Description
6 Inch Mk VII Cannon with British Crew, scale model kit Manufacturer: Strelets Serial number: A001 Material: Plastic Kit description: Unpainted, Unassembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue Condition: New in Box Catalog - made Russia Like all the participants at the start of World War I the British were expecting a war of mobility and set-piece battles such as had occurred during the Franco-Prussian War. Very quickly the war revealed its true nature as the lines of trenches on the Western Front became static, creating something very like a siege line stretching from Switzerland to the Channel. The British had nowhere near enough big guns for such an enormous challenge, and in the race to bring more heavy artillery to the front in 1915 they shipped a number of 6 inch guns mounted on field carriages to France, officially designated 'Ordnance BL 6-in. Mk. VII'. The 6 inch gun had seen service for many years on board ships and as a coastal defence weapon, and had first been used on land during the Boer War as an emergency expedient. However it suffered from poor elevation, and therefore range, so in 1917 an improved carriage, the Mark II, was substituted. Marks III, V and VI followed, each slightly improving the elevation, but while the weapon was useful it was heavy and by the later part of the war was being superseded by better, purpose-built guns, although it continued to serve in good numbers until the end of hostilities. We are not and never will be a site that reviews kits, so we will only briefly dwell on the gun in this set. Our picture of the gun is not to scale with those of the figures - the actual model is about 140mm in total length. It is a little simplified but broadly seems accurate, although the traction engine wheels look rather too thin to us. It is made up of 21 pieces which are supplied in a nice hard plastic but have immensely thick connections to the sprue, making removal difficult.
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