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1:35 Academy M-12 155mm Gun Motor Carriage
OOB
Paints: Golden Fluid Acrylics, Vallejo Model Color, Gunze
Metalizer
Weathering: Sennelier, MIG, Doc O’Brien Pigments; AK
Streaking Grime; Salt
Warning: if WWII artillery use bores the reader, one may
wish to skip to the pics.
The Subject:
Despite a decade of diplomatic crisis and five years of war
first in Asia and then in Europe, the US was ridiculously unprepared for war in
December 1941. Fortunately, during the lean budget years after 1919 the US
armed forces were very well served by some very good officers who saw the shape
of a future war with unusual clarity. Most never saw combat and are little
known outside military circles. (Adna Chafee is the best example but there were
many others. Douglas MacArthur saw the future very well and escaped historic
oblivion only by freakish luck.) Because of their work when American rearmament
did begin after May 1940 US forces were to be characterized by full
mechanization, clouds of aircraft (fortunately of all types), excellent
communications and robust logistics even if it came at the expense of some
tactical finesse. Above all the US embraced the phrase coined by General
Petain: “Fire kills.” In WWII “fire” meant artillery.
American artillery was the world’s best. There was a lot of
it and this was an arm that could make good use of, at the time, the world’s
best educated population. Rommel knew this I think better than anyone after the
Kaserine campaign. US forces had stumbled badly in some engagements but the rapid
employment of US defensive indirect fire (the toughest job in the artillery
world of that era) led Rommel to warn that Germany was facing a new kind of
enemy. The vaunted and feared German tactical counter-attack, so successful so
often, became a dangerous game indeed against American forces. This fact, more
than any other explains why German casualties almost certainly equalled those
of the Western Allies after 1943 despite the excellent defensive positions
usually held by the Wehrmacht. In comparison, the Red Army had to pay a far
higher blood tax to crush the Wehrmacht.
The American and American-armed British Army were completely
mechanized. Ironically, this led initially to doubts of requiring a
self-propelled medium howitzer. (The Germans had little doubt and found their
Hummel of great value.) The reason was that US commanders simply assumed that
towed guns, employing indirect fire, would do the job nicely and so they did.
Officers were also correctly concerned that a motorized 155mm howitzer would
carry only a very limited ammo load. In the event, most M-12s had duplicate
M3-based ammunition carriers. One should also consider that WWII was a “work in
progress” throughout and finding the right balance between speed, firepower,
logistic friction and proper doctrine entailed a lot of guesswork. (The need
for a mobile 105mm was seen immediately and the “Priest” served with
distinction in all theaters.) Wartime
officers also frequently made good use of confusion - if a question was up in
the air, why not give it a try? (This was another factor noted by Rommel
concerning Americans. He was sobered on how quickly US units improved in early
1943.) Because of the inevitably uneven stream of production and training requirements in early 1943 the Army found
itself with a surplus of 155mm howitzers, a surplus of M-3 Grant/Lee platforms
that were obviously not the future for tank warfare. The result was the
construction of about 120 M-12 Motor Gun Carriages which mounted the tried WWI
era 155mm howitzer with the growingly obsolete M-3 platform. In training the
weapon showed promise and a few dozen were sent to Italy. There the Army found
that a German “strongpoint” of which there were many, could sometimes be best
attacked by direct fire 155mm rounds. And, if need arose, the M-12 was always
ready for standard indirect fire missions. Hence the remaining M-12s, about 80
altogether, accompanied the Army to France in 1944.
Any earlier doubts about the use of a big gun in an armored
carriage disappeared when US forces ran into German fortifications near the
Rhine. Hitler had ordered a serious strengthening of German positions and
concrete emplacements were built by the hundreds and could withstand a near
miss from artillery or aerial bombardment. When US forces were advancing, a
very small number of such places could seriously slow operations and raise
casualties. Hence, Army Corps were given a quota of M-12s to be near the
armored spear points to deal with exactly such targets. And, as a 155mm round
weighed 100 lbs, it could defeat all but the largest fortifications in short
order. I do not know if Americans had a nickname for this weapon, but one
source claimed the Germans called it “King Kong.” One could see why. The impact
of a shell of that size at low trajectory and close range would have caused a
very serious ear ache. Many bunkers surrendered after the first round was
fired. The Army liked the M-12 so well that by war’s end the much improved M-40
was in deployment.
The Kit & Build:
Academy can be hit or miss. Their M-12 is a solid hit. In
general the fit was excellent. There is no PE but the detail was adequate for
my world. There were two types of road wheels. (As is often the case, the
perfectly good instructions, gave the modeler no clue as to which variation went
with what. I copied the box art.) Because Academy also makes a Grant there were
several extra gizmos that could have been added to the kit or to the spare box.
Tracks fit very well and struck me as looking the part, but with the model I
had in mind, it wouldn’t matter. There is a simple but serviceable interior
which I installed and displayed. (You’ll really have to come to my house to see
it though: even with the hatches open, it’s not easy to photograh.) There was
little flash, but building an Academy reminds one why armor fans like Dragon. I
used no putty, but there was plenty of sanding. The only real problem was
driver error amplified by poor instructions. The rear end of the M-12, if
deployed for fire, employed a cable/pulley system to raise or lower the
“spade.” Ideally this system should be rigged through the pulleys provided.
Here’s where you wanted Dragon. The pulleys are made up of a casing over the
pulley itself: small parts all. There was no reason to glue the pulleys
themselves: I think the instructions should have made that clear. If you did
glue all parts together, because there’s almost no clearance, the modeler is
not going to string thread or very thin wire through them. A better modeler
would have anticipated the problem. I didn’t. I could have come up with a
better fix than the simple kludge employed (simply rigging the braces - looks
fine from two feet) but was under very serious time pressure. We were leaving
for St. Paul the night I finished and it was quite by midnight or “else.” So
some fine points were missed. I had intended to scratch a tarp, some sandbags
and (no joke) cartons of cigarettes and bottles of French wine - can’t imagine
an American AFV on the Rhine in late 1944 without any of these things. Actually
there was another night worth of little things I would have done. Next time.
I used Golden Fluid acrylics again - really beginning to
like using paint that has splendid color, is wonderful with a paint brush and
you could eat without harm. That meant I to make my own colors. According to US
armor guru Steve Zaloga and USAAF color/markings expert Robert Archer the olive drab employed on US
AFVs was the same as that specified for USAAF aircraft in early 1943. Few US
aircraft received the treatment as command decided to switch to metal finish.
But Archer did provide two very good color samples in his volume on USAAF
markings and colors. The color, at least to my eyes, is a little lighter than
the Tamiya Oliver Drab that Zaloga recommends. (Might note that Zaloga
recommends lightening OD with yellow for scale so his kits don’t show the same
color as Archer’s samples.) The color is simple: black and ochre. However
because of the painting and weathering process the only place where you can see
the color used is on the inside of the open hatches.
I primed the kit with Golden carbon black which is gloss and
extraordinarily opaque. There followed a base of OD and two progressively
lighter shades. In between each coat after priming I salted the surface. I like
salt weathering a lot. In the real world, salt leaches pigments from paint -
something that has bugged sailors for a very long time. The same thing happens
on a model paint. In addition, there is a kind of chipping effect. The result
is a washed-out, mottled surface. That’s what I wanted. As Zaloga pointed out,
many US vehicles sat for over a year before deployment. Unlike German crews, US
tankers had no paint with them and if any repainting was done it would have
happened at the rear. And that rarely happened. So if a AFV wasn’t knocked out
of action, it would have been seriously faded by war’s end. All M-12s were
built in 1943 - the weapon I was trying to recreate was one of the vehicles
near the Rhine in late 1944 or early 1945 where the weapon was of most use. I
employed a general AK wash and used two of
their “streaking grime”colors for both pinwashes and streaking. Chipping
was done with Vallejo Model Color paints. I also used extremely fine Sennelier
pigments for most of the mud and a kind of “dusting” at the end. I used both
MIG and my old Doc O’Briens so it was an interesting contrast. For simple
pigments I like the Doc’s stuff because it adheres a little better - it might
be ground artist chalk. MIG is pricey but certainly works. The Sennelier is
incredibly fine - it’s designed artists to make their own oils and Sennelier
makes some of the best paints on the planet. (Might add that the pigments I
used were much cheaper than MIG per volume. The fine US paint maker Gamblin
makes a wide array of paint pigments which I’m going to try. Like all art
supply companies they don’t seem to consider the modeling market big enough to
pursue. Doc O’Brien are cheaper yet and a long time Micro-Mark offering for
model railroaders.)
A late 44-early 45 vehicle fighting in NW Europe would also
have been extremely untidy. NW Europe has some of the best farmland on earth -
that comes from lots of water and extremely rich soil. A cursory look of photos
of allied AFVs fighting during this period shows mud all over the place as
shown below. I did chip the kit quite a bit, but from what I know of US AFVs
they had a very sturdy finish. So fading certainly made sense, mud ditto, some
chipping but almost no rust. Your mileage may vary. Pics below:
Eric
M-12s in NW Europe late in war:
Golden Carbon Black Prime:
M-12 after all base coats and salt:
Finished M-12
