In WW1, the Italians found themselves short of heavy artillery and were forced to rely upon some very old weapons. The Cannone da 149/35 was already obsolete when it was introduced in 1900. It lacked a recoil system and instead relied upon wooden ramps and a heavy box under the trail to handle the recoil. This forced the gun to be re-laid after each round making it very manpower intense and giving it a painfully slow rate of fire. However inadequate and obsolete, it was better than nothing. Shockingly, this weapon was still in use by the Italian army in WW2.

Review

Vargas Scale Models in California specializes in interesting and unique subjects from World War One and the Interwar periods in 1:35th scale. All are CAD designed and 3D printed in resin. Sales are direct to the modeler at https://vargas-lg.myshopify.com.

The kit is packaged in a small sturdy corrugated cardboard flip top box. Inside are the instructions, and zip-lock bags with 88 3D printed resin parts cushioned in bubble wrap. The instructions are two double-sided pages printed in color. They consist of CAD renderings to highlight the assembly. There are no painting instructions or decals, although they would be very nice for the ammunition. No photo-etch is included or needed.

The parts are printed in a gray resin. The kit includes the gun, limber, recoil ramps, trail box, 20 loose rounds of ammunition, water bucket, sponge, pioneer tools, ammo boxes with lids and a name plate. This nice set of implements and ammo gives the modeler everything needed to create a nice vignette or small diorama – just add figures and a base. The gun can be built in travel mode or firing position; but, can’t switch between the two.The detail on the gun is excellent.Striations are the bane of 3D printed kits. On this kit, they are very minor, and most are addressed with the right primer.

Build

3D printed parts don’t have sprues like styrene kits or pour plugs like cast resin kits. Instead, the parts are grouped onto rafts for printing and held up by a forest of supports. The first step on a 3D printed kit is to remove the parts from the supports. This is quickly handled with an old pair of nippers and a sharp hobby knife. Start from the outside and first snip off the support as you would a sprue gate. Then snip off the bottom of the support from the raft to allow access to more supports. There are no pin holes or air bubbles to fill. No matter how well printed, some of the parts exhibit minor 3D print lines. Priming the unassembled parts with an inexpensive rattle-can sandable, automotive primer or a good self-leveling hobby primer like Mr. Surfacer 1000 in a rattle-can will fill most of these striations. The remaining striations can be sanded out.

Once the parts are separated and cleaned up, the assembly is trivial. Care is required with the small, delicate parts. The instructions are minimal but adequate. Although the parts fit is excellent, dry fit everything before assembly. I was able to remove the parts from the supports, clean them up and assemble the kit in a single 5-hour build session. I use a Godhand resin nipper for removing the 3D supports. The kit was clean and well cured so no additional washing or curing was necessary. I assembled the kit using black “tire” CA from Bob Smith Industries (BSI), part number IC-2000. This is my go-to adhesive for resin kits now. It has better shear strength than the thin or medium CA’s and has just the right cure time to allow proper positioning. The fit was good, and no putty was used. I built the kit straight from the box. As I was going for a well-worn weapon, I distressed the wooden ramps and trail box with file edges, a hobby knife, and a small Dremel. I designed decals for the ammunition in Microsoft Word and printed them on my Inkjet printer.

Painting and Weathering

Everything was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black and remaining striations and imperfections were sanded out. I airbrushed the ramps and boxes with Vallejo 70.834 Natural Wood followed by an application of Raw Umber oil paint. After a couple of hours in the model dryer, the excess raw umber was wiped off with a cotton swab to leave a wood grain appearance. I applied a thin coat of Tressemme 3 hairspray followed by a coat of Tamiya XF-74 JGSDF OD. About half of this was then scrubbed off with a water dampened brush. Once dry, I sealed in this layer with Alclad Aqua Gloss and applied another layer of hairspray. I airbrushed a light, uneven coat of Tamiya XF-73 JGSDF Dark Green and immediately scrubbed about half of that off with a water dampened brush.

The gun itself got a similar three-color hairspray treatment. I started with Tamiya XF-65 Field Grey followed by hairspray and a light coat of LifeColor UA-213 Grigio Verde Charo for the base color. About a third of this was scrubbed off with a damp brush. This was then sealed with Alclad Aqua Gloss before applying hairspray and a light uneven coat of Tamiya XF-76 IJN Gray Green. About half of this was then scrubbed off with a soft damp brush. It is a lot of steps and a lot of work, but this is the only technique I’ve found that yields that old, uneven beat-up look. After a dot filter of various Winsor and Newton oils, I did the detail painting before sealing it up with a final coat of Aqua Gloss.

I used the VMS Smart Chipping paint for the first time on this kit. I applied it with a sponge held in a cross-lock tweezer then cleaned it up with a water dampened brush – sweet! I think I have a new go-to solution of chipping. I pin washed the details with AK Streaking Grime and cleaned it up with a make-up sponge and an old soft brush dampened with mineral spirits. I applied a bit of AK Track Wash along the metal edges and feathered with the damp brush. After a flat coat of Model Master Flat Lacquer, I lightly dry brushed the details with Winsor & Newton Yellow Ochre oil paint and rubbed the metal edges with an HB pencil and some Uschi Chrome pigments. I applied a slurry of AK various pigments and mineral spirits to the wheel shoes and scrubbed most of that off with a make-up sponge after an hour in the model dryer.

All total, I put in 36 hours on this beast - 5 hours to build and 31 to paint and weather. I’m happy with the kit and the results.

Conclusion

This kit again highlights how the CAD and 3D printing technologies can give us great kits of very obscure subjects at a reasonable price point. The kit builds into an excellent replica out of the box. Due to the need for CA glue, it is more appropriate for experienced modelers. I highly recommend the kit. I love that Vargas is doing these obscure subjects and hope that he keeps cranking them out. Thanks to Vargas for providing the review kit.