Introduction

Land mines are one of the most effective and inexpensive weapons of war. They are easy to plant and fairly difficult to detect. During the Vietnam War, mine detection was hard for U.S. Forces beacuse many of the landmines used by NVA and VC were of a relatively primitive nature. Booby traps, command-detonated land mines and anti-vehicular mines were commonly home-manufactured from captured U.S. bombs and artillery shells. Around 16% of total American lethal casualties in the Vietnam conflict were caused by land mines, although much higher figures have been claimed. For the Marines in Vietnam, the percentage of lethal casualties was 23%.

Once again, inspired by a real-time photo, Vladi sculpted B6-35309 Mine Detector Team with two figures to create a realistic Vietnam War scene.

Review

Inside company’s standard cardboard box with a photo of the painted figures on the front cover, figures and other small parts are seperately inserted into transparent zip-lock bags.
Figures are sculpted in 1/35 scale by Vladimir Demchenko and come as full body figures with some personal gear cast on. Heads, arms, some of the field gear and weapons are given as seperate parts.
Bodies and other sprues are marked as A and B for each figure to ease the assembly. Resin casting is nice as in all BRAVO*6 figures with no serious mistakes or a need for a detailed cleanwork. A few seamlines need to be sanded.

Body parts ; Figure-A is posed on his right knee carrying a mine detector and searching for a mine with his bayonet on the ground and Figure-B is posed standing and checking around for possible threats. Both of the figures have standard U.S Army clothing with tropical uniform of jacket, trousers and canvas-leather combined boots. Folds and wrinkles on the uniform, semi-loaded pockets with flap covers, utility belts, trotters inserted inside boots, boot laces and sole pattern under the boot are all well defined, sharp and clean cast. Two M16 ammo pouches on both sides of the utility belt are cast on each figure’s body. Figure-A carries another medium size canvas bag on his back for mine detector parts.

Heads ; They show nice facial features and hair details. Head of Figure-A has earphones to hear magnetic signals.

Arms with upfolded sleeves. Figure-B’s left arm is cast on his body over his ammo pouch as shown on the reference photo.

Parts of AN/PRS-3 Mine Detector. It was a tube type detector developed in 1950s designed to compensate for soils with magnetic properties.

M16A1 rifle – 2 pieces. Right arm of Figure-B is cast with rifle.

Two sprues are given for personal gear to be glued on figures and some extra parts. Each sprue carries two M-1956 one quart canteen and two M7 bayonet in M8A1 scabbard.

Two M1 Helmet with Mitchell pattern camo canvas cover and helmet band

Conclusion

Well posed, rare subject two-figure kit with great alikeness to a real-time photo. As always sculpted in clean and crisp details with typical Vietnam war uniforms, gear and weapons.Cast in high quality with no serious cleanwork. It can be displayed as a jungle scene, convoy escort scene, patrol mission and more.