Clayton takes time to put together (& partially paint) ICM's 1/35th scale Tank Crew or the Armed Forces of Ukraine kit. See what he thought of the set in his review...
Construction review: Tank Crew or the Armed Forces of Ukraine
From ICM
1/35th scale
Kit No #35756
When I took on the Magic Factory M2A2 Ukrainian Bradley for review a couple of months ago, I didn’t really think about what that would mean to some people and the way it would make me feel given the subject matter was actively engaged in a current conflict. It actually caught me a little off guard, so take this review for what it's worth. I’m just a guy who builds models for enjoyment looking and a few lumps of plastic...
So, with that aside, I’d like to bring you a first look at the newly released figure set by ICM—Tank Crew of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 1/35th scale.
The box art promotes 4 Ukrainian soldiers interacting with a tank. The style of packaging has that recognisable ICM flavour to the illustration.
The scaled-back poses are shown on the side of the packaging in a simplified way.
The figures come as part of one single sprue fret, and interestingly, you get a fifth figure and a dog.
When looking at ICM’s new releases, I see they have announced a Special Edition Leopard 2 with a full crew set that shows the five figures and the dog, so I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have promoted that in this release? Maybe to make the Leopard 2 release that little more enticing?
The instruction sheet even blocks out the details for that figure and the dog. It seems like quite an odd thing to do.
The simplified illustrations of the figures from the side of the box are included in a larger form on the instruction sheet, and a very basic ‘template’ for recreating the unique multi-cam pattern for the suits is suggested using combinations of 5 different colours.
It seems like a case of minimum possible effort with this painting guide.
Painting these figures could be the challenge with this set, with the Ukrainian crews wearing predominately digi-cam overalls. You may get away with the fine dots and disruptive pattern at a distance, but painting that in 35th scale is always tricky.
On close inspection, the plastic seems to be quite rough or grainy, for lack of a better word. Although the dog isn’t advertised as part of the kit, animals also come as a welcome inclusion in these figure sets, as they can be used in just about any diorama setting.
We have come to expect a lot from our injection-moulded figures these days, so maybe I am setting the bar too high, but the sculpts and details on the figures seem excessively simplified, and the facial sculpts are 'soft‘ at best.
You can also notice faults in the moulding process with fault lines running through the mid-section of the torso.
A better look at the fault lines I am talking about. I’m not sure what causes it, but it’s something that would need to be addressed prior to painting the figures.
The sculpts through the legs and boots present in a slightly more acceptable way but are still very basic.
I hate being overly critical, but as you can see, the detail and effort that has gone into the fascial sculpts in particular is really not good enough by today’s standards, and I’d suggest aftermarket replacements for the heads is non-negotiable if you were considering this set.
For all you U2 fans out there, you’ll be pleased to see The Edge is featured in the set.
Looking at some of the other figures, it seems to be a reoccurring theme. Some of the facial sculpts are slightly better than others, but the oversimplified nature of the forms is pretty hard to look past.
The head gear comes as a three-piece assembly that nests in with the shapes on the head. The detail looks OK in these pieces and fit over the heads reasonably well, but they seem to be quite overscale once in place.
I painted these figures as best I could use a number of techniques using acrylics and oil washes; however, I could never get a result I was happy with for the faces. Yes, my figure painting skills have a long way to go, but when you are starting from such a simplified , soft base, it can be very difficult to get the look you see in your minds eye. You really have to work for a result on these figures.
It’s also worth noting that I added some aftermarket hands on one of the figures that made a world of difference to those elements.
I quickly painted a couple of figures to give you a feel of what they look like assembled and painted. For the multi-cam pattern, I used a decal set I found online from Live Resin. I can’t recommend that set highly enough, and they saved me from embarrassing myself trying to recreate that complex digicam scheme.
CONCLUSION
When I was building the Bradley, I’d wanted to pose some figures around it but found it incredibly difficult to source anything suitable. ICM is clearly addressing that opportunity in the market and is currently building a collection of figures from this ongoing conflict. The poses and geometry of the figures are quite nice and are very usable posed around a fighting vehicle.
The downside is, however, that there is a lot of room for improvement here. The quality of the plastic and the sculpts really isn’t good enough for a modern-day manufacturer. If you are wanting to use these figures, I’d strongly recommend factoring in aftermarket heads and hands to at least elevate those human elements on the figure.
Clayton Ockerby
Thanks to ICM for sending this kit to Clayton to review for you. You can find out about ICM's other releases on the ICM plastic model kits website
See more of Clayton's amazing works on his YouTube Channel, his modelling portal "Workbench Hobbies," or his Facebook page
