Introduction

During World War II, the French Army and their Free French successors used a wide variety of vehicles for reconnaissance duties. French military doctrine recognised two separate fields of armoured vehicle deployment, the first consisting of primary tasks such as manoeuvre and combat, while the second included other tasks such as rear-guard defence, liaison, and deception. With a crew of four which includes the commander, driver, gunner and loader, does this offering from ICM meet the task?

Contents

The art work on the box is nice the way they have faded out the vehicle so that the crew really stand out. The box itself is a complete box of a very sturdy build, with a separate card top lid that goes over the whole box top.
1. Light brown sprue.
1. Instruction sheet with build and painting instructions on the reverse side.

Review

ICM have placed most of the bigger parts into the same rectangular frames thus saving you from looking all round the sprue for the parts.

The facial expressions are all very well detailed and completely different for each one. The commanders face is of middle age appearance and certainly has that look of authority about him he has two ears present though not the best they are still represented. His uniform is well detailed and all the creases look good and in the right places for the pose of his figure. There is a mould seam line down the back of his trousers quite faint but still present and would require some work for correction. There does not appear to be any mould seems on the main torso and again very minimal on the arms.

The driver/mechanic character has a very well detailed face and his ears are also good, his face is rounded and he is wearing a beret.

He is not wearing a jacket on and just wearing a pullover this is really good in detail with no mould seams on the torso. His legs are bent to represent him checking or repairing the engine and as such all of the creases in his trousers and on the pullover look good and in the right place. The hands are also good in detail holding a spanner or wrench in his right hand while in his left is a cloth.

The armourer has good expression on his face with one good ear but his left ear is virtually a line without any further detail. Facial expression is good and with his raised cheek bones he looks like he is happy possibly sharing a joke with one of his fellow crew. I did notice that on the right hand of this figure his thumb is out of scale with that on his left hand, this could be to make it easier to place a shell in his hand as per picture on the art work of the box. His trousers and jacket are well moulded and again all the creases look perfect their is however a faint mould seam on both legs and the torso

The gunner his facial expression seems to be also happy or could be sharing a joke , comment with the loader. He has a soft cape on and is in a kneeling position taking ammo from a box, and could very easily be placed so that he is passing the ammo to the armourer to be placed in the hull of the vehicle.

The uniform and jacket all have nicely detailed creases minimal amount of mould seams, his hands are well developed and without any faults. All of these figures will work well together especially with one of ICM Panhard armoured car and will compliment this in a diorama form.

Conclusion

If I was asked would you recommend this set to anyone I would have to reply with a resounding yes. Although not as good as some of the resin figures out there these are still have very good detail and the mould lines are not to bold. It is aimed at the ICM panhard but it could be used on any diorama with a armoured vehicle present that was used by the French just before and during World War 2.