M545 203mm Self-Propelled Howitzer

I Love Kit, 1/35 scale

Reviewed by Cookie Sewell
 

Summary

FirstLook

In the early 1950s the US Army decided it wanted a more flexible force structure to respond to varying situations, also taking into consideration the fact that any new war could well be nuclear in scope. Dubbing this force the “Pentomic” army, it was based on a structure of fives – five battle groups in a division that were relatively equal in strength backed up by a division core with heavy artillery and rocket artillery for direct support.

In regard to artillery, they selected five new vehicles to fit the force structure: a new twin 40mm AA gun for the air defense (M42), a new 105mm SP howitzer (M52), a new 155mm SP howitzer (M44), a new 155m SP gun (M53) and a new 8 inch SP howitzer (M55). The first three were based on the chassis of the M41 light tank and the last two on the running gear of thje M47 medium tank. Prototypes of those two, the T97 155mm and T108 8 inch, came out in 1952 and were immediately placed in production and standardized. Since they were “raw” a lot of modification work orders followed to make them suitable for use.

The US Army soon decided it only wanted the 8 inch version and began converting its M53 guns into M55s; the Marine Corps kept the M53 in service. This only required swapping gun barrels and inside stowage in the turret to accomplish. Some 550 were built and most were fielded in 12 gun battalions (three batteries of four each). They were also the first divisional artillery weapon to be nuclear capable (the “Davy Crockett” rockets were battalion level infantry support).

While they met all of the criteria they were developed to meet they were big and heavy as well as short-ranged with a road range of only 150 miles. By the 1960s they were being replaced by the newer M110 series 8 inch SP weapons which were diesel powered and much lighter. Both the M53 and M55 served in Vietnam along with the M110s.

In the late 1950s Renwal released a kit of the M55 as the “Big Shot with an interior and working features, touting it as “drawn from US Army blueprints”. It was not bad for its day but was based on early prototypes with a muzzle brake (dropped from production weapons) and some odd features. It came with a crew of six (all with the traditional Renwall “sucking chest wound” gaps in the figures!) and around 140 parts. Markings were spurious but at that time most kids did not care and it was fun to build.

There have been one or two resin ones and an HO scale one from ROCO but this is the first kit in styrene of the “Steam Shovel“ as it was nicknamed to come out. Externally it is quite complete and detailed but to my surprise the interior of the turret – very open and obvious when the four big hatches are opened – is not there. The model comes with a single ammo locker for stowage, but as I Love Kit also made a kit of the M53 155mm this part is from that kit as a holdover. Missing are the ammo handling components, gun breech, driver’s position, and actual stowage for 10 rounds of 203mm ammo and charges as well as any crew kit.

Construction starts with the lower hull and the very detailed suspension. Each wheel set consists of five parts – two wheels, two tires and a vinyl cap. The leading two suspension arms consist of five parts and each station has a bump stop. No clue as to why the road wheel roll, because none of the others do and the tracks being link and length are not flexible!

All lockers and the engine deck grills are separate parts but the engine deck is solid; with some effort it is possible to fit the power plant block from the old Italeri M47 kit under them if desired but it will take some serious cutting and trimming. All of the engine deck grill handles are separate parts and there are a lot of them.

The travel lock can be made to fold, but the upper section of the lock is not moveable.

 The big lovely turret shell is empty and all that is provided for the gun is a rocker mount (B22) with provision for the mount used to hold the canvas mantelet cover off the direct fire sight (C63). You do get a vinyl cover to cement over the mantelet mounting. The large hatches at the rear are positionable but there is nothing to show if left open; ditto the side hatches. The spade may be left moveable as well.

 Two sets of markings are included: “Tiny Tim”, gun A-4, 3-6 Field Artillery, I Corps Vietnam (olive drab overall); and “Eve of Destruction”, USMC Vietnam (olive drab overall). I do not have specific information if the latter one was Marine Green or not.

In summary, this is a very nice kit which is only let down by the lack of any details inside the turret.

Sprue Layout:

-              16           Vinyl keepers

A             115x2    Running gear, handgrips, locks, details

B             29           Upper hull, turret details

C             83           Spade details, turret details, road wheel arms, details

E              4              Gun barrel and travel lock

F1           1              Lower hull

F2           1              Turret shell

GP          8             Clear styrene

PE-A      98           Etched brass

PE-B       4              Etched brass

V2           1              Gun mantelet cover

TR           26x2       Link-and-Length Tracks