U.S. MACHINE-GUNNERS M1917A1 BROWNING HEAVY MACHINE-GUN MASTERBOX 1/35

It is an American machine gun crew set. I think it was released relatively early in the master box kits. It is a familiar weapon of the Allied Army in various movies, dramas, battlefield photos, etc., for it has a characteristic shape of a machine gun which has a thick cylindrical shape water cooling device around the barrel.

I can’t say the quality of the attached decal is good. However, I am thankful to include such a decal in the kit.

The figure’s face mold is very good, but I will try to replace it with resin heads. I think it looks like a somewhat younger soldier than the original heads.

In order to give the stability of the figure, I cut the fishing weight to fit the empty space around the butt.

It is a cool pose, but the M1917A1 Browning machine does not have a water-cooled tank. In the box art, the tank was clearly drawn so I wanted this part to be attached. So I built a water tank from Tamiya’s accessory set. Making a water hose that connects to the barrel of the machine gun with a 0.5 mm brass wire and added the lid and chain from the stock parts. It is a little detail upgrade.

The master box painting instructions are hard to understand, anyway, I painted the uniform by referring to the TV drama, Combat or Band of Brothers. Also, this box painting was helpful. When I painted with khaki, khaki drab, olive drab, flat earth, dark yellow, sandy yellow, it became like US uniform.

Bullet belt was partly painted metallic colors.

M1917A1 Browning Heavy machine gun is an improved version of M1917 developed in 1917. It is a long-standing weapon that it is being used until the Vietnam War. We have experience in using the Japan Ground Self Defense Force. Water-cooled machine guns have difficulty in securing water on the battlefield, affecting mobility as well.

I painted the wool watch cap on the figure replacing head in olive drab.

I would like to be sure to attach insignia decals to every figure model like this machine-gun kit. Because it is rather troublesome as the data creation and coloring is not so good if I make the original decals.
(13-Apr-2017)