In the modeling community, Osprey Publishing is well-known. I doubt that there is a modeler in this group who does not have something from Osprey in their bookshelves. They have several ongoing series that tackle a variety of topics, including the ‘Duel’ series. As the title suggests, each book concentrates on two similar pieces of equipment and how they stack up against each other. The sixty-sixth volume of the duel series tackles the opening campaign of the Second World War – the fall of Poland in the early fall of 1939. The author of the volume is David R. Higgins and the illustrator of the color plates is Richard Chasemore. At 80 pages of text, this is a fairly standard length for this series.

During the early 1930’s, the nation of Czechoslovakia was a leading European arms manufacturer, whose armaments industry was dominated by the giant Skoda conglomerate. In 1933-34, Skoda produced what became known as the LT vz.35 light tank, and this was accepted into the Czech Army, becoming its main tank. However, the tank suffered from numerous flaws, and was much disliked by its crews. Enter the firm of CKD, a conglomeration of various engineering firms, one of whose acquisitions was the Praga Works, makers of trucks/passenger vehicles/tractors. Praga decided to go into the tank building business, selling its products both to the Czech Army, and a number of export markets. With the poor experience with the LT vs.35 in their minds, as well as the need for rearmament due to the rise of Nazi Germany on its border, the Czech military looked around for a new tank design. Praga offered up its TNH design, which proved very reliable and certainly better than anything Skoda had to offer.

Hobby Boss released a 1/48 scale kit of the Blohm & Voss Bv 141 reconnaissance plane last year. The Bv 141 greenhouse canopy is comprised of many separate panels that require a lot of masking in order to paint the frames. Eduard has come to the rescue with a mask set for this kit. This set includes all the masks needed for all the clear parts on the kit as well as masks for the wheels.

This is the first time I have used Eduard masks for masking canopies and I have to say I am very impressed. The pre-cut masks fit all of the openings perfectly and in just over an hour I was finished masking all the clear parts. If I would have done this manually with tape, it would have easily taken me at least 5-6 times that long to do the same thing. For the round, machine gun window on the top of the canopy, you have to use either liquid mask or tape to fill in the center section as the Eduard set only provides the outline area.

Quickboost has added a set of exhaust stacks to their line aftermarket parts for the new 1/32 scale Revell Spitfire Mk.II. The Quickboost set provides a pair of exhausts that feature detail that closely matches the kit-supplied parts. These parts accurately depict the flattened shape of the openings in the first two exhausts in each stack and the circular opening of the last one.

The Revell kit provides exhausts with open ends, however, they are comprised of four parts, and the modeler must clean flash from the openings of each exhaust port prior to assembly.

Academy is re-releasing their 1/35 Tiger I, this one being the “Mid” version and in a special boxing for the 70^th Anniversary of D-Day.

Upon opening a large box you are greeted by 10 sprues –many of which are part of the “early” boxing- plus two small photo-etch frets (engine grille covers/zimmerit tool) and plastic tracks, representing the “combat” (wide) tracks.

The part count is considerable (over 250 parts) however several pieces won’t be needed. I estimate a bit over 200 parts are required to complete this model. All the parts are crisp, perfectly molded and have no flash.

This boxing does not include the full interior –as other boxings- but it has a new tooled turret. I will be honest, it looks very similar to the original one (still included in the box) however it is possible to see a slightly asymmetry when looking at it from the top. It is very subtle, but it is there.