The idea of manufacturing the British 6 pounder in the U.S. was expressed by the U.S. Army Ordnance in February 1941. At that time the U.S. Army still favored the 37mm Gun M3 and production was planned solely for lend lease. The U.S. version, classified as substitute standard under the designation 57 mm Gun M1, was based on the 6 pounder Mk 2, two units of which were received from the UK. However since there was sufficient lathe capacity the longer barrel could be produced from the start. Production started early in 1942 and continued until 1945 with over 15,000 eventually being produced. The M1A1 variant used US "Combat" tyres and wheels. The M1A2 introduced the British practice of free traverse, i.e., the gun could be traversed by the crew pushing and pulling on the breech, instead of solely geared traverse, from September 1942.

A more stable carriage was developed but not introduced. Once the 57 mm entered US service a modified towing point design was introduced (the M1A3) but only for US use.

About one-third of production was delivered to the UK.

Like the British Army, the U.S. Army also experimented with a squeeze bore adaptor (57/40 mm T10), but the program was abandoned.

American shell designs and production lagged behind the introduction of the gun once it was accepted for service and so at first only AP shot was available. The HE shell was not available until after the Normandy landings and UK stocks were procured to cover its absence.

Riich is certainly not the first company to produce this important gun in this scale, with Italeri probably being among the first to kit it. However, that is a bit long in the tooth and so a new tool gun is very welcome.

The kit is molded in several shades of grey and inspection showed no issues with sink areas, flash or ejector marks. There are plenty of ejector marks, but they will be hidden once the kit is built. A pair of photo etch frets is included for some of the finer detail parts. The kit also includes shells and ammo boxes. It is for these items that the decal sheet is provided.

There are some options with the kit. For instance, the gun barrel can slide back and forth on its carriage and also elevate. The viewing window in the armor shield can be modeled open or closed. One can also model the trails in the firing or the travel position. In fact, the kit comes with both 'combat' and 'civil' tires/wheels. The small supports that raise the wheels when in firing position can also be repositioned for travel. This is also true of the lower part of the gun shield. One needs to make some decision on how the model will be displayed fairly early in the build process.

As you'd expect, the detailing on the gun breech, the azimuth and elevation controls and the trails is excellent. Instructions are quite comprehensive and a bit crowded so one will need to cross off whatever steps have been done to be sure not to miss anything. Interestingly, one side of the box states not for children under 3 and the other says 14+ so I guess Riich has it all covered! 

This is yet another highly detailed and most welcome model from Riich. Those who are into towed artillery will be quite pleased with this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_QF_6-pounder

November 2014

Thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com for the review kit. You can find this kit at your favorite hobby shop or on-line retailer.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contactthe editor or see other details in the Note toContributors.

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