Following their habit of developing groups of toys, Benbros issued a collection of military or Army models of which the first was a Field Gun. Unlike the others it was not given a number so it was probably issued before the main group.

 

Many of the Qualitoy military models had good play value with moving parts and the Field Gun was no exception. It was fitted with a spring-loaded mechanism which could fire 'shells' or matchsticks. With later models four grey plastic 'shells' were included. Sparking 'caps' could also be added to create a dramatic sound.

 

There were six variations of the Field Gun, the first three easily identified by having large carriage wheels similar to those on horse-drawn models. On these variations the space between the arms of the mounting frame was filled in and the 'Benbros' name was included on each side of the shield on the inside with 'Made in England' added at the top. Three colours were used for these variations, olive-green, a bright gloss-green, and finally a semi-matt army green. The carriage wheels were always gloss-black.

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The fourth variation of the Gun continued to use the earlier castings of the mounting frame and gun but this one was fitted with small 6-bolt metal wheels with black treaded tyres similar to wheels which Benbros used on other military models. It was painted a bright gloss green including the wheels and as before 'Benbros' and 'Made in England' were cast on the inside of the shield.

 

The next variation was a new casting with an open-style mounting frame, and also a slightly shorter barrel and no id. on the shield. The small painted metal wheels were domed without bolts and were fitted with standard Benbros treaded tyres. This gun was the first variation to include four grey plastic 'shells' which were only a few millimeters long but being lightweight they fired a nice distance. Both the gun and wheels were painted semi-matt army-green. This variation was widely used by Benbros as a load for the Army Low Loader & Field Gun and in the combined set Land-Rover & Field Gun.

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The sixth and last Field Gun was painted olive-green and continued with the open-style mounting frame and the sprue of four plastic 'shells' although the barrel and shield reverted to earlier castings with rivet studs and other detail but without the Benbros name. This variation was fitted with black plastic wheels with treaded tyres, slightly larger than the metal ones of variation 5.

 

The Field Gun appeared in three different illustrated end-flap boxes. The brightest was a red & yellow box which had illustrations on three of the sides showing a gun with carriage wheels. On the fourth side, 'Scale Model Field Gun' was printed with instructions on how to operate the model but no mention of 'shells'. On the end-flaps 'Field Gun' and a large 'Qualitoys' logo with a central 'B' were printed but interestingly not the actual Benbros name.

 

The second box for the Field Gun was a cream-coloured one, slightly smaller in size, with red writing and a line drawing of the small-wheeled gun printed on alternate sides with 'Benbros Qualitoy' added. This box clearly mentions four 'shells' with instructions on how to operate the gun on the third side. A large 'Qualitoys' logo was printed on the fourth side but on this box the end-flaps were plain.

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A third box is often seen containing one of the Field Gun models. It is a colourful box with illustrations on all four sides and '25 Pounder Field Gun' given as the model name. However, there is no mention of Benbros or Qualitoys so authenticity is uncertain. One possible explanation is that when the Benenson brothers sold the Benbros business in 1965, a few unsold and unboxed models remained and these were later sold by the new owners (who did not want to continue toy making) in colourful but un-attributed boxes.

 

The early Field Gun models are easily identified because they included the Benbros name on the shield casting, and the carriage-wheel variations are not hard to find. The later models with small wheels are scarce and the 'shells' are almost always missing.

 

In the 1960's, the Field Gun with carriage wheels was re-issued in the Zebra Toys range (see Zebra Toys Field Gun).