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Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$20.17

This magazine is a listing of 1/35 scale plastic model kits for German armored fighting vehicles (AFV). Most kits are shown on one page with the manufacturer and name of the kit, plus the name of the modeler that built the sample model.

The text is mostly in Japanese, but the manufacturer, model name, and model are all listed in English also. This makes it easy to thumb through the photographs and identify the kit manufacturer. The models are all beautifully done and the color photographs illustrate the models very nicely. Some of the kits are not shown as built examples but rather photographs of the box art and sprues. There are also a few reference photos of the original vehicles.

An introductory section shows detail photos of assembly and painting of an AFV Club Schwerer Panzerspahwagen Sd. Kfz. 232, and a Dragon Tiger I.

The book includes the following sections

Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/700
MSRP
$42.00

Academy is re-releasing its well-known 1/700 Titanic, this time in a MPC (Multi-Color-Parts) format with an LED Light Set. Upon opening the box you will find 6 sprues (white, tan, black, brown, bronze and orange), plus the hull –in two parts, black and red hull- and the main ship structure, molded in white.

Construction of this kit is simple and broken down into 24 steps. You basically assemble the main ship structure, bow and aft deck, plus the hull as main subassemblies. The instructions are good and easy to follow and the fit is really good.

Please note this is not a “snap-tite” kit, you will need glue and many of the parts are actually pretty small so this is not a model for kids. I do believe a young modeler could assemble this kit with some adult supervision.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$54.95

Eduard continues its “full meal deal kits” this time with Accurate Miniatures 1/48th scale SBD-5. For those who haven’t seen them, Eduard takes a very good kit, adds resin, photoetch and masks and bundles it into one solid kit. Let’s look at the contents. First, the highly detailed Accurate Miniatures SBD-5 kit. The full kit is here with all the parts including optional position canopies, nice engine detail and wonderful engraved detail. There was the barest flash present on a couple parts only. The resin parts for this include the tires which have two optional outer hubs, a tail wheel and parts for the gun. The decals are from Cartograf and have five excellent options. Markings are provided for the following:

Book Author(s)
Tony Buttler
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Hikoki Publications
MSRP
$56.95

Tony Buttler was born in 1956, and joined High Duty Alloys in Redditch in 1974 as a metallurgist. For nearly 20 years he was closely involved in the testing of aluminum and titanium airframe and engine components for many of the world’s most important airplanes. It was during this timeframe that his interest in military aircraft grew into a passion. Since 1995, Tony has been a freelance aviation historian, with this book being his eighteenth major release. He has also written many titles for the Warpaint series of monographs as well as many articles for most of the popular historical aviation magazines.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.95

Ross at SAC just keeps cranking these things out. THANKS VERY MUCH for sending IPMS USA another of your expansive line of metal landing gear, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it on to me to review.

This is the now-expected, much improved upgrade to the kit plastic. The real SU-24 has a complex landing gear which is, per Russian standard, designed to allow the aircraft to operate from less-than-optimal runways. Trumpeter has done a great job in emulating their design engineering, but due to the limitations of injection molding, has turned the already complex gear into a more complex assembly. The main gear consists of one core (either metal or plastic, builder’s choice), two strut halves, two gear swing arm halves with axles, and detail parts and struts. To their credit, they include metal gear in the basic kit, which, when complete, does a great job of holding up this large aircraft (It’s the size of an F-111… that’s pretty big for a figher bomber).