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Yet again: Sincere thanks to Neil at HK models for providing IPMS USA this pre-release kit for review; your contributions are of great value and we look forward to more releases from your company…
… Part 3; final details!
The Type 052D is a Chinese designed and built missile destroyer. It features an active electronically scanned array radar system and it is refer by the Chinese media as the “Chinese Aegis”. There are two ships in the class completed and several more under construction. This kit represents the second ship of the class, “Changsha”.
Upon opening the box you find 13 sprues, 2 photo-etch frets (one of them for the nameplate), one clear sprue for the helicopter and a small decal sheet. The superstructure is packed on its individual box –inside the main box-. Despite the precautions my sample got slightly warped during transit (see photo).
This is a nice sized kit, with the hull being almost 18.5 inches long. There is no option for waterline hull, however there is an flat internal piece –that provides strength to the hull assembly- and some modeler might feel courageous enough to convert the full hull into a waterline model.
The 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942 to stop further Japanese expansion. On August 17–18, 1942, the US Marine Corps’ 2nd Raider Battalion conducted an amphibious raid on the Japanese-occupied Makin Island in the South Pacific. This operation was intended to divert Japanese reinforcements bound for Guadalcanal, over 1,000 miles to the southwest. The Raiders were to destroy the seaplane base and radio station, take prisoners, and collect intelligence. The Raiders suffered heavy causalities and even left some Marines behind, but the raid was an invaluable test of the innovative training and tactics employed by the Raiders, and a crucial boost to national morale at this difficult stage in the war.
Osprey Publications is well known for their books on military history and vehicles. This book is a follow up to the earlier Osprey release "General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark", which has also been reviewed.
Both German and Soviet military theorists in the years leading up to WW2 incorporated tanks into their battle plans to exploit breakthroughs in the enemy’s lines. These tanks incorporated turrets capable of rotating 360 degrees, thus making them expensive and time consuming to produce and maintain. Little thought on either side was put into providing the slower moving foot soldiers with self propelled artillery or anti tank capabilities. The Germans were the first to see the utility of providing their troops with SPGs, with the introduction of the Sturmgeschutz (StuG) and Sturmartillerie, self propelled tracked vehicles with limited traverse guns protruding out the front end of the vehicle, and capable of knocking out enemy hard points and limited anti tank duties. Such vehicles were cheaper to manufacture than tanks.
