Review

Gecko Models seems to be heavily into releases covering the Vietnam war at the moment. A number of animal sets have been released, heavily featuring water buffalo but this offering features cattle being used to tow a farmers cart loaded with what is probably rice. Beginning with the cart, you are presented with a simplistic wooden style cart basically featuring a flat wooden bed, 2 pieces of timber that work as the chassis, wooden wheels and slated side panels to keep the items on the cart. The load for the cart covers as I said I believe are sacks of rice, and there are 7 different rice sack styles but I cannot see the obvious difference in them except at the opening seam. 

The 2 cattle provided for this release are my only dis-appointment due to the fact that they are duplicated. The detail on the cattle themselves is good in my opinion, but some of the gates will require careful cutting to avoid damage to the moulds themselves. What I would suggest you consider here is some surgery on one of the cattle to make its presentation different from the other, or replace one of the cattle with an alternative beast of burden. 

2 figures are included in this release, with a female in suitable garb placed at the rear of the cart in a standing pose and the typical woven grass hat of the period. The male figure who is driving the cart is in a kneeling position that I think would get uncomfortable pretty damned quick. However, with that said, the details of the clothing and the creases are well done as are the hand and facial features. A quick look at the artwork on the face of the box shows that the male figure is holding a cane to encourage the animals, this is not present in the box and I suspect would be best replicated using a thin wire. The rope used to attach the farmer to the animals is I believe a pleasing representation of the rope used. However, it is quite stiff and so I suggest wetting it, placing it on the model as required and then allowing it to dry in a natural position.