Italian 65mm L/17 Mountain Gun

Description

Italian 65mm L/17 M1913 Mountain Gun and crew.

Although a WW1-era gun, the L/17 M13 mountain gun was used in the Spanish Civil War and World War 2. By April 1940 there were 700 65/17 guns of various states of repair and upgrade in service with Italian forces. It was issued to the infantry and, mounted on trucks, used as an anti-tank gun as well.

It saw extensive use in WW2 on all of the fronts on which Italy fought. In North Africa, the gun was mounted on FIAT 634 trucks as well as on captured British Morris CS8 trucks forming “batterie volanti” (flying batteries). Mounted on a truck bed, these guns were far more useful than on their old carriages, as they could rotate a full 360 degrees. A total of 28 guns were mounted in this way in 7 batteries of 4. (1)

PLEASE NOTE: while some of these photos show a resin gun, the gun itself is cast in metal. The crewmen are resin printed. There is also an option to purchase the gun without crew.

Model includes a gun shield and sighting device, either of which may or may not be used (below).

There is a choice of 5 different crews: wearing Alpini caps, or helmets and sun helmets, either plain or with Bersaglieri feathers attached.

Painting the gun: Existing museum models generally show a shade of green. I used Tamiya XF-89 on the one I painted for this, although any greenish-olive used for Russian or Italian vehicles would probably work. If you wanted one for North Africa, I’d use a desert sand color. The wheels are often seen painted like the rest of the gun but may be a dark wood color as well.

PLEASE NOTE: The crew are resin figures and they are lighter and can be less durable than traditional metal castings. If you mount the crew with the gun on a single base, that shouldn’t be a problem. The only small bits that stick out are the Alpini feathers.

(1) Information from the Tank Encyclopedia entry for the gun. More is available there.