Close up of the guns with their new wheels.
The US Army developed the Long Tom 155mm guns in the late 1930's, just in time for WWII.
They replaced the barrel with a 203mm gun and little other change to make a more powerful gun.
Both were very accurate and widely used in WWII.
I use the Roco versions for WWII, but I use these Tootsietoy versions for the immediate pre-war guns.
These guns get served by my Strelets WWI Americans.
When the Martians attack in 1938, these guys will be there to meet them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g
8 comments:
Great finds!
Really great job on these, they do look the part!
Thanks G. There was a lot of work to bring them back from they way I found them.
Bunkermeister
Thanks Don. I think the troops really sell it.
Bunkermeister
You inspired me to buy a couple of these on ebay; I got 2, for $9.98 each, which seems like a lot, but that was the going rate - they're bigger than I thought they would be, and you're right, the original wheels do look goofy, but overall, they're a pretty nice piece.
Shotgun6, glad to hear it. With eBay the key is to look around and buy over the long haul. Sometimes they are $5 and sometimes $15 each. I cast up new wheels to replace missing originals on most of mine. Still, compare them to a new model and the price is in the ballpark. Remember, these are also at least 40 years old, so just getting them at all seems a miracle to me.
Bunkermeister
Yeah, they really don't make toys like these anymore; so I'm very happy to have them. What I need now, since everything else I have is HO-approximate, is some suitable towing vehicles that are big enough to pull the guns without looking too out of scale with everything else; whatever I use is going to need to have some heavy tow hooks added, since the hole on the long toms is really big and pretty high off the ground.
Yes, towing vehicles is a problem I am still working on.
Bunkermeister
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