Academy 1/35 French Foreign Legion
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I bought this kit on sale in a surplus kits bin at my local hobby shop,
and I’m glad I did. I have not been a fan of Academy’s 1/35
figure kits - until now. Their French Foreign Legion Set was released
in 2002, and I was unaware of it until I came across it by accident. I
expected substandard moldings but was pleasantly surprised to find figures
that could give Italeri a run for their money. They are not quite up to
Tamiya standards as there are no real action poses among the six figures,
but this kit is good enough for me to buy an Academy figure set again
without hesitation.
 The
box art is excellent, depicting six Legionnaires in a variety of more
or less static, upright poses. The rear of the box contains a good color
photo of the six assembled and painted figures, together with a paint
guide. The photos add a bit of drama and highlight the variety of uniforms
employed by the Foreign Legion.
 Inside,
the kit has no instructions but assembling the figures is self-explanatory.
Included among the six Legionnaires you get one in tropical shorts and
fatigue shirt with knee-length leggings, one in a fatigue shirt and white
Legionnaire cap with pantaloons (long baggy trousers), sunglasses, and
sandals, two in formal parade dress, one of them in shorts, and two in
fatigues and berets. There are two types of head gear, the beret and the
well-known white Legionnaire dress cap. Each figure consists of about
six pieces, including separate heads. Figures sporting the beret have
the beret and the head molded as one piece.
The kit includes a variety of weapons: two MAT 49 submachine guns; two
MAS 36 rifles; one Mauser rifle; one AAT-52 machine gun, with a separately
molded, folded bipod; two assault rifles that I could not identify; two
bayonets; one ammunition box; two US pattern WWII era canteens; one helmet;
and an assortment of ammunition pouches. Finally there is a  pair
of extended wire stocks for the MAT 49’s. The Legionnaires do not
appear to have been big on side arms, as there are no holsters in this
kit. The only other deficiency is that there is no magazine or ammo belt
for the AAT-52 machine gun.
Conclusion
Overall the quality is surprisingly good, with tough, determined facial
expressions on the faces and good detail on the figures generally, on
par with Italeri kits if not Tamiya. The kit is accurate in that there
is an international variety of weapons and equipment, and in that two
of the figures are clearly African. Weapons detail varies from fair in
the case of the rifles to above average with the machine guns. Sergeants
chevrons and decorations are clearly molded on two of figures.
The unusual nature of this kit will be enough to stimulate any modeler’s
imagination. In my case, I began to plan a desert diorama, maybe depicting
French military intervention in Algeria.
References
Credit must be given to two sources that were indispensable in helping
identify the unfamiliar small arms in this kit: Infantry Weapons of World
War II by Ian V. Hogg, and Military Small Arms, edited by Graham Smith.
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