/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B6-35024.JPG
Bravo 6 specializes in Vietnam figures and they are some of the best to be found. This set, their 24th, is also the third to cover the US Navy SEALs (Sea Air, & Land) teams.
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Inside the box, which serves as a painting guide, we find two resealable plastic bags. One contains the main castings of the figures, and the second the arms, weapons, and equipment.
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252001.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252002.JPG
The main castings have a few small pinholes which were hard to notice as I was extremely impressed with the sculpting. Removing the slag and castings sprues reveals an injured SEAL team member that looks like a surrealist painting and a large upright team member. Fitting them together showed the wonderful interaction and fit.
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252003.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252004.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252005.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252014.JPG
The best part is that the figures do stand balanced. In real life, I would think that the big one would fall backwards under the weight of the wounded team member, or should at least be hunched over. The standing one does have an M-60 machine gun to bring forth more weight and help balance. The poses are correct in depicting one of the methods used to carry a wounded comrade. In the last photo, I did not add the wounded soldiers left arm which is cast with the standing soldiers left handing grasping the wrist.
Now, let's look at the content of the second bag.
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252006.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252007.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252008.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252009.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252010.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252011.JPG
The weapons are nicely done and include an M-60 for the rescuer. The gun is missing the front sight which does appear as a PE blade in another of Bravo 6 sets. The second is an XM-148 weapon consisting of a Colt CG-4 with an early 40mm grenade launcher. Here, I did not like the launcher's sight being cast onto the weapon. I will try to shave it off, and reattach after reshaping the area under it. A simply fix is to replace the weapon. Simple cut off the carrying handle and use on of either Dragon's or Trumpeter's M-16 family weapons.
Checking with Les SEAL au Vietnam, by Eric Micheletti (Histoire & Collections), the pants are the correctly shown as unbloused and the variety of uniforms is normal. I did not find any photographs showing SEAL team members in denim pants on operations. While the US Navy does issue denim work pants, these were 'bell bottoms' and would look different from the pair portrayed on the figure even when folded up.
Looking at the sculpting of the fabric does make me believe that the sculptor, Vladimir Demchenko, was using a photograph as inspiration. The set looks wonderful and is highly recommended to add dynamic action.
Bravo 6 specializes in Vietnam figures and they are some of the best to be found. This set, their 24th, is also the third to cover the US Navy SEALs (Sea Air, & Land) teams.
------------------------------------
Inside the box, which serves as a painting guide, we find two resealable plastic bags. One contains the main castings of the figures, and the second the arms, weapons, and equipment.
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252001.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252002.JPG
The main castings have a few small pinholes which were hard to notice as I was extremely impressed with the sculpting. Removing the slag and castings sprues reveals an injured SEAL team member that looks like a surrealist painting and a large upright team member. Fitting them together showed the wonderful interaction and fit.
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252003.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252004.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252005.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252014.JPG
The best part is that the figures do stand balanced. In real life, I would think that the big one would fall backwards under the weight of the wounded team member, or should at least be hunched over. The standing one does have an M-60 machine gun to bring forth more weight and help balance. The poses are correct in depicting one of the methods used to carry a wounded comrade. In the last photo, I did not add the wounded soldiers left arm which is cast with the standing soldiers left handing grasping the wrist.
Now, let's look at the content of the second bag.
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252006.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252007.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252008.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252009.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252010.JPG
/gallery/albums/userpics/10065/B-3502425252011.JPG
The weapons are nicely done and include an M-60 for the rescuer. The gun is missing the front sight which does appear as a PE blade in another of Bravo 6 sets. The second is an XM-148 weapon consisting of a Colt CG-4 with an early 40mm grenade launcher. Here, I did not like the launcher's sight being cast onto the weapon. I will try to shave it off, and reattach after reshaping the area under it. A simply fix is to replace the weapon. Simple cut off the carrying handle and use on of either Dragon's or Trumpeter's M-16 family weapons.
Checking with Les SEAL au Vietnam, by Eric Micheletti (Histoire & Collections), the pants are the correctly shown as unbloused and the variety of uniforms is normal. I did not find any photographs showing SEAL team members in denim pants on operations. While the US Navy does issue denim work pants, these were 'bell bottoms' and would look different from the pair portrayed on the figure even when folded up.
Looking at the sculpting of the fabric does make me believe that the sculptor, Vladimir Demchenko, was using a photograph as inspiration. The set looks wonderful and is highly recommended to add dynamic action.