1:3 M252 Mortar

A weapon that shoots over the hill

The mortar of eighty-one millimeter caliber came out of a British design and in the American infantry it replaced older pieces. It is a smoothbore, muzzle-loading weapon with high elevation, that is, precisely the type of fire support that can hit a target hidden behind a fold in the ground, where direct fire does not reach. The gunner drops the bomb down the barrel and its own weight fires the primer.

Who carries it and why

The weapon serves light infantry, airborne and airmobile units. In the US Army and with the Marine Corps you will find it in the mortar platoon of an infantry battalion, and its range covers the whole zone in which the battalion operates. That is precisely why it breaks down into the barrel, the baseplate and the bipod, which three soldiers can carry and put together in a moment. A small weapon with a long reach, which is exactly why it has stayed in service for so long.

What 1:3 scale means

A reduction to one third of full size is something entirely different from a figure on a base. The assembled piece is meant to be displayed on a table or in a glazed cabinet and it will stand up to a close look, so it is worth spending time on the surface. The steel barrel tends to be dark and slightly shiny from handling, while the baseplate is scuffed and dusty from the soil. A kit of this kind is assembled in large subassemblies and painted before they are joined, because once it is finished a brush will not reach inside the assembly. It pays to choose a dark setting, as metal at this size only looks three-dimensional once the light breaks on the edges and not on a smooth gray.