Four resin sets I received from Goffy for review contain a lot of goodies for modelers building Israeli vehicles in 1/72 scale. I expect many such modelers will buy all four sets to have more variety of crew gear and stowage, so I decided to review all these sets together.

All sets are packed in the same way in small cardboard boxed. In each box we get plastic zip-bag with all resin parts inside. No protective filler (e.g. styrofoam chips) are added to boxes, what caused some problems described later. On each box lid is a label with rather fuzzy picture of painted contents of the set.

In sets we get:

Set Part 1 (7230): 12 folded-up stretchers, 18 fuel/water cans (six of them with molded on straps and another six with molded on vehicular holders), four large and six small unidentified rolls, 6 radio packs, 6 open and 6 fastened small backpacks and six RPG-7 or similar launchers (there were eight in my set, but six are shown on the box).

Set Part 2 (7231): 6 tiny rolls, six larger and six smaller crates, 24 helmets, 11 Galil rifles, 6 backpacks with barrel launched grenades for Galil, six backpacks with some longer grenades (for RPG?) and six fire extinguishers in vehicle mounts.

Set Part 3 (7232): 14 rolls in three sizes and shapes, 12 armor vests (with and without ammo pouches), 24 tanker helmets, 6 duffel bags and 15 Uzi guns (at least in my set - there are just 11 shown on the box label).

Set Part 4 (7233): 12 FN MAG machine guns (at least I guess this is what they were supposed to be); six smaller and six large backpacks; six rolls - sleeping bags maybe?; six belts with various equipment strapped on (ammo pouches, canteens), six vehicular smoke grenade launchers with canvas covers on them, twelve ammo cans on ammo trays (six smaller - possibly for FN MAG and six larger - probably for .50 cal M2HB gun) and six things, which I believe are mounts for FN MAG - e.g. for M113 vehicle.

Parts in all sets are generally cleanly and crisply cast with little flash and few air bubbles. Only weapons parts are molded with a lot of flash around them, particularly Galil rifles in set 7231. Details are usually well sculpted, maybe with exception of FN MAGs, which hardly resemble the real thing. Resin casting blocks should pose no major problems during removal, although some care is needed to avoid damaging fragile parts.

The biggest flaw in all four sets is the way resin parts were packed in boxes. The lack of any protective filler (bubble wrap or styrofoam chips) caused more fragile parts to break into pieces. More chunky parts survived it without any problems, but more delicate ones suffered badly. In set 1 handles of some stretchers handles were broken off and RPG launchers also were broken in a few places. Some Galil rifles in set 2 lost their barrels, others lost butts. One FN MAG in set 4 also lost butt. Uzis in set 3 survived quite well, although most of them fell off casting blocks and most also lost tiny barrel tips. In most cases broken parts were still present in plastic bags and reattaching them should be possible with some effort.

IDF equipment sets should be very useful for modelers building Revell 1/72 scale Merkavas and other small scale Israeli vehicles. Goffy should revise their packaging methods to better protect resin parts, but casting and design quality is very good. I think however that composition of four sets is not the best. For example: who needs 24 infantry or 24 tanker helmets?... Or 15 Uzi guns?... It would probably be better to include less copies of each part, but provide larger variety of different items in each set. This means also that the number of sets could be reduced to three or maybe even two. On the other hand at €8.00 these sets are not very expensive, so modeler building A LOT of Israeli vehicles would probably buy all of them and actually be happy to get so many parts inside.

Recommended!


Many thanks to Petr Zatrepalek of Goffy Model for the review sample!

Goffy Model products are available from Modelimex Online Shop. For other sources, contact Goffy Model at [email protected].