DML 1/35
15cm s.IG.33 Infantry Gun w/Simplified Shield - Smart Kit

DML has now released its excellent 15 cm Infantry Howitzer as a separate kit via its cyber-hobby.com affiliate. What they have done is provide the complete kit with a new set of wheels (rubber tired) and the complete gun crew from kit No. 6201 (the Karl mortar crew of six figures) with some extra arms that are more suitable to the smaller howitzer.

The howitzer comes complete on five sprues with the new rubber tired wheels included separately. As before it is a nicely molded kit with a number of options and a turned aluminum barrel. The wheels are “slide molded” with the nice touch DML uses of attaching the wheels to the sprues at the outer edges, making cleanup a snap.

The model also includes eight rounds of ammunition and four woven carrier packs, as well as the woven mats for the wheels in position. DS propellant bags are also included, but the directions provide absolutely zero information for using them or how to pose all of the extra bits.

The crew consists of six “Gen1" figures of six parts each (head, torso, arms and legs) and a plethora of arms to permit positioning them as the modeler sees fit. One new sprue of seven arms includes items such as the short ramrod used to seat the round in the breech and arms more suitable for use with a howitzer where the crew can pick up the ammunition!

The project was supervised by Hirohisa Takada and technical assistance was provided by Tom Cockle and Gary Edmundson. Artwork is by Ron Volstad.

Finishing is somewhat simple: your choice of grey or sand. A small sheet of Cartograf decals with battery piece callouts (e.g. guns A-G) is provided. Alas, the original figure painting directions were by Ron Volstad but here are transposed into blue, white and grey.

Overall this is a nice idea and should go over well with artillery fans.

Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.

Sprue layout

• A 64 s.IG. 33 lower carriage
• B 24 s.IG. 33 cradle and upper carriage
• C 26 s.IG. 33 cradle and breech
• C 29 s.IG. 33 ammunition and details (and shield)
• D 10x2 s.IG. 33 wheels and fasteners
• K 3 s.IG. 33 auf Pzkw. I clear sights
• L 4 DS plastic 15 cm shell carriers
• 6 DS plastic woven mats
• MA 3 etched brass
• 6201A 73 Karl-Geraet Crew (six figures)
• 6201B 7 Seven arms
• MD 1 turned aluminum barrel