Introduction

On March 23, 1965, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young blasted off into space onboard the Gemini 3 capsule atop a Titan II Rocket. Gemini 3 was the first manned Gemini flight, and Grissom and Young made three orbits around the earth and returned to the surface after 4 hours and 52 minutes.

Revell originally captured the spirit of the Gemini program historic event in the 1970s with this great 1/24 scale kit. They rereleased the kit in the 1980s as part of their History Makers series of kits. Now they have rereleased the Gemini kit, with the original artwork on the box, in a Limited Production run.

I would like to thank Revell for returning this great old kit back into production.

I find it hard to believe the MiG-21 design is almost as old as I am and is still serving as a front-line fighter in several air forces around the world. I’m still pretty active, but no longer a “front-line fighter” by any stretch of the imagination. Since the end of WWII, in almost any conflict involving Western air forces, the adversary has been a Mikoyan-Gurevich designed aircraft: in many instances, the MiG-21 Fishbed.

In Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, Alexander Mladenov thoroughly covers the MiG-21 from its early development to its role in several conflicts around the world. His descriptions are often technical, but very readable nonetheless. The chapter titles give a good idea what is discussed:

The Sd.Kfz. 10 was a German half-track used as a prime mover for artillery pieces or special applications, mainly in the early years of World War II.

Dragon Models has multiple kits of their “basic” Kfz.10 kit, with some including additional parts to make the extra-armored versions or with added parts for an artillery piece, as in this case.

Upon opening the box you find 15 sprues (one clear), two bags with individual links for the tracks, two photoetch frets, a set of masks for the windshield, and a small decal sheet for the three marking options, all representing Eastern Front vehicles. The instruction booklet follows the typical Dragon style, printed in black, white, and blue, with a total of 15 steps for the half-track and 12 steps for the artillery gun. There are no figures in this boxing, but with the large selection of Wehrmacht figures available, that is not an issue in my opinion.