It is an American machine gun crew set. It is a familiar weapon of the Allied Army in various movies, dramas, battlefield photos, etc., for it has a characteristic shape of a machine gun with a thick cylindrical water-cooling device around the barrel. I think it was released relatively early in the master box kits.
I can’t say the quality of the attached decal is good. However, I am thankful to include such a decal in the kit.
The figure’s face mold is perfect, but I will try to replace it with resin heads. I think it looks like a somewhat younger soldier than the original heads.
I cut the fishing weight to stabilize the figure to fit the space around the butt.
It is a cool pose, but the M1917A1 Browning machine does not have a water-cooled tank. In the box art, the tank was drawn, so I wanted this part to be attached. So I built a water tank from Tamiya’s accessory set. Make a water hose that connects to the machine gun’s barrel with a 0.5 mm brass wire, and add the lid and chain from the stock parts. It is a little detailed upgrade.
The master box painting instructions are hard to understand; I painted the uniform by referring to the TV drama, Combat, or Band of Brothers. Also, this box painting was helpful. When I painted with khaki, drab, olive drab, flat earth, dark yellow, and sandy yellow, it became like a US uniform.
The bullet belt was partly painted metallic colors.
M1917A1 Browning Heavy machine gun is an improved M1917 developed in 1917. It is a long-standing weapon that was used until the Vietnam War. Water-cooled machine guns have difficulty securing water on the battlefield, affecting mobility. We have experience in using the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
I painted the wool watch cap on the figure, replacing the head in olive drab.
I want to attach insignia decals to every figure model like this machine-gun kit. Because it is somewhat troublesome as the data creation and coloring are not so good if I make the original decals.
(13-Apr-2017)
