Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 scale ?39-?45 Series Kit No. 655
5; Japanese Army Infantry Peleliu 1944; 72 parts in grey styrene; pre-order price US$16.99 via Dragon USA OnlineAdvantages: nice new set of Imperial Army infantry to compliment the recent Type 95 Light Tank kit
Disadvantages: spartan instructions and finishing suggestions
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for all Pacific War fans
For many years, modelers wishing to capture the Pacific War were somewhat at a loss for figures as the only sets in styrene were a 30+ year old Tamiy a one or the much larger 1/32 scale Airfix ?Multipose? sets. In recent years some sets have appeared from Miniart, Masterbox and Fine Molds, but n ow DML is finally turning its efforts to figures to go with its recent Japa nese light tank kits.
This set provides four figures in combat poses: a kneeling officer with pi stol and katana sword drawn, a kneeling rifleman firing his rifle, and a tw o-man light machine gun team firing. Each figure wears his complete uniform with helmet and neck cloth cover at the rear (the officer has a cloth cove r, the enlisted men mesh netting). Each figure comes in the standard six pa rts (head, torso, arms, and legs) with the officer?s hand molded onto the sword for a good fit. Faces on the heads are very nicely done.
The weapons are new and consist of two rifles with bayonets, a Nambu light machine gun with bayonet attached (!), and a Type 94 pistol for the office r. I am not sure why they picked that one as the Type 94 is one of the wors t pistols ever made (it can be made to fire when cocked and loaded and on s afe by pressing on the sear on the side of the pistol) instead of the more common Type 14 Nambu. The light machine gun is a bit rough and the bayonet appears to just stick on the muzzle end some place, but as the bipod has to go on first I suspect DML didn?t have much of an option for how to do it (and yes, they did have a bayonet fitted to these weapons!)
Each figure comes with a bread bag and water bottle as well as the relevan t ammo pouches for his particular weapon (the Nambu gunner has two pouches worn on his back and three extra magazines for the gun).
The artwork is unattributed but is not by Ron Volstead. Instructions are t he ?stick here? and paint like the box art variety. Overall any new set of non-German figures from DML is welcome and this set should be popular with anyone wanting figures for their very nice Type 95 Light kit.
Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.
Cookie Sewell