Introduction

There was a time when if a model was not of a German subject it was thought it would not sell, but move forward to the present and that statement no longer holds water. There is now a following for a broad spectrum of armour from many countries and time periods, one of the genres that has garnered a huge following is anything covering the Israeli Defence Force. Legend Productions has been very busy adding Israeli Defence Force gems to their range of products, here I will take a look at their offering for the IDF M109 in the form of a Stowage Set.

Contents

This offering is provided inside one of the card end opening boxes that are popular with Legend Productions. Inside the carton is a single Ziploc bag containing the parts for this offering, that provides us with 35 resin castings.

Review

An examination of the contents provides the typical positive impression I have come to expect from Legend Productions, all of the contents being free of distortions and no air bubbles are present in the resin parts. Some of the pour plugs on the parts are large and will require some careful work on the part of the modeller, I know they are a pain to remove but these large pour plugs have insured that all mouldings are complete and free of bubbles.

These resin stowage parts are designed to fit the AFV Club offering of the M109 and as such provide a very good fit judging from the images supplied by Legend Productions. A large proportion of the elements in this set are canvas covered and so I am hard pushed to say they are specifically Israeli Defence Force and as such I feel this offering is a suitable addition for any of the AFV Club M109’s; further more I also feel that the elements would look good on a number of other models that have suitable locations. One thing I did notice that does tie this set down is the rear facing light cluster on the turret that protrudes through one of the elements.

In addition to the canvas covered elements there are six wooden crates that I believe are ammunition boxes, but if I am correct in that I would have expected some decals to be present for use on them. There are also two small arms ammunition boxes with no decals present. I have been saving the best contents till last and they are two cardboard boxes that I believe are for rations, unfortunately there are again no decals present. The final two items really caught my eye being a tool box that is not specifically military and a cassette player, these two items are the stars of the show for me due to the non military aspect.

Conclusion

This offering is an excellent mix of products that are especially well moulded, but I cannot say any of the elements struck me as specifically Israeli Defence Force in nature; I am however happy for one of you to prove me wrong. I do feel that some of the elements provided in this set should have decals provided, but there are none included and I feel Legend Productions missed a chance to really make this set shine. The addition of the radio and tool box is a really nice touch that appeals to me a lot due to the civilian aspect and there commonality in military settings.