Introduction

A night vision device (NVD) is an optical system designed to amplify light energy and electronically enhance viewing, thus allowing images to be produced in almost complete darkness. The heart of any night vision system is an image intensifier tube which magnifies the amount of available light from natural sources. Intensifier tubes consist of a photocathode and a microchannel plate: the photocathode converts light images to electron flow which is then amplified and converted back to the light image on the microchannel plate.

Night vision goggle (NVG) is a specific type of night vision device. Night vision binoculars are NVG consisting of dual eyepieces and magnification lenses. Night vision monocular, on the other hand, has only one eyepiece and can also be mounted to firearms as night sights.

Live Resin, an aftermarket company from Russia, specializes in producing high quality resin weapon and accessory sets in 1/35 scale. This review covers their US Army NVG PVS 15 Binocular with Norotos TATM mounts (LRE-35027) set.

Review

The US Army NVG PVS-15 Binocular set is safely secured in a standard Live Resin cardboard backing, with all the pieces packed in a zip-lock bag. The CAD box art on the front shows all the parts of the kit, while the one on the back demonstrates NVG installation procedure to Live Resin MICH helmet.

The kit consists of 10 AN/PVS-15 Binocular NVGs and 10 Norotos TATM mounts organized on 5 identical casting blocks. The parts are molded in grey resin and, although really tiny, the pieces are cast perfectly with loads of small details perfectly delivered in 1/35 scale. Here is some information on the kit contents:

AN/PVS-15 (M953) is a lightweight, compact, twin tube Gen III Image intensifier night vision goggle system manufactured by US Night Vision Corporation. AN/PVS-15 is a self-contained NVG system operating on a single AA battery; it features automatic brightness control, active projected infrared LED providing short range illumination allowing map reading and similar activities, and has improved "flash response" to maintain sharp image detail even through flares or lights. Twin optical tubes offer better depth perception than single tube designs and provide the same performance characteristics as found in aviator systems. The AN/PVS-15 can be used as a hand held binocular, or as helmet mounted NVG.
Norotos Titanium Advanced Tactical Mount (TATM) is built from Titanium, and 25% lighter than the performance spec. Knobs and levers are machined aluminum and are designed to have a different tactile feel to avoid operation confusion on the battlefield when they cannot be seen by the user. The TATM is designed with the standard bayonet-style NVG interface, so it will readily accept most NVGs.

The AN/PVS-15 NVG is presented very realistically in this set; the night vision device is extremely small in 1/35 scale, but incorporates well defined details which can be truly appreciated only under a magnifying lens. The Norotos TATM mounts in the set are depicted flipped up (5x) and flipped down (5x). The mounts fit well to any of the various MICH helmet sets available separately from Live Resin.

I was impressed by the photos Live Resin published on this website some time ago, showing the results which can be achieved by using all the different Live Resin accessories on a single figure. I attached several photos to this review as well. Looks very cool, doesn't it?

Conclusion

This Live Resin kit features a 1/35 scale rendition of AN/PVS-15, a Binocular NVG used by the US Special Forces. The cast is perfect and feature very small, but impressively detailed resin parts. With 20 pieces (10 copies of AN/PVS-15 and 10 Norotos TATM NVG mounts), this set presents a great value for money.

Thanks to Yaroslav from Live Resin for this review sample.

References

US NightVision
SpecWar Gear