Introduction:

An ammunition belt is a device used to retain and feed cartridges into a machine gun. Belt-fed systems minimize the proportional weight of the ammunition to the feeding device along with allowing high rates of continuous fire. Belts were originally composed of canvas or cloth, however those designs were prone to malfunctions. Later belts used permanently connected metal links to retain the cartridges during feeding. Modern ammunition belts use disintegrating links. Disintegrating links retain a single round and are articulated with the round ahead of it in the belt. When the round ahead is stripped from the belt and fed into the feed system or chamber, the link holding it is ejected and the link holding the following round is disarticulated.

The .50 Browning Machine Gun (.50 BMG) or 12.7x99mm NATO is a cartridge developed for the M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun. It was adopted by the US Army in the 1920s, and has been in continuous service ever since. There are more than 20 types of ammunition issued for use in the M2 Browning, color coded on the tip to enable identification of rounds. The ammunition is fed to the machine gun linked with the M2 or M9 metallic links in disintegrating belts.

Review:

The M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun ammo belts set (LRE-35053) comes packed in a zip-lock bag with the resin pieces additionally protected between a firm cardboard. The CAD boxart picture on the front shows all the kit parts, while the one on the back displays some of the possibilities of using this set. The box states this accessory set is compatible with all Live Resin kits featuring M2 machine guns, but also with any .50 caliber machine gun produced by other manufacturers.

The kit includes 4 different size .50 cal ammo belts: 52-round (4x), 28-round, 14-round, and 10-round belts. The longest belt is depicted completely straight, while the shorter belts are slightly bent. The parts are cast in grey resin. Besides some tiny flash residues, the casting is perfect.

The boxart picture displays the possibilities of using the short ammo belts from this set, each belt enumerated for easier recognition: the 10-round belt is designed to represent ammo feed belt going from the ammo can in Mk93 Ammo Can Holder to the M2 machine gun receiver, the 14-round belt depicts ammo feed belt going from the ammo can in Mk93 Multi-Purpose Ammo Can Holder to the M2 machine gun receiver, while the 28-round belt represents the ammo hanging from the weapon receiver. The longest belt can be used as is or trimmed to fit inside an ammo can. Additionally this belt can be bent, twisted, angled or similarly modified using hot water. Caution and a lot of patience is necessary to get optimal results.

The ammo belts look really good and the details on both the ammo rounds and belt links are masterfully executed in 1/35 scale.

Conclusion:

Need more ammo for your 1/35 scale .50 caliber machine guns? This set includes .50 cal ammo belts in different sizes, some even slightly bent to depict different ammo feed options. The casting is perfect and the details are impressively rendered. With some additional ammo cans, spent .50 cal shells and belt links available separately from Live Resin, is there anything more to ask for accessorizing the M2 weapon system?

References:

Wikipedia
Olive Drab website
Gary's Olive Drab page