introduction

BRAVO-6 lately released a weapons set of submachine guns and hand grenades that can be used for French Troops in Indochina and Vietnamese forces of Vietnam War.

about the kit

MAT-49 is a blowback operated, box magazine fed submachine gun which fires from open bolt. It was developed by Manufacture d’Armes de Tulle (MAT) in 1946 using the 9mm Parabellum cartridge and adopted by French Army in 1949. Widely used by French forces in Indochina, many found their way into the hands of Vietminh and Viet Cong. Vietnamese modified the weapon to fire 7.62mm ammunition and replaced the magazine capacity from 32 to 35.
There are three remarkable features of the weapon.
A - Sliding wire butt stock could be pushed forward out of the way for carrying and pulled to the rear if it was to be used in firing.
B - Magazine housing on the receiver could be rotated forward through 90-degrees (even with the magazine fitted) to lie along the barrel to save space when not in use.
C - At the back part of the pistol grip, there was a safety grip, which was operated by the action of squeezing the pistol grip when firing a round. When the grip safety was not squeezed, it locked the bolt in the forward position, and locked the trigger when the weapon was cocked. The lock was released by the pressure of the palm of the hand. The weapon could not be accidentally discharged.

Production was ceased in about 1979, when French army officially adopted the FAMAS assault rifle.

M37 is a French grenade made of sheet steel or aluminium. It weighs from 250 to 300 grams and can be used with several fuzes. It is known as DF37 or OF37 in different colors for defensive and offensive proposes.

packing & casting

Kit comes in standard light brown cardboard box and all parts are inserted in a transparent ziplock bag. A drawing how to make a wire buttstock covers the backside of the box. Resin quality is good and casting is flawless. Parts are served with casting blocks. They can be easily removed from blocks but keep in mind that barrels are always fragile and hand grenades are delicious food for carpet monster.

parts

Six submachine guns and eight hand grenades are given inside the kit. SMGs are cast in one piece so no assembly will be needed. Four of them are ready to fire and two are in storage position with front folded magazines. Hand grenades are cast in different types as 4 offensive and 4 defensive. All details are well defined.
Note that retractable SMG stocks will be made using copper wire and stencil block supplied as a kit part. How-to scheme on the box will be helpful on that. As a bonus, a French Mle51 canteen and a M3 fighting knife come on the stencil casting block.

conclusion

It can take interest and be useful for Indochina and Viet Cong modelers.