With the approaching 100th anniversary of the tragic loss of the Titanic on April 14th, 2012, the modeling world has seen an influx of Centennial edition kits. To go with those new kits, Seaforth Publishing has released a new book in their well known ShipCraft series. ShipCraft #18, Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic, follows the same format as previous editions in the series. The book features a history of the ships, followed by a section on modeling the Titanic, and finishes up with a section on paint schemes and modifications.

As those of you who know me, my scale of choice for a long time now has been 1/32^nd (aka Braille scale!). Needless to say, I’ve been ecstatic with the explosion of offerings from numerous manufactures. This is one I have been patiently waiting for for the last two years- Hong Kong Models B-25J.

The one pictured here, the glass nose “J” model, and I find it absolutely outstanding. The engraved detail is actually exquisite, the clear parts are like crystal, and the attention to detail is near phenomenal. (Are you getting the message that I REALLY like what I am seeing?). Included with the more than 11 excellent gray sprues was a basic decal sheet and a set of photoetch. The etched parts include seat belts.

Armies cannot conduct military operations without supplies; the German Army had no problems with their supply trucks in the European areas, but found their trucks useless during the Russian spring and autumn “mud” period on the Eastern Front. A quick solution was to equip the rear wheel drive trucks with a tracked running gear. The 3 ton truck was the most widely used in the German Army, so these would be the basis for the fabrication. Four different tracked trucks were built: Opel, Ford, Klockner-Humboldt, and a heavy 4.5 ton truck by Mercedes-Benz. The official designation was Gleisketten-Lastkraftwagen or more often seen as Gleisketten-LKW offen (tracked lorry open) Sd.Kfz 3. The troops referred to all of them as “Maultier,” or mule in German, as it excelled in moving through mud – slow but steady.