This Tootsie Toy cannon is probably 50 years old.
It got it off eBay, in terrible condition. It's supposed to be a US Army Long Tom, 155mm howitzer.
The US Army used them in the Coast Artillery and the Field Artillery.
Field Artillery towed them with trucks and the Coast Artillery with Caterpillar tractors.
I stripped off the paint, repaired it and replaced the wheels.
After years of testing these guns finally entered service in 1938.
In my alternate War of the Worlds based on Orson Wells radio show, the Martians invade in October of 1938.
That makes this one of the first of these gun into service and one of the first to fire in anger. I use the Roco versions for World War Two.
2 comments:
Did you ever come up with a tow vehicle for these things yet that doesn't look too out of place with HO-scale vehicles?
Best I can find for my two was the Hot Wheels Assault Crawler, which is at least a tractor, and looks like it could do the job in real life, but I think it's side profile is too high.
Shotgun6 the Hot Wheels Assault Crawler is based on the M3 light tank. I am using these Long Toms for 1938 so I think I would like an older vehicle. However, the Assault crawler does have the advantage of being in my collection already and it's not otherwise occupied. http://www.owensarchive.com/m4-artillery-tractor-towing-howitzer-8306
Typically they were towed by a 7 ton truck or a Caterpillar type tractor. I suspect one will show up eventually.
Bunkermeister
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