Mlle. Soixante-Quinze

The Matériel de 75mm modèle 1897, aka the French 75 was a field gun used in conflicts starting from around the time of it's introduction, and all the way into WWII.

The first 1/72 models of the gun were in resin [and metal?], but it wasn't until the HäT versions were released that models finally appeared in plastic (albeit the rubbery stuff that HäT seems to prefer nowadays).

The two HäT sets include French and American guns with caissons, and differ only in the color of the plastic and the nationality of the crew.

When assembled, the abattage (wheel anchors) are fixed in the travel position, but few will probably notice this detail. The gun shield also seems to be at more of an angle than it should be.

The first injection plastic kit of this gun was from MAC, but it is pretty rough for an injection kit.

The model includes pneumatic wheels and a German crew, neither of which I have any use for.

Clean-up of the pieces and carving out the barrel rollers from the solid piece of plastic at the end of the barrel was made easy by the soft consistency of the plastic.

I found the assembly instructions to be somewhat vague because it relied mainly on one angle to show all the steps.

Pictures of the assembled model on the MAC website, were not very helpful, as it seems to be a different (prototype?) kit (different tow ring, different wheels, fewer/missing parts), and it had the gun shield attached the wrong way.

I was trying to figure out how part 7 was positioned, since the instructions only show it viewed from the rear of the model.

In fact, the only gun I was able to find with this feature (some sort of canvas bag) was from a display in the National Museum of the Marine Corps, so I'd suggest not attaching the part at all in most cases.

The body of the gun carriage is made of a nice firm resin. Holes need to be drilled into it for the metal axle rod and hand wheels. Some plastic pieces are also included for this part, but are not used in the build.

There should be a v-shaped notch here...

The front of the carriage forces the barrel to be in an elevated position. Some of the resin needs to be removed if the model is to be displayed with the barrel in a horizontal or depressed position.

No real location is indicated for the seats either (I may have attached them too far back?).

The metal axle needs to be clipped so that it protrudes by 7mm on each side, and a bit of putty is needed to fill in all the imperfections in the trail.

A really nice feature of this kit is that the abattage looks like it can be assembled in either raised or lowered configurations (I'm going for the later). A shield for the sight will also need to be scratchbuilt.

The most recent injection kit of this gun comes from First to Fight, and is identified as a "75mm wz. 1897 Schneider". From all appearances though, it is the Canon de 75mm Mle 1897.

The majority of sources I've looked at attribute manufacture of these guns to Atelier de Puteaux rather than Schneider. In addition, many sources attributing the guns to Schneider simultaneously claim that manufacture occurred at Atelier de Bourges, which was another state run arsenal.

It has a lot of very delicate parts, and care needs to be taken when cleaning them up. The abattage looks as if it is supposed to be built in the travel position, but I think it would be easy enough to convert it to the anchored position.

The model itself, is a lot smaller than either the HäT or MAC guns. If the two other kits are accurate in size, the First to Fight model has dimensions that range anywhere from 1/76 all the way down to 1/87.

I was so disappointed in the disparity in size, that I did not bother completing my build.

For the following comparison shots, the HäT parts are blue, MAC are tan, and FTF are green.

According to the stats given at Wikipedia,
the length should be 37.3mm in 1/72 scale.

The carriage and trail of the FTF kit is also a lot shorter (by about 8mm) and narrower than that of the other kits.

The trail is assembled from two halves, and will need a lot of putty to hide the seam, or it will give the appearance of having a split trail.

S.M.G. Runa

Over Dard (オーバーダード aka Hiroshi Satou; 佐藤弘) is known for his sculpts of ero-figures with chestal regions of improbable proportions. His professional work has primarily been on large scale PVC and polystone figures, but recently due to what seems to be an interest in Girls und Panzer, he has started producing garage kits in 1/35 and 1/72 scale to sell at the Tokyo Wonder Festival.

The S.M.G. Runa Heavy Weapons Set (S.M.G. 瑠奈 重火器セット) was first produced for the 2015 Summer WonFes. It comes with the eponymous Runa, M60, Browning M1919A4 .30 caliber, MG42, MP40, jerry cans, and some ammo boxes, drums, and belts.

The figure and accessories are cast in a nice firm resin, and the pieces were easily removable from the sprue. There was some flash on the weapons, but it came off with some light scraping using the edge of a knife.

I had the most issues with the ammo belts, both of which broke during the clean-up process. It was simple enough to reattach the broken ends with CA glue though.

The grip of the M60 was incomplete, and the barrel of the Browning was a bit warped, but I've had a lot worse from other resin kits with parts as small as these.

It would have been a nice nod to the original S.M.G. series figure if the 1/72 set came with a M-134 Gatling Gun though.

The original character Runa (瑠奈) comes from the S.M.G. series of 1/12 scale ero-figures produced by Daiki Kougyou (ダイキ工業). Small scale Runa in her micro-bikini is much, much tamer than the larger figure.

Now normally, I would not bother with buying miniatures with disproportional body parts of any type, but I just had to get this figure for the uh... novelty factor... yeah... In any event, most of Runa scales out nicely in 1/72 scale, and I hope more garage kit makers will venture into the 1/72 market.

Creatures of Matik

Vulture-headed lions, fifteen feet high, prowled in hungry anticipation towards them, their feathered manes rustling as they approached.

– Stormbringer

The creatures of Matik were called vulture-lions in the AD&D Deities and Demigods entry under Melnibonéan Mythos. They were created from "the stuff of unformed madness" by the sorcerer Matik.

Jeff Dee's illustration of the vulture-lion shows what is essentially a lion with a vulture's beak. Moorcock's description in the novel, suggests that the creatures had feathered manes and tails.

To represent these creatures, I always thought that the Scauweg from SLAP Miniatures were spot-on. I finally decided to place an order for them, and after a long wait, I've finally received the miniatures.

Unlike the miniature shown on the SLAP website, the Scauweg 1 model that I received looks like it is in a crouching/pouncing pose. I believe it was probably crushed during shipment, but the end result doesn't look bad.

Scauweg 1

Scauweg 2

Scauweg 3

The Scauweg scale out to about 9.5' to 10' at the shoulder in 1/72 scale, rather than the 15' described in the novels, but I think that these hefty models still make for impressively sized monsters.

On the SLAP website, the Scauweg are painted with red colored heads like turkey vultures, and I'm a bit curious if that is what comes to mind when people in the UK think of vultures.

In any event, I'm going to paint them like Cape vultures or white-backed vultures from Africa as opposed to a North American bird.