Will Alcott Black Dog US (Vietnam) equipment accessories set

While several manufacturers offer stowage sets for WWII or modern-era vehicles, this is one of very few to cover the Vietnam era. The set includes a total of 67 well-cast grayish-tan resin parts. The parts feature excellent detail, with no visible casting defects. The breakdown of the parts is as follows:
18 rucksacks (6 each of 3 different packs) The top two styles feature three external pockets, and generally resemble the standard Vietnam-era Lightweight Rucksack. The bottom style lacks the middle external pocket. US units sometimes used the ARVN rucksack, which did feature two external pockets, but the pockets were larger and closer together than this. All the rucksacks feature strap detail on their rear faces.
5 ice chests. These are generic Igloo-type ice chests/coolers. They feature recessed handle detail on the ends.
6 duffle bags.
6 wooden ammo boxes. These measure out to approximately 15 mm long x 6 mm wide x 3.5 mm deep. They generally resemble the Vietnam-era 105 mm howitzer ammo box, but they are a little too long. I haven't been able to find any reference on the box used for the M48's 90 mm ammo, so perhaps they are correct for this. The boxes are top opening, with nice wood grain amd strap detail and carrying rope handles on each end.
5 large bedrolls and 6 small rolls. I'm not sure what the small rolls are supposed to represent.
5 hot/cold food containers. I was hoping the kit would provide the ubiquitous Mermite hot/cold food container, but instead you get this fairly generic looking container. It has a rounded rectangular cross section and 5 raised ribs.
5 metal drinks containers and 5 plastic drinks containers. The metal containers look fairly generic, and could represent a civilian item. They are missing any representation of the spigot. The handle of one of the containers had broken off, but was still in the zip-close bag. This was the only breakage I came across. The plastic containers resemble the Cambro 4.75 gallon insulated drinks dispenser. While these are used by the US military, I suspect they are post-Vietnam era.
6 radios. These are the familiar AN/PRC-25 or AN/PRC-77 radio set on the manpack frame. The radio handset and cord are molded on. The antenna bag is also depicted. All the radios feature a rectangular block mounted to the bottom of the frame - this may be a secure voice unit, or perhaps a spare battery, but most photos of the set in use in Vietnam do not have anything mounted to the frame in this location. The radios are all attached to the casting stub on their rear side, so there is no strap detail for the manpack frame. It would have been nice to have some of the radios without the manpack frame. I suspect carving away the frame details would be more work than scratchbuilding a frameless radio.
Overall this is a great set, that will help dress up an M48, M113 or M551.
This model can be purchased from

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Article Last Updated: 05 May 2016