COBI 37 mm GMC M6 Fargo Set 3116

COBI's 37 mm GMC M6 Fargo is a 1:35 model built from 230 blocks, 16 cm long, produced under RAM licence, with a purpose-made brick for the Dodge radiator grille and a 37 mm gun mounted in the truck bed. The figure is unusual: an American soldier shaving, with foam on his face and a helmet of water in front of him. Accessories and a rifle are included.

It was obsolete before it arrived

The M6 is a three-quarter-ton Dodge truck with an anti-tank gun bolted to the back, facing rearwards. There is no armour at all. The crew sat in an ordinary cab, and the gunners stood in the open bed.

The idea was tank destruction by ambush: drive up, shoot, drive away. The problem was the gun. The 37 mm was already marginal against German armour when the M6 was designed in 1942, and by the time enough of them reached North Africa it could not penetrate anything worth shooting at. The army declared the type unsatisfactory and withdrew it from service in 1943, after around 5,300 had been built.

Many were handed to other Allied forces or stripped of their guns and used as trucks, which is what they had always really been.

The shaving figure

COBI has made a deliberate choice here. Most sets in this range include a soldier in a fighting pose. This one is a man having a wash in a helmet, which is what the overwhelming majority of a soldier's war actually consisted of.

Specifications

Pieces: 230 · Figures: 1 with accessories · Scale: 1:35 · RAM licence
Model dimensions: 16 × 7 cm (6.3 × 2.8 in)