Prolific ICM is back again with another new offering – this time it is in the form of a re-purposed, French FCM 36-based Tank Destroyer, designated the Marder I. This diminutive vehicle is actually (physically) larger than its other ‘Marder I’-designated cousins, the Lorraine and Hotchkiss-based vehicles. ICM’s kit sports a single piece barrel with a two-part muzzle brake and poly/nylon track that comes in four pieces. A nice, three-piece exhaust is rendered at the rear, and enough 75mm plastic rounds are included to fill two ammunition racks in the fighting compartment.

ICM is not only producing a lot of new kits these days, but they have also introduced a line of acrylic paints, a few of which were used in this build. A separate IPMS review of these paints can be found here.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) is a tracked fighting vehicle platform of the United States manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, formerly United Defense. It was named after U.S. General Omar Bradley.

The Bradley is designed to transport infantry or scouts with armor protection, while providing covering fire to suppress enemy troops and armored vehicles. The several Bradley variants include the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and the M3 Bradley cavalry fighting vehicle. The M2 holds a crew of three (a commander, a gunner, and a driver) along with six fully equipped soldiers. The M3 mainly conducts scout missions and carries two scout troopers in addition to the regular crew of three, with space for additional BGM-71 TOW missiles.

The RS-132

The RS-132 is an unguided Russian rocket which officially entered service in 1938. It was not known for its accuracy and in one test had no hits in 134 firings. During WWII, its performance was poor since it was usually fired from great distances. It required a direct hit to disable light and medium German armor. Near misses caused no damage at all. It was mostly effective when fired in salvos against large groups of ground troops.

The Kit

The box contains four identical gray sprues containing a total of 104 parts which build up to create four ammunition boxes each holding four shells.

The parts are crisply details and flash free. A double-sided instruction guide is provided. The seven assembly steps are very well illustrated. The color callouts correspond to three colors (olive green, flat black and steel) for which the Tamiya and Revell codes are provided.

C'est une magnifique publication, riche en prose et en photographie. Présentée en français, mon manque de maîtrise du français me fait passer à côté de la qualité de la prose, mais la photographie ne nécessite pas de traduction précise.

In English - This is a magnificent publication, rich in prose and photography. Presented in the French language, my lack of command of French means that I am missing out on the quality of the prose, but the photography and the captions for the images does not require precise translation.

While the book is in the French language, some ability to read and understand French would be extremely helpful. My command of French is, at best, that of a six-year old. But even with a remarkably disappointing ability to speak and write in French, I found that the captions of the photographs were not at all difficult to roughly translate and to understand. When all else fails, one can seek an online translation tool.

Contents

• Introduction - 1
• Design & Development - 3
• Humvee in Detail - 19
• In Service & In Action - 25
• Humvee Variants - 29
• Camouflage & Markings - 33
• Model Showcase - 41
• Modelling Products - 53

This is my second review of one of the Land Craft series books (the prior one covering the Land Rover and it’s many uses. This is the sixth in the series called “Land Craft”. As I read and reviewed the earlier book, this book covering HUMVEE no less rewarding in its comprehensive coverage of this ubiquitous vehicles. While I have seen a great many HUMVEEs I had no idea about the total numbers in service with Army (120,000) and the Marine Corps (20,000). These are very heavy, with the base weight of approximately 5,200 pounds, and the many other versions even heavier.