"Japanese Type 98 20mm AA/AT Gun" Topic

"When considering anti-aircraft artillery in the 1920s and 30s, Japan saw little need as none of her neighbours had particularly threatening air forces, but there was clearly a need to protect troops from local enemy tactical air support, and this need was met in 1938 when the Type 98 20mm gun was brought into service. Based on a French Hotchkiss design, it was intended from the start to be used as both an anti-aircraft and anti-armour weapon, and it proved to be very useful in both roles. It was light, and so easily moved by ground troops, and quick to set up so it was ready for action. Thousands were made and it was used throughout the War, becoming much the most common light anti-aircraft gun in the armoury of the Japanese Army.

Looking at the gun model first, this is a pretty decent representation of the real thing. It is made in the same medium plastic as the crew, so is not a precision model by any means, and is simplified in many ways, but the general shape is quite well reproduced despite only coming in seven pieces. The gun can be fully elevated, and swivels through 360 degrees, like the real thing, and comes with the tripod supports down as shown, meaning the wheels do not quite touch the ground. When in action the wheels were usually removed entirely, and of course you can do that here too, but we have included them in our image to show what they look like. We found images of this weapon with various styles of wheel (particularly variations in the number of spokes), but while we thought the 15-spoke wheels in this set seemed very unlikely (10 appears much more typical), there may be no one correct configuration…"

Full Review here
link

Amicalement
Armand

link

Brigade Games has this available.

The Brigade Games version is 28mm of course (1/56) while this is 1/72. As always on this site, the review is just so well done.

This is the quality posting of a new product that we all welcome, in that it is a genuine warts and all review and not just an advert. Thank goodness they could explain the poor chap in the middle, in the top row…….