Perhaps no other battle of World War I holds the stature of the Battle of the Somme. Contested from 1 July and 18 November 1916 by eleven divisions of the British 4^th Army, and six divisions of the French 6^th army against the German 2^nd Army commanded by General Fritz von Below. The Somme was bitterly fought with over 1 million casualties on both sides making it one of the bloodiest battles in history. Technology was again rapidity advancing at a war time pace and saw the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield to break the stalemate of trench warfare. It was war in all its ugliest. Today, 100 years to the day the scars of battle are still visible. The draw to relatives, those interested in history, or tourists to this ground.

Many thanks to the Hauler Brengun Company and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to review this excellent detailing accessory set. Hauler Brengun is a recent contributor to the IPMS Reviewer system and I am very pleased to report on my experience with these very nice detailing accessories: cross-type tie-down points for flight decks of all kinds.

Tie-down points are a ubiquitous feature anywhere on a wide ship’s deck where anchor points are required. The points are often difficult to scratch build and detail effectively, making Brengun’s photoetch tie-down points a welcome addition for anyone building display platforms.

The tie downs arrived in a 5.5 x 2.75 inch plastic pouch with a 4 x 2 inch photoetched brass sheet with 110 tie-downs. No instruction sheet is needed, but a full-sized example image is included. The image is also available on the product website. The photoetched sheet is bright brass with flat tie-downs.

A feature that you can quickly notice on almost any 1/48 soft-skin AFV are the windshield wipers. Often they are either molded into the clear windshield, or they are absent all together. Hauler has come to the rescue with eight different sized windshield wipers. The photoetch sheet provided gives you a total of 120 individual windshield wipers along with simple instructions on folding them to set on the windshield.

Hauler uses an open plastic pouch that is stapled to the header card. You will want to be careful handling the photo-etch windshield wipers as their small size makes them an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster.