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Review Author
Charles Landrum
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$20.00

UPDATED REVIEW

This release by SAC provides replacement white metal landing gear for the Kitty Hawk 1/48 Su-34 kit. While white metal is softer than cast brass, the main struts and nose struts are quite sturdy in this set and will hold up if a lot of weight is added to the model. This release by SAC is a replacement for the kit landing gear, both the main gear and the nose gear. These parts are not a copy of the kit parts it is engineered from build-ups of the kit parts and then cast. As a result, this set has fewer parts than if you built the landing gear out of the box. The gear is engineered to incorporate some plastic parts from the Kitty Hawk kit. Unlike past SAC sets I have reviewed in the past, these parts have been cleaned up and do not show any mold lines.

Book Author(s)
David Doyle
Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
Company
David Doyle Books
MSRP
$22.95

This book provides great detail drawings of the American M36/M36B1 Tank Destroyer.

The US idea when going into WWII was to use tanks to support infantry and use Tank Destroyers against enemy tanks.

I found the photos and information in this book to be fascinating and many of the photos are ones not available anywhere else. The photos range from in production shots, in action and knocked out ones. All variations are covered in the photos and you see a lot of in action shots with the tank customized by each crew.

Along with the many photos from WWII there are great workarounds pictures full of fantastic details. These are indispensable for any modeler building this tank destroyer. You see so much detail in the walk around pictures which will make adding additional work to your model so much easier.

Each photo has a great description of what is in the picture, units using them, where and when.

Book Author(s)
Graham Robson
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Veloce Publishing
MSRP
$22.00

This is a reprint of the original edition first published in 2010, and now is available in Veloce's Classic Reprint Series. The author's biography is available on the Veloce website above and is as follows:

Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$25.64

This book illustrates how to liven pre-painted toy-like train kits by painting and adding weathering such as dust, dirt, grime, and other dirt effects. The book also shows how to create worn effects like rust, chipping, worn wood, spilled fuel, and burn damage. Various modeling techniques are illustrated with step-by-step photos of paints and other products to apply weathering and wear effects to train cars.

Example work of five different modelers are included:

  • Ovidiu Cupse
  • Graziano Ghetti
  • Federico Emanuel Martinez
  • Déak Róbert
  • Mig Jiménez

The book has 14 chapters 8 to 14 pages long, each illustrating a different train car or diorama setting and how various weathering effects are achieved:

Book Author(s)
Nikolay Yakubovich (translated by Kevin Bridge)
Review Author
Phil Pignataro
Published on
Company
Guideline Publications
MSRP
$25.00

I have long been a fan of the Warpaint Series books from Guideline Publications and have several in my collection. They are excellent references for the aircraft they cover. Typically, they follow a standard format of history and development, service and deployment histories, and finally, technical information and detail photos. This particular volume, however, is slightly different from the others I’ve read since it is translated from Russian sources. Consequently, some of the sentence structure is stilted and you will have to take your time and read these passages carefully to absorb the content.

In the opening pages, the author discusses in detail why the designers chose the swept wing for the Mig-15 - speed. Then the narrative follows themes shown in the “sections” listed below.