Introduction
Djiti's Production is a fairly new model company from France, specializing in 1/35 scale resin figures and AFV accessories/conversions. Djiti's Production latest figure releases depict French ISAF troops, a fresh theme in the figure modeling world... The first in the series is French ISAF Soldier (35005), a figure depicting a French soldier inspecting an old Lee Enfield rifle confiscated from an enemy weapon stash.
Review
The kit arrived safely protected in a plastic blister case which features the painted figure as the boxart picture. A single zip-lock bag contains 6 figure parts:
• full body with legs,
• head,
• left and right arm,
• 2 weapon pieces.
The parts are cast in grey resin and are mostly clean of casting imperfections; I did notice two thin seam lines along the legs of the figure and one seam line going along the bottom of the Lee Enfield rifle... not very pronounced but those still need to be carefully removed. I also noticed couple of minor air-bubbles which can be easily filled with putty. Be careful while cleaning the weapon parts as those are very delicate. The assembly of the figure is quite straightforward and the fit of the parts is quite good. The only thing I don't really like is the fit of the confiscated weapon to the hands of the figure... the grip is too loose and no matter how I positioned the arms, the rifle seems to be "floating" on the hands. The description on Djiti's homepage states the modeler can use different confiscated weapons (ie RPG) with this figure, and I think this was the idea behind this kind of figure break-up.
The figure depicts a French ISAF soldier inspecting an old Lee Enfield rifle probably discovered in a hidden Taliban weapon stash. I managed to find a photo album of French ISAF troops with confiscated weapons and perhaps those were used as an inspiration for sculpting this figure. The figure is wearing new style OPEX Guerrilla combat shirt and uniform trousers with privately purchased Magnum boots. Much more comfortable than the old F2 uniform and with low IR signature, Guerrilla is the new standard uniform issued to French troops in Afghanistan. The new combat shirt eliminates bulky fabric from the chest/back areas and is constructed from a special fabric blend which reduces the severity of burn injuries and helps protect against flash fires, but also breathes, wicks away moisture, and dries quickly. Designed to be combined with body armor, the shirt pockets are displaced to upper sleeves.
The most prominent features of Guerilla pants are an adjustable belt, reinforced seat and knees, 2 front slash pockets, 2 back pockets and 2 large cargo pockets. The figure is also wearing Releasable Assault Vest (RAV) by MSA Paraclete. RAV features single-point release, full PALS webbing, sewn-on drag strap, integrated drink tube and communication channels, zip-off back panel and full modular system of add-on accessories. Several different MOLLE modular pouches are sculpted on the vest. As for the headgear, the figure sports TC F helmet made by MSA Paraclete. TC F is the new helmet issued to French ISAF troops; it replaced older style Spectra helmet.
The figure is armed with the latest version of FAMAS, a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured in France by MAS. FAMAS is the standard rifle of French military and the weapon portrayed in this kit features extra forward grip and an additional Aimpoint Red Dot scope mounted on the handguard.
All the equipment is very nicely executed in scale and it is obvious the sculptor did his homework as I found an excellent match to the references I gathered on French ISAF. The details on the Guerilla uniform are finely rendered with the folds well defined. Both RAV body armor and TC helmet look great, too. The FAMAS is particularly nice, a weapon shape not easy to reproduce realistically in scale... with the latest gizmo's like additional optic scope and forward grip, the FAMAS really looks amazing.
Conclusion
This kit is a very nice addition to the growing list of non-US modern figures. The anatomy of the figure looks good and it is sculpted well with lots of details. The cast is good although I did find some minor molding flaws. All the equipment looks spot on. I'm really looking forward to seeing more in this French ISAF figure series from Djiti.
References:
http://www.tac-store.com/http://www.thomasgoisque-photo.com/site.php?page=reportages&spec=def&id=64#http://world.guns.ru/assault/fr/famas-e.html
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