This set from Voyager Models provides eight WWII style cal .50 Ammo Boxes with workable hinges as well as 10 small brass cal .50 rounds and clips to make a short length of ammo belt for fitting between the box and M2 receiver if used as ammo supply for any available M2HB cal .50 machine gun.

There are two small etched frets with good clean etchings that have relief on the parts for the details with some small parts that will require careful handling during assembly, especially for the ammo belt clips as we will see. There are the usual engraved bending lines to help form the box and lid as well as the 10 brass cal .50 rounds and a length of steel wire for the box hinges.

2 etched frets


Each box has two main parts with smaller detail parts added and it’s best to bend the hinge “fingers” using the wire provided before you bend the ammo box to shape. The steel wire is quite stiff and annealing this by running through a candle flame will help you straighten this and with cutting.

Main ammo box parts


The wire provided is used to bend the hinge sections and keeping the wire in place as you bend the boxes to shape will keep these intact during the bending process which is best done using a good quality etched bending tool and I used the EASYbend tool.

Fitting the lid to the box is quite easy and held in place with the short length of wire and any adjustments can be made with the wire in place ensuring the hinge segments remain intact and the remaining small details can be attached.

Assembling the ammo boxes.



Assembling the ammo belt clips is on the other hand is quite an exercise as the parts are extremely small and will test your patience as well as your eyesight and some form of magnifier will be beneficial.

Firstly the Y shaped clips are bent around two small drill bits; this ensures they stay in place until fitting together. That sentence was easier to write than it was to bend the clips and thankfully you get about 70 clips to go with the 10 brass rounds which allows for plenty of attrition which will occur.

After bending the clips these are then fitted together which again is quite a tricky task and I left one side of the clip on the drill bit to keep aligned and when the clips are intermeshed you slip a brass round through to join the clips. This is repeated for the full ammo belt but just the three clips I used for this review took about 1 hour to put together providing you have not gone insane in the meantime.

But the end result does look impressive and persevering will certainly produce a very detailed .50cal ammo belt.

Finally is the fact that the assembled ammo belt will actually fit inside the ammo box for a more realistic appearance when fitting the box and ammo belt to the M2 cradle.

Ammo belt clips showing the Y shaped clip, the two drill bits used for bending the clips to shape,
the shaped clips and assembled belt with three rounds fitted.

Assembled clips on metric ruler for some idea of the small sizes involved.

Assembled clips fit inside the etched ammo box as they should.

Conclusion

This set provides nicely detailed cal.50 ammo boxes that are quite easy to assemble with the hinges providing good definition even if you glue the boxes closed and the eight boxes per set is quite good value.

Assembling the ammo belt with the very small clips will tax your patience but as mentioned the end result does look impressive but only getting 10 rounds limits the length of belt you can make to just enough to go from the ammo box to the M2 receiver.

Recommended to add some nice detail to any M2 MG providing you are prepared for a bit of assembly work. 7.5/10

Thanks to Voyager Models for the review set.