Introduction: The primary organization of the IPMS/USA Review website is by IPMS/USA National Contest Class. Within each Class there are sub-menus by kits, decals, books, etc. The Miscellaneous Class is for items that are not class specific or that cross two or more classes.
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This publication is one from a series of books covering the Mercedes Benz SL series by Veloce Publishing. It is a 208 page hardcover book, printed in 25cm x 25cm (9.75” x 9.75”) format. Publication date was February, 2015.
Other publications in this series are:
David Doyle's latest book is one of the latest entries in the 'Legends of Warfare' series with entries in Ground, Naval, and Aviation. The first Ground book focused on the Panzerkampfwagen IV, the first Naval book was on the USS Yorktown (CV-5), and the first two Aviation books were are on the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (#4) and Douglas TBD Devastator (#3). This tome is the ninth release in the Legends of Warfare - Ground series.
Originally conceived and developed as a carrier-based fighter for the United States Navy, the F4U Corsair was initially adopted by the US Marine Corps as a dependable and extremely lethal land-based fighter-bomber. The Corsair’s unique and innovative configuration incorporated engine oil coolers in the inboard wing sections, with the resulting airflow through them making an unmistakable whistling sound, audible over the sound of the engine and firing of its guns. So predominant and unnerving was this sound to the Japanese forces on the receiving end of Corsair wrath that they dubbed the Corsair “Whistling Death.” Designed and manufactured by Chance Vought under the designation F4U and license built by Goodyear as FG-1, Corsairs became the staple of Marine Corps fighter units in the Pacific Theatre from 1942 until the end of World War II in 1945.
When I was around 10-11 years old, I got into a small-scale armor kick. The local shop carried Airfix kits and I built a lot of their kits at the time. The first time I built the M3 Half Track it was an MPC release in their Battle of the Bulge Historama kit.
Fast forward 45, cough, years later and Airfix is rereleasing many of their kits under their Vintage Classics range. The kit appears to be the exact same plastic first released in 1966 including the 1 Ton Trailer. The kit includes 54 parts molded in an OD plastic. There is a bit of flash but what would you expect from a set of molds almost older than me. The kit includes some nice detail, a driver and one of the nicest small scale .50 caliber machine guns. Decals are included for a M3A1 during Operation Overlord. More about them later. The color scheme is shown in full color in the instructions. Other than that change, the instructions look like they did when I first built it.
With the development of the Panther and the Tiger 1 the Germans came to the realization that they needed an armored recovery vehicle that could handle the weight of these larger vehicles. MAN was originally tasked converting Panther Ds for use in this capacity. The vehicles selected for conversion had the turret removed and replaced with a central 40-ton winch and a large rear spade to dig the vehicle in. A wooden work platform was built over the winch and a light crane (1500 kgs capacity) was installed on the rear deck. For armament, a 2cm KwK-30 cannon was mounted on the front along with the standard machine gun. This new kit from Meng is the first new modern kit of this interesting vehicle and the first release of this vehicle since the old Italeri kit from the mid-1990s.
