| KIT #: | 75010 |
| PRICE: | $ |
| DECALS: | None |
| REVIEWER: | Scott Van Aken |
| NOTES: | Includes metal wire pieces |
| HISTORY |
The Browning M1919 is a .30 caliber medium machine gun family widely used during the 20th century. It was used as a light infantry, coaxial, mounted, aircraft, and anti-aircraft machine gun by the U.S. and many other countries, especially during World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War. Although it began to be superseded by newer designs in the later half of the century (such as by the M60 machine gun), it remained in use in many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and elsewhere for much longer.
Many M1919s were rechambered for the new 7.62 × 51 mm NATO round and served into the 1990s, as well as up to the present day in some countries. The United States Navy also converted many to 7.62 mm NATO, and designated them Mk 21 Mod 0; they were commonly used on river craft in the 1960s and 1970s in Vietnam.
| THE KIT |
Continuing with Dragon's expansion into 1/6 scale to complement their extensive figure line, this is a 70 piece kit of another widely known US machine gun. The kit is molded on three sprues of light grey plastic and has the sort of detail that one expects from Dragon. Included are six metal pieces for the gun and the ammo box. Th
e kit is designed to allow the gun free movement and the lid of the ammo box is designed to be able to be opened or closed as well. Judging from the instructions, the tripod arms are also able to be moved in or out and several other parts of the gun have movable bits as well. In addition, this kit can be built as the M1919 A4 on a tripod or as the M1919A6 with a carrying handle, shoulder stock, and bipot on the front. This version has a flash suppressor for the end of the barrel. Thanks to Dragon's slide mold technology, the one piece barrel is properly hollowed out on the end. There are no decals, I just used the image from an earlier preview.
Construction should not be difficult as the instructions include several images with the parts listed. There are detail images of the breech (I guess that is what you call it) and of the ammo box. These appear to be photographs and are superbly detailed. From the look of things the gun and tripod are steel with the ammo box in olive drab and a few other colors are used for the shells and hand holds.
| CONCLUSIONS |
I must say that this is really a very nice looking kit. The completed model will make an excellent display piece all on its own and if you happen to have one of the figures to match, it will look even better.
| REFERENCES |
January 2009
My thanks go to www.dragonmodelsusa.com for the review kit. Get yours today at your local shop or from your favorite on-line retailer.
If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.