Brümmbar 21cm Mörser 18 heavy gun
Kit # 72230 Review by Simon Barnes

Initially the high price of this kit put me off buying it as nearly £20 it is expensive for a kit, but looking at it another way even at that high price it is cheaper than the £29 for the planet Models kit, although Revell have just released a version which in all honesty is easier to build, even at £14 it has a high price tag and looking at what you get in the ACE kit maybe the £20 is not so high after all, given that you get a turned aluminium barrel and a PE fret, add these costs to the basic Revell kit price and the £20 price tag is not so bad. Of course the ACE lit is cheaper in other places bringing the price down even further.

Even without the barrel and PE fret you still get a lot of plastic for your money, set out over 7 sprues (the wheel sprue you get twice) despite what people think the parts are very clean and free from flash, with the main clean up being around the sprue attachment points.

The parts for the various build stages are contained all over the sprues, I presume that this was to maximize the sprue usage, however it is something to look out for when building the kit. Most care needs to be taken around the Breech, this is made up of 4 main parts and care needs to be taken when fitting them all together so that they line up straight with each other and also that they fit on to the barrel straight, the breech block is separate and can be displayed open or closed.

The gun can be built in a variety of ways from transport to firing and practically anything in between for those that want a really in action pose. the only thing is you must decide before hand how you want to display it.

There are two sets of the wheel sprues that require minor cleanup around the tyre itself, as with all ACE gun kits there are shells and cartridges included.

The base plate comes in two halves an upper and a lower, although this could have been made from one piece ACE have rightly decided to make it in two, this way there is less risk of any sink holes appearing through the plastic being too thick

The PE fret contains all the walkways and these are probably better done in PE than in plastic, only a few parts are for the gun itself, most are for the walkways and supports, as with the gun these can be assembled in the firing or transport positions.

The Aluminium Barrel

Markings are provided for two guns WOTAN and OTTO, the decals are thin and being only one colour in Register, although I have never seen any ACE decals that weren't in register.

References

I currently have no references for these guns and so can not comment about the Accuracy, however it is rare that ACE get things very wrong and it looks OK according to the pictures I can find on the internet.

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