Model Forum / General / Models / January 2006

While there are WW2 Russian, British and German artillery crew
available, I don't know of any US crewman in kit form. Nearest thing in
styrene for a WW2 diorama would be the figures from the TAMIYA 35086 US
MG and Mortar Team. You'd still need to do some modifications, of
course, but the radioman and another man holding his ears could be used
straight, and the guy dropping a shell into the mortar could become a
guy pulling the firing lanyard on the howitzer (Francois Verlinden used
these guys in a vignette using Tamiya's long-gone metal kit of the 75mm
pack howitzer). The guy loading a bazooka might be modified to shove a
round into the breech (with a little surgery). The bazookaman and
crouching machine gunners would probably be of little use, though.
For a later era (this weapon also served in Korea and Vietnam, and the
National Guard used it through the 1980's at least), the TAMIYA 35119
US 107mm Mortar & Crew has three figures in 1970's fatigue uniforms,
and the TAMIYA 35079 US Command Figure Set has three additional figures
in this uniform (plus a tank crewman). In Vietnam, the howitzer was
often seen with the gun shield removed.
A quick search on Great Models also brought up a resin US artillery
crew, but the period is not specified, and the four figures do come in
at a pricey $41 (and must be ordered from France).
Gerald Owens