I’ve always had a soft spot in my old modeling heart for the early Israeli equipment, back when the IDF had to scrounge for every item. I loved the interesting field modifications and clever use of limited resources, and the Israeli halftracks were a good example. Admittedly, from a modeling standpoint the conversion was always relatively easy, and I had it on my “to do” list for years, but just never got around to it. Dragon has done the job for me with this excellent little kit. I did, however, encounter a few bumps along the road, although nothing that should make any average modeler quail. One basic bit of advice, though -- do NOT try and build this in the sequence in the instructions. They have you build the separate units, such as chassis, truck bed, etc. in their entireties then piece it all together at the end. Due to the fragility of many of the exterior items you will land up trashing your work.
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“The Heroine / She” is the lead-off figure in Gecco’s first series that is followed by three figures in series two in GeccoDirect’s Tales From the Apocalypse that I believe are sculpted by Shojiro Kasai. This first series creates Scene 1: Day 1, 11:50am on the freeway and goes with two other figures, a truck driver, and a traffic guard. This figure, She, was on her way to pick up her little sister from a relative’s house but was involved in a terrible car accident leaving her unconscious. When she wakes up she is in the middle of a zombie pandemic! Now, her only mission is to track down her little sister and somehow survive the zombie infected apocalypse. The kit includes her shoulder bag and a misplaced zombie head to sit near her feet.
The Lockheed-Martin Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod is one of the newest targeting pods fielded by the United States and its allies. According to Lockheed, the Sniper ATP provides superior targeting capabilities in air-to-ground, maritime and air-to-air environments. The pod is compatible with and is currently used on variants of the F-16, F-18, B-1, B-52, A-10 and other fighter/attack aircraft.
Thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us improved metal landing gear for the new tool 1/72 Airfix B-17G, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me….
Another of SAC’s expansive line of white metal upgrades to the basic kit plastic! The set consists of six parts: Two set of main gear struts, two extension support struts, and two-part tail gear for the kit.
Not much to say here; build your kit, leave off the kit gear, and install the SAC gear. Paint, add the painted wheels and tires, and you are done.
The mains are simply dropped in place with superglue, and the side supports glued to the other extension side support. Same process with the tail gear; the main offset axle and mount are cemented with superglue to the other side strut, and installed in the tail gear well.
When Squadron decided to produce an original plastic model kit, they really went all in with the top secret German Haunebu II project. For those of you not familiar with the Haunebu II, it was either a functioning flying machine that took members of the Third Reich to a hidden base on the dark side of the moon, a fabled “wunderwaffe” that never made it off the drawing board, or something in between. It all depends on who you believe.