I was looking at the hobbyfan Vietnam Us m102 gun crew and compensator Im just not sure what the compensator is

I can't find the HF set. Do you have a pic or a site with one? A compensator is a cylinder or springs seen on howitzers that allows the barrel to be elevated and depressed easily. It compensates for the weight of the gun tube. I don't know why you would need a new one in the HF set, the AFV Club model comes with the springs on the sides.

Gino I dont need one I just did not know what it was. While on the subject do you know if the 102 comes with the kit. If not i would rather use a 105 do you think the figures would work. http://www.luckymodel.com/img/000000017964.jpg

Wasn't implying that you needed one. Just not sure why HF would include it in the kit. As far as I know, the HF kit is only the figs and some ammo and other accessories (compensators??).

As to the M102 howitzer. It is 105mm and was the primary light howitzer from 1960s through early to mid 1990s in the active army, when they were replaced with the British designed M119 105mm howitzer. The older (WWII era) M1 105mm howitzer was still used in Vietnam as well. There are still some National Guard units that use the M102A1 (upgraded and a little more modernized), and have deployed with them to Iraq.

The AFV Club kit is great. I highly recommend it. The HF figures could be used on any 105mm gun representing Vietnam through about 1980, before BDUs came into the force.

Good luck and keep us posted.

A compensator in this case is just an awkward translation for a muzzle brake, which I guess looks kind of like a compensator on a competition pistol.

That doesn't make sense either, since the M102 howitzer doesn't have a muzzle brake. Not in US Service anyways, maybe somewhere else or in Japan it does. I don't know.

More info and pics of M102 howitzer.

from what im aware, looking a the pocketbond(uk distributor) catalogue the compensator kit is a base for the gun.

it looks like one of the typical vietnam sandbagged artillery positions.

'compensator' might be a bad translation on hobby fans part?

regards

joe

I haven't seen an M102 with a muzzle brake, but here's the pic:
http://www.jaguarmodels.com/pics/hf523.jpg
There may indeed be "upgrades" in Asia, such as the Germans adding a muzzle brake to the old 105.
More likely, it's retrograde, since I find no photos of it anywhere in my "stack o' stuff." Quite possibly it was found not to be necessary, or upgrades in the recoil system obviated the need for it later on. At any rate, it seems Hobby Fan saw fit to add one, so I'd be interested in finding out where they saw it.

I don't see a muzzle brake in the pic you provided the link to. I think it may be as GreatBrit stated, the base, and it is lost in translation.

Speaking of the AFV M102 kit, which I agree with Gino is a great kit, when I built mine, if I remember, there were four springs included with instructions to place two on each side. When I attempted to do that, I found that when attempting to lower the elevation, the springs were compressed way too tightly and there was no way to depress the muzzle below about 800 mils. (FA inside joke! Gino you can explain it!! :-) ) You couldn't keep the muzzle down to stow it for march order.

So I took one set out and cut it approximately in half and reinstalled it. Not only does it work better, it looks better too.

Anyone else have the same issue??

Tom

Tom, I only used one spring on each side as well. Both was way too tight. Good looking howitzer. Good job.

Thanks guys nice info you all have here.