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Review Author
Rick Bellanger
Published on
Company
Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$7.00

Airscale is a British company producing fine quality aircraft instrument decals, and this is one of those. Unfortunately, I am no expert on instrumentation; can't really tell a tachometer from an altimeter.

Airscale provides a very detailed callout of each instrument dial on its instruction sheet and a locating number to show which dial it is. Very helpful. There are 44 different decals, each with its own number. The bad side is there is only one dial of each per sheet. Many of these are very small and the only way to see them is with magnification. The instruction sheet provides detailed instructions on how to apply them, and tips on their use.

The decals are printed with a lot of excess film surrounding them, so you will have to cut each one out very carefully or use a punch set (which I haven't seemed to master yet). They go down easily and set using any standard decal setting solution. I tried Microset and Solvaset and both worked with no problems.

Book Author(s)
David Doyle
Review Author
Rick Bellanger
Published on
Company
Squadron Signal Publications
MSRP
$17.95

After the American Civil War, the railroad gun became a common weapon system throughout Europe. They provided a rapidly deployable heavy artillery gun that could defend a coastline or bombard enemy positions and fortifications. By the end of World War I, these guns grew in caliber and popularity. In the 1930s, Hitler initiated several programs to develop and procure more of these systems. Krupp initiated its own design and this program resulted in the" 28cm Kanone 5 Eisenbahngeschutz." The name is often abbreviated to 28cm K5 (E) (Eisenbahngeschutz means railroad gun) and 24 examples, the largest quantity of any rail gun, were produced. They were initially deployed along the English Channel to support the invasion of Britain. After this aborted event, they were deployed on all fronts to support other actions.

Review Author
Rick Bellanger
Published on
Company
Wheeliant
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$6.95

A couple of new products from Wheeliant are two sets of Early Wheel Chocks for the U.S. Navy. They are cast in grey resin and come with simple details to set them apart. The instructions are adequate for assembly but give no painting directions.

Set 132-008, which is the "Blocks with Fixed Bar," comes with some small wire for the release fitting on the chocks. I had to drill and file the holes in the blocks to accommodate the bar. Only took a couple of seconds. Be sure you adjust the blocks to the wheel dimensions you are going to use them on before gluing the release cable and holder (piece # R-4). They are a sloppy fit and require a little more glue than you might expect, ultimately fixing the bar in place permanently.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Ace Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$24.95

The Vehicle

The Sd.Kfz.250/1 (neu) was a compact version of the SdKfz251. Its mission was to carry a scout section for reconnaissance purposes. There was a previous (alt) version which had multi-faceted armor plate which stood up better than the simpler flat plates used by the “neu” version. But because the older version was more difficult to build and cost more, the newer one became the standard in early 1944

The armor of the Sd.Kfz 250/1 could stop rifle caliber bullets and shell fragments, but didn’t stand up to anything heavier, such as a .50 caliber or larger weapon. The half track design was superior to wheeled armored cars when off-road, so the 250 was preferred in many situations.

The Model

Ace has produced a vehicle which we haven’t seen kitted previously. ESCI had a 250/9, but it’s a different vehicle in that it has a screened top to prevent insertion of grenades and other litter.

Review Author
Tom Pope
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$18.95

Introduction

Many of us were taken by surprise on May 2nd, 2011, when the President came on TV and announced Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been found and eliminated by a team of US Navy SEALs in a secret operation,"Neptune Spear." In the following days, after the dust had settled, we found that the mission had been accomplished at bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, using then-unknown-to-the-public, radar-evading or "stealth" helicopters.
Between May and September (only 3 - 4 months), Dragon was able to design a conceptual kit that captures what the Neptune Spear helicopters might look like and get their kit into production and on the store shelves. There was a little confusion during that 4 month period - the name of the actual operation was "Neptune Spear" and "Geronimo" was the code word indicating the operation had successfully taken down bin Laden, but that's neither here nor there.