Plastic Soldier Review have reviewed Strelets' 1/72 8in Mark VII Howitzer and 6in Mark XIX Gun. They don't like them!
For the 8in Mk VII, PSR says, "Those with a good eye will have noticed that there is no picture of the gun on this page. This is because in our view the model is so bad it is very nearly impossible for most to construct. As usual the parts are quite rough and securely attached to a massive sprue, but the real problem here is the lack of instructions. All there is is a crude drawing of the parts on the back of the box with arrows showing what part attaches to what, but not where or how. There are no sub-assembly pictures and no illustration of the finished model (their website shows a clearly different computer generated model). Even the photograph on the front is hugely inadequate in showing how the model should look when finished. All we did was assemble the barrel, and even that is shown on the instructions with the breech hinged on the wrong side. If you have a detailed knowledge of how this gun is constructed then you might be able to do without any instruction, and make something of the roughly cut parts, but although we have enjoyed making such kits for many years, this one defeated us, and we decided life was simply too short to waste on this kind of poor effort."
And for the 6in Mk XIX, PSR say, "The parts are crude and fit poorly, while the instructions are almost useless, sometimes wrong, and there are no diagrams of either the sub-assemblies or the finished model. Anyone with an intimate knowledge of this gun and a lot of patience might be able to rescue something from this kit, but most will find its construction a frustrating and unrewarding chore."
PSR also doesn't have a lot of good to say about the American crew of the 8in Mk VII howitzer.
Earlier this year, PSR reviewed Strelets' 8in Mk II howitzer, saying, "Given the variety of gun barrels and carriages, the model in this set looks pretty good. Inevitably being somewhat simplified, it is not too bad in terms of accuracy, with the exception of the wheels, which are much too narrow for this weapon. Where the model falls down more obviously is in the quality of its manufacture. Despite being made in a hard plastic it is quite rough at the seams and is joined to the sprue by enormously thick links, requiring both some effort to remove and to trim the resulting piece into more or less the required shape. The fit of parts is not that bad but nor is it brilliant, and the instructions on the box are limited to a single exploded view of the parts which those not familiar with the gun will find less than comprehensive. Making the gun was more a chore than a pleasure, although apart from the wheels the result is quite accurate and with a good deal of care and attention could be made into a fairly decent model by someone with the patience to do so."
And of Strelets' 6in Mk VII Gun, PSR said, "We are not and never will be a site that reviews kits, so we will only briefly dwell on the gun in this set. Our picture of the gun is not to scale with those of the figures the actual model is about 140mm in total length. It is a little simplified but broadly seems accurate, although the traction engine wheels are clearly much too narrow. It is made up of 21 pieces which are supplied in a nice hard plastic but have immensely thick connections to the sprue, making removal difficult. We found the pieces were not that precise certainly compared to most major kit manufacturers, and the fit was often far from good particularly where pieces were a bit bent. The solid tyres are made in a soft, rubbery material which is great, but we found it required cyanacrylate glue to fix them to the wheel as they are a strip that needs bonding to the plastic, and ordinary polystyrene cement is not strong enough. While the fit is not great, the front axle presented a much bigger problem, since it is much too short. We had to glue the wheels directly to the side of the carriage (certainly wrong yet still too wide for the provided axle - good modellers will have to come up with their own scratch-built alternative), and the whole kit-building process was very far from satisfactory, while the result is in all honesty rather rough. A lack of anything other than an exploded view of the parts also made the build an unpleasant experience."
In mitigation, when they previously reviewed the 8 incher with the early crew they said it was basic but reasonable, I suspect this is a different reviewer. Also PSR is excellent at what it does but it is a plastic figure site, anything but the simplest of assembly tends to be met with a comment along the lines of 'some may find this a challenge'.
The gun in the kit is not the highest quality but it doesn't look beyond the skills of an average modeller to assemble I would think.
Of course what we really need is a nice kit from W^D!
I am currently finishing off both A002 and A004. Yes they are a little more difficult to make than A001 and 3 but not impossible as implied. They are no worse than many expensive resin models I have bought in the past. The basic problem is they have no attachment lugs and need careful preparation before assembly. The lack of instructions does not help but even a rather ham fisted modeller like me will be successful if they take their time.
As for PSR (a site I look at regularly) it does have its favourites and it never appears to rate Strelets offerings. Personally I thought that the figures for A004 were not that bad and paint up really well. who knows the 9.2" figures may get the thumbs up - but I would not hold my breathe!.
