Has anyone used Blackops’ flexible ammo belts? I’m wondering how flexible they truly are. Can they be realistically be draped on a figure?
An example with a 1:35 figure on BlackOps Models website. They talk about flexible resin, they say it is easy to give a shape but don’t specify the method.
Perhaps you still have to heat a bit the resin.
H.P.
Hmmm. Certainly flexible, but doesn’t seem to hang very well. Maybe with some figure modifications to suggest the weight, and some precision glueing might provide some realism. It seems like almost everyone in a combat situation in Vietnam had one or two belts hung on them.I recently saw a photo of a guy spraying the jungle with his '60. His assistant had a huge “roll” of belts to feed the gun. Of course I didn’t save the photo, and now can’t find it again.
Thanks to my Fine French Fellows for your inputs. Merci beaucoup!
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You’re welcome 
H.P.
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And despite any flexibility of the belt along the length of the belt, there’s the lateral flexibility that never seems to be addressed — the belt curving in the plane of the belt. Notice in the photo where the belts wrapped around the guy’s body are bent with the cartridge bases closer together (behind his left hand, or above the breech of the M60), like laying the belt flat on a table and bending it left or right in an arc. If you can’t get the belt to bend that way, you’re not going to get it to hang right on a body the way you see it in photos.
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Yes. Excellent point. Thank you.
Have you had any success? I imagine many, many fine slits will give some flexibility as the belt is slowly fitted and glued to the figure.
Realism is definitely not easy.
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I accidentally clicked on the photo and it popped up on Reddit with an entirely different background! Speaking of the background, that guy definitely needs a chiropractor. Even my posture is better than that, and I got 50lbs of belly hangin’ on me!
I suspect there was some AI involved in the smaller picture so I’ve edited my post 
H.P.
Interesting. Thank you for the update. I thought the one with the ARVN was the altered one. The lighting looked a little off. No matter, it’s the belt arrangement that’s important. Thank you again
Interesting topic. I wasn’t aware of Blackops flexible belts. Do they do any German ones? Generally speaking, it’s not just Vietnam where you see squad members festooned with ammunition. The introduction of fast-firing GP machine guns, such as the German MG34, MG42 and the US M60 and British GPMG required all soldiers to supplement the ammunition of the squad weapon. It was usual for every member of a German squad to carry 50 rounds belted for the MG34/42, as its voracious appetite for ammunition meant enough could not be carried by the crew alone. In fact, this had always been the case, it was normal in the British Army even in the days of the Bren gun, for riflemen to carry a couple of extra magazines each. Subsequently when the “Jimpy” was introduced 50 rounds belted (a standard belt) would be the normal load.
I can’t say exactly what is available, but I do know they have a fairly wide selection.
Yes, everyone has to slog ammo for the squad weapons, mortar and rocket rounds as well, but I don’t recall seeing soldiers of earlier conflicts sporting bandoliers of belts, as you see in Vietnam. I’m not saying they didn’t, just that I personally haven’t seen that very much. Normally, especially in scale figures, troops are carrying boxed ammo. I think I would prefer bandoliers over boxes for the simple reason of weight distribution. But I’m not a soldier, merely an observationist.
Just for the record I get fairly good results with these; admittedly, they’re more likely to populate ammo boxes on a tank turret MG than a torso, but I find them very useful - pre-coloured too:
Interesting. Are they photo etch thin?
Well, sort of; flat one side and the other embossed as it were with details; I made a mistake earlier, and had convinced myself they were pre-coloured; they’re not, but of course, being brass helps a lot, (though I’m aware that rounds these days are often not made of brass) leaving only the actual bullets to be painted. Whether or not they’d work on a figure, ie being wrapped around, I don’t really know. However, for the ammo boxes on mainly the Commander’s MG on AFVs they’re just what I want.
Flexible resin ammo belts are nothing new, they’ve been around for years. While the newer ones are 3D printed in flexible resins, older ones were resin cast in flexible material. I have sets from Barrel Depot that are easily 15 years old.
Chino Model does a set for the MG 34/42
Thanks. Any ideas where I could get them? I’m in the UK. I wonder if Historex might have them.
Hobbylink Japan stocks Chino. I’ve also purchased from the Japanese proxies like Buyee and Japan Rabbit, which is typically cheaper then HLJ even with the service fees.