Dragon

1/35 WWII U.S. Armored Infantry Gen 2

Kit Number: 6366

Reviewed by  Howie Belkin, IPMS# 16

MSRP: 14.95 www.dragonmodels.com . Injection molded, 272 grey plastic parts, four figures ’39-’45 Series This set provides four U.S. Armored Infantrymen, their gear (including a photo etch fret consisting mostly of rifle slings and helmet straps), a one-sided full color instruction sheet and an entire sprue tree of machine guns, ammo cans, radios and other accessories. When DRAGON releases a new Gen2 figure set, you expect that they raised the bar and this is no exception - indeed it's exceptional! Gen1 and competitor figure sets generally consist of four or five parts per figure. This set has almost five times that in quantity and a huge step up in quality as well. First, there's the fantastic Ron Volstad illustrated box top on the two part sturdy box that serves as a color guide (keyed to Testors and Gunze paints) and poses you can strive for (the bottom of the box shows you the part sprue trees and variations of the finished multi-pose figures). They represent dismounted U.S. Armored Infantry from the 1942 Torch invasion through the Fall of 1944 in Europe. Turning German tactics against the Germans, American Armored Infantry often fought dismounted, protecting the Armor from Panzerfausts and other tank killers, so the Armor would be around to take out other obstacles that would have decimated the Infantry. They are perfect additions to the DML U.S. half-tracks as they can be posed carrying its .30 or .50 cal. Browning machine-guns, traveling lightly with their heavy personal rucksacks stowed on their battle taxi. All are wearing khaki M1941 jackets (with open sleeves for separate hands, separate collars, epaulettes and jacket tails for a realistic 3D 'look') over darker O.D. wool tunics and trousers. Their separate feet wear leggings over brown shoes that have detailed soles. M1 helmets are molded with and without camouflage covers and provided with photo etch chin straps. There are plenty of ammo pouches (make sure each soldier has the proper ones for the weapon he carries), canteens (with serrated cap tops and ribbed detail), bayonets, knives with scabbards, closed embossed leather .45 holsters and first-aid kits to attach to their web gear. The two part heads allow DML to take advantage of their slide molding technique for nice, sharply defined faces and as my friend Frank DeSisto pointed out, "to include properly-depicted ears." The personal weapons include slide molded M1 Carbines, M1 Garrands, and a Thompson submachinegun, all with open-end barrels and p.e. slings. Receivers are separate and come in opened or closed parts but I believe only the one for the Garrand rifle can really be used open. Fellow L.I.S.M.S. member Bob DeMaio owns one. He confirmed that "…the receiver would only be open and stays open when the clip is expended and waiting for a reloaded clip to be inserted." Dragon provides a lot of Garrand clips so I posed my kneeling soldier as if he's about to insert a new clip. If I build a diorama I'd place other clips on the ground, ready for this G.I. to grab and reload. I swapped for Gen1 weapons for the others, not wanting to waste these modeling them closed. The only reason they'd be open would be if they were being cleaned or rebuilt, I believe. They're all fed by the magazine inserted into the bottom of the weapon. You also could have them carrying either machine gun along with ammo boxes (with p.e. carrying strap) and a folded tripod. The open hands fit nicely in the open sleeved arms and get a good grip on whatever you want them to hold. Just make sure you don't give them two left hands and that they line up properly. When Academy released their "U.S. Machine Gun Set #1384", I thought they were the best. DML includes a pair of .30 cal. M1919A4 light machine-guns and single .50 cal M2 heavy machine-gun, ammunition boxes and tripods - all slide-molded so that the barrel ends are open, and the .50 cal. has a detailed receiver interior and a separate cover. But the .50s prominent cocking handle is inaccurate and the .30s ammo feed is solid, not open, so DML doesn't take anything away from Academy. In fact if you want today's best machine guns you'd have to kit bash between the two mfrs. DML also provides a shovel, axe and pick without the usual molded on clamps, so your G.I.s could be using them or you can use your p.e. clamps on these. Radio sets are also included but are not shown on the box or instructions. Just the same, they're easy to figure out and are a bonus to be used in another vehicle or diorama setting. I highly recommend these long over due American G.I.s. DMLs Gen1 "U.S. Infantry, 2nd Armored Division" figure set was nicely done but their camouflage uniforms dated them to Normandy 1944 when they discontinued them due to their similarity to uniforms Germans were wearing. There are U.S. figure sets out there but they are few and far between and this DML set may have set the bar for the new state of the art. With all the separate body parts you're only limited by your imagination in the many poses you can accomplish. The slide molded 3D collars, open barrel ends, open receivers and superbly defined features have made injection molded figures on par with much more expensive resin figures. The photo etched rifle slings add a great touch but to use it for helmet straps fastened to the front and back of the helmets is pushing it a bit for me (though hanging down at the sides works)! Since these soldiers are dismounted Armored Infantry, some accessories that would have stood out if provided, would have been goggles, binoculars, an open holster and separate pistol, maybe an open canteen? DML spends a lot of money printing a full color, glossy instruction sheet but I think they could save some money and better serve modelers by printing a larger black and white sheet (in this case they could have shown the construction of the radios) and as Cookie mentioned in his review, and I had mentioned in my Master Box Ltd. review, provide us with a sheet of shoulder and sleeve insignia water slide decals with our figure sets. Master Box from the Ukraine has started doing this and it is something that has long been missing from figure sets. Just the right size rank and unit insignia decals would have made the difference between DML hitting a home run or a Grand Slam. I hope to see Dragon continue to release more and more Allied WWII figure sets (U.S. and U.K. infantry and tankers, please!) all slide molded, with photo etch and decals! Thanks to DML for the review sample. Available at better hobby shops or see their web site. References included World War II Combat Uniforms and Insignia by Martin Windrow Army Uniforms of World War II by Andrew Mollo The Armed Forces of World War II by Andrew Mollo The U.S. Army in World War II by Mark Henry

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