American artillery crews in 1/35

While there are WW2 Russian, British and German artillery crew available, I don't know of any US crewman in kit form. Nearest thing in styrene for a WW2 diorama would be the figures from the TAMIYA 35086 US MG and Mortar Team. You'd still need to do some modifications, of course, but the radioman and another man holding his ears could be used straight, and the guy dropping a shell into the mortar could become a guy pulling the firing lanyard on the howitzer (Francois Verlinden used these guys in a vignette using Tamiya's long-gone metal kit of the 75mm pack howitzer). The guy loading a bazooka might be modified to shove a round into the breech (with a little surgery). The bazookaman and crouching machine gunners would probably be of little use, though. For a later era (this weapon also served in Korea and Vietnam, and the National Guard used it through the 1980's at least), the TAMIYA 35119 US 107mm Mortar & Crew has three figures in 1970's fatigue uniforms, and the TAMIYA 35079 US Command Figure Set has three additional figures in this uniform (plus a tank crewman). In Vietnam, the howitzer was often seen with the gun shield removed. A quick search on Great Models also brought up a resin US artillery crew, but the period is not specified, and the four figures do come in at a pricey $41 (and must be ordered from France). Gerald Owens

I had thought of modifying the Tamiya guys and I may go that route but I thought there might be some resin stuff out there since AFV Club has been releasing some US artillery. Thanks for reminding me about Great Models. I did a thorough search there and found that both ADV/Azimut and Hobby Fan do Vietnam era Marine gun crews (although both would cost me about five times what I paid for the gun :( ). Warriors does an M12 crew. But most promising are a couple of Verlinden sets, US Gun Crew WWII and Ammo Handlers, which are significantly less expensive than the Marine crews and more in line with what I was looking for.