The Supermarine Spitfire is one of the iconic fighters of World War Two. Entering service at the beginning of the conflict, it was continually upgraded and improved throughout the war. As Japanese Navy air attacks on Darwin demonstrated, the Royal Australian Air Force needed a high altitude fighter to supplement its low altitude fighters, such as the Curtis Kittyhawk (P-40). After reviewing the projected performance of the Spitfire Mk. VIII, the Australian government requested delivery of Spitfire Mk. VIII’s to fulfill this role. The RAAF eventually received over 400 of this version of the Spitfire and operated it in several theaters.

Masterbox Models in the Ukraine has been at the forefront of the figure end of the modeling business for some time now, never fearing to take some interesting chances on the market. This latest series of figures, designed to accompany most car models with some lovely ladies, has been no exception.

The Karl “Gerät” (device) was a huge self-propelled siege mortar. The 60cm shells weighed around 5000 pounds and contained several hundred pounds of explosives. Hasegawa says that the Karl made a “significant impact” wherever it was used. The problems with Karl were that it wasn’t very mobile, and it required special ammunition. When a Karl was in use, it had to be in a special firing position, which should be level and support the chassis.

This is Hasegawa’s release of their Karl Mortar in 1/72. It includes the “Munitionschlepper” Panzer IV. This kit has been released before, with the Munitionschlepper or with the railway transport add-on. What makes this kit desirable is that you get more options for the basic Karl mortar.

The two big options are: