Alan McNeilly takes a look at the new ICM French Infantry Weapons and Equipment Set.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

I have the kit in my stash and was overly excited as ICM`s First World War Weapon sets had arrived. I definitely support your comments on the range of the things included but the quality is, at least in my opinion, not excellent. This set definitely can not compete with some other manufacturers items. Some details like the magazines of the Chauchat, the ammo clips of the Hotchkiss or some other things could have been more detailled and on some parts details could have been more crisp or more defined. It is an incredible range of stuff and very nice objects you won`t find elsewhere, but molding ist not excellent. Its fair value for the price, but not to the standart of, lets say, Dragon or Bronco.

Best Regards

Dennis

Hi Dennis, The review is simply my opinion and I'd disagree with you. The standard of moulding and detail is excellent. I looked again at the two parts you specifically mention and the magazine of the Chauchat seems to be lacking one very fine vertical line on the RHS of about 0.3mm in length. The magazine for the Hotchkiss is part fired and I don't see any issues with that either.

I wasn't aware either Bronco or Dragon had a WW1 French Infantry equipment set to compare this to, but I have used both Bronco and Dragon weapon kits and this is of equal quality IMHO. I can't say how it would compare to a set of Gen 2 weapons as I've never used any.

Thanks for your comments, I am sure folks will have varied opinions.

If Bronco or Dragon ever produce a set of French WW1 equipment I'd be delighted, but even in this 'new age' of modelling I some how doubt it.

This is so much better than the kit we didn't have 6 weeks ago; for me ICMs new range of new WW1 figures and weapon sets have opened up a lot of fun modelling possibilities.

Cheers

Al

Hello, I think, I made a mistake due to the fact that english is not my first language. I did not want to imply that there are some french WWI sets made by Dragon or Bronco. I just gave these as examples regarding quality. But I indeed wanted to imply that the overall quality of these manufacturers products is indeed higher in my opinion. I hope one will believe me that I of course knew that the Hotchkiss-clip is half-spent, which is a nice move. Still the actual thing looks certainly not like depicted in the set. Same for the Chauchat mag. Nice to have all these kits, for sure, but most of the new ICM sets are not to the standart they could have been. The german weapons set has some very crude parts as well, especially the 08/15. Don´t get me wrong: sure better than the kit before. But excellent? Not compared to Gen2 for sure. Perhaps it is unfair to judge a 8Euro-set against something which would cost you 15 if made from Dragon. No problem with you disagreeing especially when quality is a very wide subject. I had hoped for more but still will buy some other kits to reward he choosen topics. But I still think that some scratch can made some more out of this kits.

Hi Dennis,

Apart from WW2 German weapons I don't think DML do any other Gen 2 weapons, so a comparison there isn't really fair. Their Allied set is pretty good but both Bronco and DML don't make good Allied Haversacks and pouches they tend to be too square like. I'm not a big fan of the Bronco Allied set, or the DML set both way too expensive. Bronco's Thompson SMG is excellent but quantity V quality it is not a good value set.

You should submit you own review of the set(s) pointing out anything you feel could have been done better. I didn't say these were 100%, I've yet to see a kit that is but the level of detail they have achieved at this scale is excellent as far as I am concerned and holds up well against other sets I've reviewed.

We shall have to disagree on this one.

Cheers

Al

Hmmm...they look passable . Are those separate bolts for the rifles for open or closed positions? Nice! And that old-fashioned coffee grinder! Great for Napoleonic era/old west up to WWll.