Mushroom Model Publications continues expanding its Green Line series devoted to armor units. Its latest installment is “9. Panzer Division 1940-1943.” Given the timeline on the title, one can only speculate that this book will be followed up by a second volume devoted to the history of the unit in 1944-1945.

The German 20-mm anti-aircraft gun with crew Flak 38 is part of Zvezda’s “Art of Tactics” war-gaming series. You get 20 dark gray flexible plastic pieces with minimal flash; you also get a game card with games stats for the “Art of Tactics” game. The instructions are very well illustrated with four sequences of assembly; even though there is no number sequence you should have no problem figuring out what goes where. The detail is exceptional and the best I’ve seen in this scale for the Flak 38. The two crew figures are up to Zvezda’s usual high standard and have little flash. The kit is designed for snap assembly and can easily be assembled with no glue.

Part 1

For years I have had the desire to build a U.S. Coast Guard MH-60J, but just couldn’t convince myself to buy all of the resin conversion parts needed or, God forbid, do some real modeling and do some scratch building. A very good friend of mine, Dave Riley, was a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard at the Coast Guard Aviation Center in Mobile, before a mysterious bacterial infection turned him into a quad amputee. He took me through the aviation facility and I got to crawl all over the MH-60’s with my camera blazing away. I now knew I had to model one of these unique helicopters with its bright blue interior and red bags and baskets filling every bit of the interior. Along comes Skunk Model Workshop with an HH-60J. The fact that it is a re-boxed Italeri HH-60 with some new trees thrown in makes no difference; it’s all there. Well, almost.