Introduction

One of the more popular genres in Armor Modelling is IDF Armor. This figure from Friendship Models’ Wee Friends range represents an Israeli Tank Crewman.

review

This Wee Friends figure comes in a clear clamshell plastic box with a small print flyer depicting the figure front and rear. In addition to the box art, there is a small sheet of paper with the company name and product reference number, plus a special warning regarding the use and handling of resin. The figure is contained in a ziplok plastic bag within the box. The painting on the box art is really poor and unfortunately the quality of the picture does not show the product at its best.

Cast in a light cream resin, the figure depicts an Israeli AFV crew member in a standing pose, or more likely attending a military parade, carrying an UZI machine gun with the stock extended. He is also wearing the traditional Israeli AFV crew helmet. The casting is very good with fine detail and I cannot find any flaws or air bubbles in my review sample.

The Figure:
The figure comes in 5 parts; the body cast as whole, separate arms, head and separate hands which carry the UZI. The figure is wearing the Israeli BDU for AFC crew with body armor on. He also wears webbing to hold ammo pouches at the front, and at the rear a rucksack with two small dressing pouches. The 4 ammo pouches on the chest look like the UZI pouch for three 32 round mags, although it is hard to distinguish them from a Galil ammo pouch. The helmet does not come with any mike or with wire for cabling and no electronic devices such as connectors are attached to the webbing.

On the box art, it seems that the figure is wearing a moustache but it is really hard to see on the face. The figure is standing like at the military parade making it hard to incorporate into a diorama.

Conclusion

Nicely cast with sharp details, but it was hard to give a time frame for the use of the figure in a diorama since UZI has been phased out, you cannot use it to depict recent conflict in the Middle East. The ammo pouch does not correspond to the UZI. Moreover you cannot change the weapon making hard to replace with a Galil or a M4.