Introduction

Great Britain, her Commonwealth and Allies had been fighting Germany and her Allies for 3 long and bloody years; the death toll is unimaginable today on both sides. The thought of climbing out of a trench and walking slowly towards machine guns is utter stupidity, enter into this blood bath the US Military and an injection of man power that Britain and her Allies sorely needed. The Dough Boys had arrived.

Since the Centenary of World War 1 Starting a number of companies have begun making available newly tooled vehicles of that period, but figures have been overlooked by many of those same companies. I can only think of two who have made figures available to the modeller and none has done more to cover the combatants than ICM. ICM is slowly and surely working their way through the forces of the countries that took part in the Great War, and giving us very good modern produced figures from countries some have never heard of. The latest of these is a four figure set covering the US Infantry in 1917, the year they entered the meat grinder.

Contents

The model parts are supplied in a flip top cardboard tray with another card upper; the card upper has a very nice artistic representation of the figures contained within. The packaging used by ICM is one of the best and strongest methods I have seen for protecting their product and making sure it reaches you in the condition intended, and this should easily cope with the rigours of any reasonable handling by the postal services of the world. Inside of the box is a re-sealable plastic bag containing two tan sprues.

Review

A check over the sprues that make up this set indicates a good quality product due to a number of factors. Flash is none existent, with only the very lightest of seam lines to be found on the figures. The layout has been well thought through and so making life easy for the modeller. The detail is of the usual high standard that ICM has provided in their figure sets for some time now. The other big plus with ICM figures from this period is that due to offering separate weapons sets they do not scrimp on the firepower available in the set.

The figures are broken down in the typical manner most of us should be familiar with, and I see no obvious issues with assembly being encountered. The uniform detail looks accurate when compared to various online reference sources, and while I am no expert it looks to replicate all aspects very well. Crease detail in the uniform is natural with nothing looking to be out of place in relation to the movement and position the figures represent. If I had to complain about one aspect of these figures it would be that the lace detail of the shoes/boots doesn’t really show up and almost appears absent in some cases.

The felt hats offered on the figure sprue are very nicely done, and I am sure many of our American members are looking forward to getting hold of these. The gators used by American troops is correctly supplied, but I was under the impression that these were buttoned up and I cannot really pick this detail out; perhaps someone can correct me if I am incorrect in that belief. The pocket detail on the jackets is a little soft for my tastes, but I belief that is just my feeling about it and you may not agree. The unusual shaped backpack of the US Forces has been well captured, I particularly like that the rear face that meets the figures has been sculpted to fit the figure, rather than leaving the modeller to work it to mnanage a good fit.

The facial features are good and with these troops perhaps having just arrived by train or troop ship and never seen the hell that awaits them, look relaxed. The hands are very well sculptured, some of the finger detail is better than I have seen offered on many resin figures. The splayed fingers of a waving hand and the internationally recognised ‘A OK’ gesture is exceptionally good.

The weapons sprue is a great addition to this figure set and offers a huge selection of weapons amongst other items. This is the weapons selection from kit No 35688. Rather than cover it here I have provided a link to the dedicated review by Adie Roberts on that product.

Conclusion

This figure set is a very good offering from a moulding stance. The figures are in a casual walking or marching pose with an officer watching on and acknowledging the troops, I will admit that I would have liked to have been offered some better action or alert stances, but it is always possible that ICM will release future sets covering this aspect. All told this is another great set of World War One figures and I hope ICM continues to release figures from this period.

WW1 US. Weapons and equipment by Adie Roberts