Introduction

During the early stages of Vietnam War, Viet Cong mainly used weapons captured from poorly defended ARVN militia outposts or crude, self-made weapons and shotguns made of galvanized pipes. North Vietnamese Army forces were principally armed with Chinese and Soviet weaponry though some VC guerrilla units were equipped with Western infantry weapons either captured from French stocks during the first Indochina war. In the summer and fall of 1967, all Viet Cong battalions were reequipped with arms of Soviet Union and China.
Type 56 is a 7.62 Chinese rifle known as the variant of the Soviet AK-47 Type 3. Though there are more technical differences between 2 rifles, the visible difference is that the Type 56 has a fully enclosed, hooded front sight whereas the AK-47 sports a partially enclosed front sight. Some versions of the 56 also have a folding spike bayonet whereas the AK-47 has a detachable knife bayonet.

BRAVO*6 lately released B6-35319 Type 56 Assault Rifle set to be used in Vietnam War scenes.

Review

Kit comes well packed in standard light brown cardboard box with an illustration of the assault rifle in front cover. Back covers show a drawing on how to assembly photoetched parts. Inside the box, resin parts are represented with easy to remove casting blocks and inserted into a zip-lock bag. PE parts are secured in another bag.

Rifle is sculpted in 1/35 scale by Vladimir Demchenko and cast in resin. Quality is over standard as always and weapon details are well defined.

Kit includes 4 rifles. They are served in 2 types due to Fire selector position and marked on sprues as A for Safety on and B for Single shot.

A photoetched fret is given inside kit. It includes gunslings, buckles, sling svivel assembly parts and bayonets. Bayonets are given as two pieces for 4 different types like short and long - Blade type and Spike type bayonets and marked in A,B,C,D letters. How to guide over kit is helpful for the identification and assembly of the PE parts.

Conclusion

Another useful kit from BRAVO-6 to improve low detailed Viet Cong or NVA rifles of your existing figures.