On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France, intending to use an early form of blitzkreig to force a surrender within roughly 40 days. Moving their forces through then-neutral Belgium, the Schlieffen Plan was to sweep down from the north and quickly take Paris, enveloping the French forces as well.

Things, as they say, did not go as planned. Germany’s violation of Belgian neutrality quickly brought Britain into the war. The combined French and British forces, after retreating some 160 miles, regrouped in the Marne River Valley, some 25 miles from the outskirts of Paris. By then, the Germans were stretched thin, exhausted after the month-long campaign with severe shortages caused by outrunning their own supply lines.

General Joffre, in charge of the joint Allied forces, commanded a counter-attack on the depleted Germans. One of the most famous incidents associated with the battle was the rapid movement of the French forces to the front using an army of taxis from Paris, a particularly clever tactic at a time when armies still moved on foot for the most part.

Threatened with an encirclement of both the 1^st and 2^nd armies, the Germans retreated about 40 miles back to the Aisne River and dug in, ending the assault. By then, the immediate threat to Paris and the Allied Forces was essentially over. Although this action is generally referred to as the First Battle of the Marne, the French referred to it as the “Miracle de la Marne” (Miracle on the Marne) – a term which is still used in France to this day.

Over the last few years, ICM has released a truly wonderful collection of World War 1 infantry – in my humble opinion some of the best plastic figures on the market even now. This lovely reboxing includes no less than five sets depicting early war uniforms.

This includes:

• French Infantry in the original colorful blue and red uniforms
• British Infantry with the original stiff peak caps
• German Infantry in the original uniform with pickelhaube helmets
• British machine gun crew in the early uniform
• German machine gun crew in the early uniform

All three infantry sets feature three regular soldiers and an officer. Included with every set in this collection is a sprue with dozens of useful items of equipment, offering all manner of conversions and upgrades for the figures supplied. These alone are worth the price of the entire set.

With the exception of the French Infantry, the figures follow a fairly standard breakdown. The French, with their long coat fold-backs, require a bit more care in assembly than the rest. All of the figures are on the large size of 1/35^th, making them compatible with any 1/32^nd scale WW1 figures or accessories you may already possess. All equipment is separate, and as stated before, a large variety of alternative gear is offered to permit quite a bit of variation, including weapons and helmets – and in the case of the French, even a coffee grinder.

As can be seen by the associative pictures, all of these figures paint up quite well, and the faces are beautifully distinctive and full of character. The diorama possibilities are literally endless.

Just to see what could be done, I built a fair number of the figures “as is” from the kit. However, the machine gun crews fired my imagination, so I did a little light converting. I replaced the heads for the German crew with Jaeger heads, available from Scale Link, just to make them a bit more distinctive. Otherwise, this set is straight from the box.

I discovered to my delight that the British machine gun crew fit into ICM’s armored Ford model with little effort. I left the backpack off the gunner, but otherwise needed to make no alteration. The ammunition feeder was altered to an observer simply by replacing the ammunition belt with binoculars from the provided equipment sprue.

If you’ve never tried this wonderful range of figures, this is a good place to start, offering some of the best belligerents from that early conflict available all in one package. Once you’ve tried them, I suspect you’ll go after other figures from this same range. ICM offers quite a number of sets spanning all participants and every theater of operation. When it comes to WW1 figures, I don’t think any other manufacturer comes close. You won’t be disappointed.

My thanks to ICM for re-releasing these wonderful kits and to IPMS/USA for yet another chance to experience them. As you probably know, ICM has had a nasty direct experience with the ongoing war against Russia, and can use all the support we can offer. We wish them all well and look forward to them going back into full production. Happy modeling, everyone, and stay safe.