer service after the conquest of Belgium as the 10.5 cm leFH 327 (b)."

It's an interesting field piece in terms of longevity, but for more detailed information, well, I'll leave that up to the modeler to search out.

The Kit

Ace is pretty well known in the small scale armor world, and their latest subject covers an interesting field piece. Molded in light gray plastic, this kit includes both the gun and limber. There's not much to this howitzer, which is why there is only three small sprues. Overall, the detail is pretty good, although there is some rough edges that will need to be cleaned up. Although there are no decals provided, there are three schemes documented in the instructions.

Construction is pretty straightforward for both the howitzer and the limber. The limber is made up from just a handful of parts. The main carriage has separate walls, with a two-piece bed. The wheels are separate and the spokes will need a bit of work around the edges. The hooks on the arm and on the back end are separate pieces, which make for some challenging assembly, but for the most part it should go together pretty fast.

The gun is a bit more complicated than the limber, but it too should be a pretty quick build. The gun barrel is molded as one piece, but it is not hollow, so the more fastidious of us will want to drill that out. The chassis is made up from two main arms, with everything building upon this main assembly. The gun shield has one main piece, with two side parts and an inner shield piece. Like the limber, the wheels are separate and include spokes and hub.

For the painting options, there are three examples provided. The first is from the First World War, with the German Army in 1917. This one is painted overall Medium Gray. The other two are from the Second World War. One is from the 'Gebirgs Division', painted overall white in Yugoslavia in 1941. The other one is from the Atlantic Wall in 1944 and is painted in Panzer Gray overall.

Conclusion

This is a simple yet interesting model, and one which could provide a fun break from more traditional armor pieces. While some parts might be a bit rough around the edges, overall there is not that much effort required to build this into a nice field piece. My thanks to Scale Model Kits for the review sample.