Although this is primarily a gun kit, it has been reviewed on this site thanks to the decent number of German crew figures included - decent, but not brilliant, for there could easily have been several more. The first pose looks to be reading either a map or notes, and the last, by virtue of apparently pointing at something, is probably meant to be the gun commander. That leaves a man carrying the rammer, another with a projectile and a generic pose covering his ears. Someone handling a charge or pulling the lanyard would have been nice, and there is no one to use any of the instruments on the gun itself either. What poses we do get all look authentic and are realistic thanks to a number of separate arms and tools, and they are quite lively too.

The figures, like the gun, are made in a hard plastic that is easy to glue. Where there are separate pieces these have a reasonable but not precise fit, leaving some scope for minor variations in positioning. The sculpting of the figures is a bit woolly, by which we mean the detail is not all that sharp, particularly on many of the hands, although it is there and adequately done. Unfortunately none of the figures have a base, but there is no flash or extra plastic.

Each figure wears the basic uniform and a minimum of kit so as not to interfere with the serving of the gun, which is good. They all have long boots and are carrying just their gas mask case and gas sheet. The latter is attached to the case strap on the chest - a practice that was mostly seen fairly early in the war, so these have something of an early war feel to them. The actual gas mask canister is a separate piece on all the men.

As usual we won’t spend much time on the gun itself. It is a '10 cm s.K. 10', which confusingly actually had a calibre of 10.5cm, and was widely used during the war, although it was not without its faults. It was developed at the same time as the 15cm s.FH18, and shared exactly the same carriage, so these two weapons look very similar. However the barrel length of this weapon is correct for the 10.5cm model, being about 75mm (5.4 metres) in total length, and the shells included in the kit (one of which is being held by one of the crew) are definitely of that calibre. The kit is really well done, with about 120 pieces that produce a very finely detailed model. The instructions are clear and everything went together perfectly without any need for trimming, so we found this kit a joy to make. Also included is the limber, with some indication in the instructions of how you might change the build depending on whether you want the gun in action or being transported. However, the gun barrel is fully retracted, so that implies this is really a model fit for transportation. Still to our inexpert eye this model looks authentic, but others may be able to comment better on particular details (note to fit the picture in the gun is shown above a little smaller than it should be relative to the figures).

Although air power was a very important method of delivering heavy destructive power to an enemy, heavy artillery also had an important part to play (not least when the weather precluded flying), so it is good to see some artillery crew figures like these. We thought the figures were accurate but the sculpting merely good rather than great, and the early war features may slightly limit their usefulness to some, but for all those large artillery pieces they will be essential.