Thanks Ironsides, did a quick bit of research myself once I posted the question. RCD these guns have to be hard plastic, the soft stuff just would not take glue so well and its prone to bending etc,if done in soft plastic they would have to have less parts and a solid barrel,the result is they would look like cheep hong kong toys,not models.

Canon de 155 GPF, with American crew:


Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider:


Good choices because there are scaled plans available.

PDA-I believe the bottom pic is the 1917 model. Can't seem to locate the Canon de 155 C modèle 1915 but there are pics of a Finnish 152mm varient.

Please make these in hard plastic:

Canon de 155 GPF, with American crew.

Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider with American crew.

Those two pictured are the ones I want, with American crews and a choice of wooden and rubber tires for the Schneider so it can be used for both World Wars.

Both of these guns were used by at least three countries including France, the USA and Germany as well as others. I am sure they would sell well.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Great pictures PDA - I would go for all 3 French guns if possible! In the 'Anglosaxon' world we do not give the French the credit they deserve as far as WW1 is concerned.

I think it is important that at least one of the French pieces is manned by a French gun crew (ideally in casual rather than dress uniform as per most artllery sets!) as they were the principle player on the Allied side.There seems somthing wrong as in the case of the S-model H39 when you totally ignore the country that designed and first used the said piece of equipment just to keep the naziphiles happy.

If you have one crewed with American and the other with French it will keep most people happy and the fact is that the French were the principle users of these artillery pieces. Mike can always buy the 8" Mk VII which will be shortly available as this will also be manned by an American crew. The American Crews are very similar to the late Commonwealth sets so you have a large pool of gunners to mix and match. Compare this with the French uniform which is very different from the 'Anglosaxon' uniform.

A good site to look on is:

http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/Canons/english_CanonsIndex_Nation.html

it shows guns that survive to this day. Looking at the list, though, it doesn't appear to have any 1915 models. And the modele 1915 is quite elusive in a more general web search. Hmmm. That's a conundrum!

The 1917 would be fine with me. My initial thinking was that 1915 might be better for early war, but I suspect that for the true "early war" fan that means only 1914. I guess the 120 would be a necessity for you after all. As I understand it the main difference between the 1915 and 1917 models was that the former fired a brass cartridge shell so there are minor breach differences.

Oh and I agree with RCD-we must have a French crew.

Does anyone know a good website for the organization of French artillery in the late war period? French language ok

A bit late, but I just stumbled over this, Bill:

http://www.bulgarianartillery.it/Bulgarian%20Artillery%201/Testi/T_French%20guns.htm

Any use to you?

http://basart.artillerie.asso.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=131

A french site only about artillery. The link above directs you to the 1st World War chapter. A very good site for research

Mathias

Theres a good reason why this is in effect there is little difference bettween the 1915 and 1917 versions, except for the breech the original used brass ammo the later model bagged charges, I think its highly likely that the majority of the M1915s were refitted with the M1917 breech to bring then inline..
Brass was in short supply, another reason why the old guns stayed in use.....
The actual difference would likely be in the activity of the crew at this scale...

There's allways the "155mm Canon court Mle 1904 Rimailho" and the "Schneider Canon de 105 L, Modele 1913 TR" for the early war... or have they already been mentioned?

French guns should of course have French crews these would double as Serbians and Belgians for the later stages...


Cheers