Andy Renshaw reviews US Marines Guadalcanal 1942, a four figure set from Dragon in 1/35.

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Thanks!

Excellent review, Andy, especially with the partial build. That takes it "above and beyond the call of duty."

Thanks Bill! My grandfather, and myself are both former Marines, so this set had a special place and those poses just make you want to build it...im already cutting the next one off the sprue and pulling out some PE hardware to make the slings. Maybe ill do a little jungle dio with them at some point in the near future.

Hi Andy,

Good review and a nice looking set of figures. Not my genre but I'll look forward to seeing them appear in some dioramas over the coming months.

Al

I to have bought this set and i must say they are very well done.(not my work )the castings. i have built the crouching. i placed it in a small one man scene and it needs more work but the picture i will post shows what it could be.
Rick.

Nice work Rick! Your camo helmet reminds me that if you replace the helmet with a canvas covered one, or just glue on some tissue for the texture, pop in some M1s instead of the 1903's , these can be some good late war figures too.

Plus I total forgot to add to my review that they could be converted to some PTO army figs as well.

A thought just popped in my head....maybe make a USMC Stuart and have these guys advancing along side. We could even do a M2A3 (do I have that right?), that pre-stuart light tank that was used on Guadalcanal.

A great kit, that I can't wait to pick up. It should be noted, that the review faults the set for not having cross flap canteen covers. This is not so, the cross flap cover was not introduced till some time in 1943. Early marine canteen covers differ from army externally in that they do not have the stitching up the front of the cover. There were other slight differences but it won't make much difference in 1/35.

mmm...your post got me pulling out my books and scouring the internet for an hour. Ok, looks like I might have to submit some edits... Man, i had no idea that the canteen history of USMC was so varied in the first half of the century.
First, one of my books, Ospreys "US Marine Corps 1941-1945" has a color plate K that discribes an "early war" and "late war" kit. both show the cross flap style, yet the "early" is called out to NOT have a drain hole, while the late cover has a drain hole. Im now realizing that this might be feasable, but probally not common. Looks like they were using 1910 and "2nd pattern" covers throughout the war, and were the most common even after the introduction of the cross flap type.
I found a post within a millitaria collectors forum where somebody was asking basicly the same thing---what style canteen for WW2 marines?
The reply consisted of one guy posting pictures and history of his entire collection...here is 2 photos of interest...




The first photo is (from his discription) a 1910 cover. This does not have the "eagle snaps" which from what I read is yet another (and more rare) version. There are also covers with plain snaps. Note the stiching that looks like US army "mounted" style covers.

Second photo shows 2 "2nd Pattern" covers on left, and 2 different cross flap (the early and late as noted in the Osprey book). Text from a collectors forum---"the 2nd pattern cover issued too the United states marine corps during WWII, these are a short flap, unlined cover, with a double stitched base, reinforced rear seam and specail U.S.M.C. version double hook. The 2nd pattern cover was originally designed produced by United Carr, on behalf of the corps. This style of cover was introduce around about 1942, and replaced the U.S.M.C. version of M1910 cover"
The cross flap canteen on the far right is the later style with " ...drain/funnel hole and is dated 1942-1943"

So, I guess the reality is that either the 1910 or "2nd pattern" covers would be correct for a Canal figure, with the cross flap being possible, but not likely. One guy even commented that the cross flap didnt even make it to the field in quanity till very late in the war (Okanawa, etc), but was used through the 50s.

what a crazy amount of info on some detail that is smaller than a pea! I'll work up a update/edit for James to add to the origional review. Thanks for bringing that to my attention Mike!
cheers
Andy

oh, something else to note for the die-hards...
Note that the hangers on USMC canteens are much higher than they US Army versions, so should hang lower on the hip than where you would mount canteens on army figures.

guess ill be replacing my canteen on my figure I built...no biggie, i was wanting to remake the dog ears anyway!

No sweat, I was sharing some info that is new to me. I have also learned more about this in the last week than I ever knew about this minor detail. I was looking into the accuracy of the MB tarawa marines set, where every of the marines has 2 crossflap covers, and looking through all the books on hand when I noticed that I saw very few crossflap covers, which i felt was unusual be cause I had always thought that the crossflap was the standard. I didn't see any in the pics I have on hand in several books, crossflap covers till saipan in 44. Also anyone that is way into the details and capable of duplicating them should note that the Marine covers did not have the wool lining of the Army covers and the canteen cup leaves a noticeable wear pattern and ridge on the outside of the cover, that can be seen in the new pics. Only one canteen per Marine would show this. Now I have to locate some canteens for my marines as well.

with all the USMC figures out there now, I might master up some various canteens (including the pronouced ridge caused by the cup) and make some molds of them. It would be a interesting detail just for us purist.

Maybe Dave Harper over at Hard Corps Models would be interested in doing some USMC gear to dress up all the figures out there. The MB figures could probally perk up nicely with some fine resin gear!
Andy