This is a wonderful kit that I enjoyed building. The model has nice detail, great fit of the parts, and makes a fantastic little model of a unique military vehicle. It’s very small, with some finely cast prices, so experience with small parts will be helpful. Thunder Model is a new Chinese model maker and this is their first release. The kit was released in September 2016, and will be followed by a loader version of the same tractor.

During World War II the Case tractor company produced more than 1.3 million howitzer shells, 200 sets of bomber aircraft wings, and 20,000 specialized war tractors and engines. From 1941 to 1945 the factory built over 15,000 special military tractors in roughly 40 variants, and over 4,000 tractor engines for the U.S. Army and the Allies were produced. The VA series of tractors was introduced in 1942 and continued in civilian production through 1956.

The Armstong Whitworth Whiley was a British twin-engined bomber that was in service at the start of WW2 and was the first to drop bombs on a German-held territory. Although it was slow and could only reach 15,000 feet loaded, it was a significant contributor at the beginning of the war.

The kit comes molded in a light gray plastic that is somewhat soft, but has a sturdy box. Looking into the box one sees that the elevators and rudders come as separate pieces, but the ailerons are molded to the wing. The tires have the flattened look and there are some sink marks in the bomb bay doors. Not knowing much about this plane, I followed directions and found that part D.32 did not fit well. It needed to be cut in half to allow it to fit in place.

Matthew Willis was born in the historic naval town of Harwich, Essex in 1976. Matthew studied Literature and History of Science at the University of Kent, where he wrote an MA thesis on Joseph Conrad and sailed for the University in national competitions. He subsequently worked as a journalist for Autosport and F1 Racing magazines, before switching to a career with the National Health Service, where he wrote everything from press releases to consultation papers. His first non-fiction book, a history of the Blackburn Skua WW2 naval dive bomber, was published in 2007. He currently lives in Southampton with his University lecturer wife Rosalind, and writes both fiction and non-fiction for a living. This is Matthew Willis fifth book, and fourth with Mushroom Model Publications. Matthew has also been published in four short-story anthologies with author J. A. Ironside. He has also authored many feature articles in aviation and scale modeling magazines.