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Squad 48
US Tank Crew WWII
Squad 48 Set #AOW48/01
1:48 Scale
Review by Terry Ashley

ArtOfWar are a new Singapore based company who have released their first set under the Squad48 label of a US Tank Crew WWII in 1:48 scale.

The set contains 13 parts in light grey resin to make up a five man tank crew with three full figures and two half figures for the driver and co-driver and a single M3 grease gun.

The resin parts are nicely cast in the main but there are some quite large casting blocks to be removed from a couple of the figures and there are unfortunately a few large air holes that will cause problems. The most serious is right in the driver’s face where his nose is just a large hole making for an interesting look with another large one on the co-driver’s wrist plus a few smaller ones to deal with.

Care will be needed when removing the extra casting blocks from under the co-driver’s arms and from the back of the sitting figures left leg so as not to compromise the detail plus there is some minor resin film and minor casting seams to be removed from around the figures and again care should be taken when cleaning this up.

The uniform details are a little soft in places compared to the details on other 1:48 figures from Gaso.Line and Warriors but mostly the details are okay with natural sit of the jackets and good fabric folds and will come up okay with careful painting.
The figures are wearing typical later war winter combat jackets with four figures wearing leather tanker’s helmets and the other an M1 steel helmet.

Anatomically the standing figures are a little tall scaling out a bit over 6 feet tall, which was unusual for WWII figures and the relaxed standing figure has his left upper thigh noticeably thinner then the right.

The three full figures have the bodies cast in one piece with just the arms and heads separate and the fit of the parts was mostly good but you need to watch when removing the casting blocks from the arms as taking off too much resin can affect the angle of the arm when attached to the body.

The heads have long necks but there is no locating holes on the body and you have to trim the necks to get the right sit and angle of the head, but I found it easier to drill appropriate sized holes in the body to take the neck which made things easier and I also reduced the height of the folded up collars on a couple of the figures as this seemed a little high.

On a minor note the box top illustration shows the driver and co-driver in the wrong hatch going by the poses of the figures but this is easy to fix by just swapping them around while the other figures have one with legs crossed leaning against the Commander’s hatch ring with one sitting in the side of the turret while the third standing figure can be posed anywhere on or next to the vehicle as you wish.

Conclusion:
Overall a nice set of figures for a first up effort with nice uniform details that while not as crisp as others will come up okay with careful painting and fairly easy assembly but a few air hole blemishes marred the set, but this is probably just a one off with this set and not the normal.

The figures can crew the Tamiya M4 or the older Bandai/Fuman Sherman kits and of course the forthcoming M4/M10 kits from Tamiya.

Recommended for 1:48 fans

Resin parts
Squad 48Squad 48
Assembled figures
Squad 48Squad 48
Squad 48

Thanks to YS Wong of Squad 48 for the review set.
Squad 48 by ArtOfWar
121 Tagore Avenue,
Green Meadows
Singapore 787 711
koka@pacific.net.sg



Page created 4 June 2005

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