Dragon Models

1/6 M1919 Browning .30-cal Machine Gun

Kit Number: 75010

Reviewed by  Rich Marchiafava, IPMS# 39230

MSRP: $17.99 Website: www.dragonusaonline.com At the end of World War One, with no heavy machine gun in its inventory, the US Army turned to John Browning and adopted his design for the 1917, 30-caliber gun. It was a very effective weapon that fired the 30.06 round at 500 rpm at a range of 2000m. This gun had one major problem -- it was heavy. Since it was a water-cooled gun, it had a heavy water jacket around the barrel and required an extra water tank to keep it cool. This combined with the tripod made the weight a hefty 87 lbs. The gun itself was difficult to remove from the tripod and required a four-man crew to effectively deploy it. Before the start of World War Two, the military decided to address the weight problem and again turned to John Browning who gave them the model 1919 .30 cal machine gun. This gun fired the same 30.06 round at the same rate of fire but was air-cooled and at a weight of 45 lbs with the tripod, it was much easier to move and needed only two men to operate. This design was so effective that the weapon remained in active service until the 1970s and is still used in other countries today. Dragon has produced a very well-detailed model of the 1919 .30 cal machine gun that can be built as the common M1919A4 version with the tripod or the M1919A6 version with the bipod and shoulder stock.

The kit itself is typical of Dragon quality with very crisp molds, no flash and just a few small seam lines that are easily sanded out. The gun and tripod, with a little care, can be assembled to function in a limited fashion. The top feeding door opens, the front and rear sights fold and the bolt slides to the rear. The tripod can be made to both extend and fold so you don't have to "choose" one or the other. You also get two of the 250 round ammo boxes and are a nice addition to the overall appearance. The boxes are complete with movable "pre-bent" wire handles and positional locks. To finish off the kit, you get a strip of ammunition in soft plastic to add to the realism

The one major challenge I encountered was the lack of step-by-step directions. The kit came with one sheet that had the parts list on one side and views of the completed model on the other side. There are no exploded views of the assembly, just arrows with part numbers pointing to the area on the finished model. This was a problem for me as I’ve never seen the gun in real life. This wasn't a major problem because my friend Jeff Price had experience with the real one. Persons with no military or machine gun knowledge might have some difficulty, but that's what the Internet is for, right? In conclusion, Jeff operated the real thing, and he can tell you that this is an accurate representation of one of the most deployed guns in military history. I had a lot of fun building this and would like to see more from Dragon in this subject, maybe an M2 .50 cal ( see review here ) or a German MG42.

Thanks to Dragon and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build this cool kit and a very special "thank you" to Jeff Price for his technical assistance.