The kit is extremely well done with all the parts fitting together as they should. Revell even included chain to tie down cars and vinyl tubing to plumb all the hydraulic lines. The decal sheet has several new car window stickers that I thought was pretty neat.

There was very little to no flash on this kit, but the instructions were not very well done. Case in point – part #48, hydraulic line junction box. Instructions call for attaching two (2) to the underside of the frame. No problem there. The problem arise because there are twelve (12) of the part #48 and they’re not shown or mentioned anywhere in the instructions. You need to look at the box cover to discover the placement.

I have to mention that the completed kit is huge and will easily fit 6 cars and maybe even 8.

HOK white was used to paint the chassis and framing while HOK Galaxy grey was used for the ramps. I made the Crazy Auto Transport decals rather than using those supplied in the kit.

History Brief

The Mk VIII was the follow-up of the Mk VII without the pressurized cabin and differed little from it’s Mk VII sibling. All Mk VIII Spitfires were built solely by Supermarine. A few early production models had extended wingtips, but the majority had the standard version. There are three sub-variants; the LF Mk VIII for low altitude, the F Mk VIII for medium altitude and HF Mk VIII for high altitude. Each was powered respectively by the Merlin 66, Merlin 63 and Merlin 70 engines.

The Mk VIII served almost exclusively overseas in the Mediterranean, with both the Desert Air Force and the USAAF, in the Pacific with the Royal Australian Air Force and with the RAF in the China-Burma-India theater. After the Mk IX and Mk V, the Mk VIII was the third most numerous operational variant with 1,658 examples.

Eduard’s new SUPERFABRIC (the name alone conjures thoughts of Wile. E. Coyote, Super Genius in my mind…) is a new line of seat belts from the ubiquitous aftermarket manufacturer. This latest evolution of scale aircraft seat belts is different from the company’s prior iterations, in that there are no phot-etched parts, and no cutting of materials to use these. They are made from a vinyl like, self adhesive fabric. They are printed in color, and have nice details, consisting of stitch marks and the buckle hardware.

When my set arrived, I eagerly opened the envelope, and gave them the once over, and apart from the above mentioned niceties, something seemed off to my eyes. I double checked the packaging and instructions, and they claimed the appropriate scale is 1/48. I checked again. If these are truly in 1/48, then Imperial Japanese Navy pilots must have been completely covered by their seat belts! They are very much too large.

This is indeed a one of a kind armored vehicle. I think that only a single prototype was ever built. After some successful tests of Grille artillery in the Italian Front a decision was made to test a Flak 37 on a heavily modified Panther chassis. I think it even reached the prototype stage.

When you open the box you will find more plastic than for the average model, as all the parts for the Flak 37 are provided by Dragon Models and the chassis, armored sides and running gear is provided by Bronco. There are over 60 sprues and two small photo-etch frets.

Instructions are very clear, probably CAD line drawings generated from the actual CAD design for the molds. The overall surface detail is outstanding, as the accompanying pictures show. Detail is not limited to the armored vehicle as you also get tarps, bags, helmets and rifles but not figures are provided.

Ray Rimell’s follow up to ‘Hawa’! Volume 1 dives deeper into the Hannover CL. II and its variants. The cover features a Stan Stokes painting of a Hannover in action over the front lines. Ronny Bar contributes nine color side profiles, all up to his normal high standards. Mick Davis grabs the pullout centerfold with general arrangement line drawings of the Hannover CL.IIIa and the Hannover CL. III (Merc.). For those of you that still dabble in that odd 1/72 scale, Mick Davis also provides you with drawings of the same two aircraft. I counted seven color photos of the 180-hp Opel (Argus) motor located at the Science Museum in London. There are also an additional 54 black and white photos and over 150 drawings of the airplane components. Ian Stair provides a 1/48 general arrangement drawing of the Hannover CL. V along with fuselage sections and a few detail drawings.