ICM has provided this beautiful new release from the Black Hawk Range for review, in this 1/48 scale model of the UH-60A which was released earlier but this one comes with a three-man crew set. The crew set is also available as a separate kit (kt number 48130).

• 15 x grey sprues
• 1 clear sprue
• One decal sheet
• One instruction guide for the UN-60A
• One instruction sheet for the crew

The detail quality is excellent in every way with this kit; crisp and detailed molding has become the norm for the ICM kits.

I repainted all the interior parts before commencing the build.

The assembly starts at the Interior stages 01 to 26. The only item in the interior assembly I need to point out is steps 19 to 26. This is the seats assembly and it’s a little tricky and you need to take care line up the supports. I also would have preferred colored decals to 3-D ones to improve the details of the instruments.

The Dornier Do217 K-2 was developed from the K-1 model designed to carry the Fritz-X gliding bomb. Its wingspan was extended by 25 meters or 82 feet to carry the extra load of the Fritz-X bombs which weighed 1570 kg or 3461 lbs each. They also added an additional 1160 liter/306 gal. in the bomb bay. There were special bomb racks on the inner wings, between the nacelle and fuselage, designed to carry the massive bombs. The most famous use of the Fritz-X was the sinking of the Italian battleship Roma on September 9, 1943 by Major Bernhard Jope of III./KG100

Included in the kit is:

• Ten grey sprues

Three clear sprues

• One set of decals
• One instruction booklet

The instructions are pretty straight forward and the kit seems well detailed with fine panel lines and other fuselage detail.

The origin of Pen & Sword Books is closely linked with its sister company, the Barnsley Chronicle; one of the UK's oldest provincial newspapers, established in 1858, and one of the few weeklies still in private ownership. The first books published by the company were in response to public demand following of a series of articles published in the newspaper: Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks told the story of crash sites in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park, and a further weekly feature on the history of two Kitchener battalions, known as the Barnsley Pals, aroused a thirst for more information. Following on from the success of those books, a number of local history paperbacks were produced along with a series of battlefield guidebooks. Battleground Europe proved immediately successful, and the company made the decision to launch a book publishing arm of the group.