03 October 2019

7,5cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 - le.IG 18

For our ongoing 'There Are Many Rivers To Cross' campaign mate Chris (aka Axebreaker from christopher-bunkerhill.blogspot.com) wanted a Leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 to give him some additional punch against infantry. While not particularly keen on having to face that rather nasty piece of equipment I quite like the look of that stubby nosed little gun. So I set to work on the Early War model of the gun by Warlord Games. That said both gun and figures would be perfectly suitable for the entire conflict. Only the gunner on the left of the gun is a figure from the PaK 38 set by Perry Miniatures with a spare head from Warlord.



The 7,5cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18 was introduced into the Reichswehr in 1932. Due to its short barrel it had a relatively short range of just some 3.4 kilometers but was well liked by its crews thanks to its good accuracy and reliability. At first it saw service in the Infanteriegeschützkompanien (infantry gun companies) of Infantry and Schützen regiments. Later it was also introduced into the heavy companies of Panzergrenadier companys. Due to it being an integral part of a Infantry Regiment the Waffenfarbe (arms of service colour) was the white of the infantry and not the red of the artillery.


The gun served throughout the war and there were also attempts to develop a version for the Fallschirmjäger but these were abandoned after just eight prototypes in favour of the 7,5cm Leichtgeschütz 40.


Thanks for viewing!

15 comments:

  1. A superbly rendered piece there Nick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Super paintjob! I have seen 3 or 4 of these little IG 18 guns in museums, lovely gun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. lovely detailed work Nick
    cheers John

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very nice indeed! Great detail and fab painting.
    Thanks
    Matt

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great looking little field piece vignette, Nick; quite scary to face too, I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Outstanding both on the blog and in person!! Can't wait to try it out!:-)

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great work on the paint and composition here. The le.IG 18 is my favorite gun from the period, just something about its look really appeals to me.

    I think another reason it was popular with the troops was that it was relatively light! Hauling multi-thousand pound guns into position by hand could not have been easy.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A masterclass Nick! Fabulous work Sir.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fantastic work--and I must agree I have always liked the look of this gun too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great looking gun, lovely paint work!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your brushwork sets the standard again Nick, amazing stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  12. One of my favourite pieces of artillery from the war. It looks so incongruous but from what I understand its use was pivotal in many battles. A beautiful little vignette.

    ReplyDelete