A Brief History

Had someone come to me even 5 years ago and said that in the near future, we modelers would be seeing kits of relatively obscure WW2 Hungarian tanks on the market from main stream injection manufacturers, I would have asked him what happy juice he’d been drinking. I would have demanded to be given a glass! We are, indeed, living in a Gold Age of modeling!

The 38M Toldi light tank was derived from the Swedish Stridsvagn L-60, produced in Hungary by the Hungarian Weiss Company under a licensing agreement from AB Lansverk. Three versions of the 38M Toldi were produced, with total production reaching 202 vehicles from 1939 to 1942. The tanks were first used by the Hungarian Army during fighting against Yugoslavian forces in 1941, and later saw action against Soviet forces during Operation Barbarossa. They were utilized mainly in reconnaissance, as the tank was no match in tank vs. tank battles against the likes of the Soviet T-34.

This product review will begin with a general introduction to GasPatch Models. GasPatch Models is located in Athens, Greece. GasPatch was founded in 2011 and produces plastic model kits and an excellent array of aftermarket parts intended for WWI aircraft subjects. One gets a sense of the professional nature of this enterprise by visiting the GasPatch website. The website is first-rate in appearance, navigation of the site is intuitive, and finding specific items is simple, easy, and quick. In a word…the site is an excellent site and reflects well on GasPatch as a company.

At the time of this writing, GasPatch has three variants of the Salmson 2A2 in the planning stages, all in 1/48^th scale. This review, however, focuses on some GasPatch products that are already available. GasPatch produces a line of turnbuckles and air speed indicators in 1/48^th and 1/32^nd scales. This review focuses on these turnbuckle accessory packs.

Introduction

As a long time fan of the original Star Trek TV series (I watched it during its original run on NBC), I remember anxiously waiting for the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. After seeing how far Hollywood had come with special effects on the Star Wars series, I thought The Motion Picture (TMP, in fan lingo), with its great story lines and history, had the potential to be a great movie. Then, there in the opening sequences, were the three Klingon K'T'inga ships on the big screen with all the additional hull detail, approaching the big, unknown cloud-ship. Shoot first, ask questions later, right? Klingons...