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Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$29.99

Model Art Issue 63 is typical of other Model Art magazines in that it is written entirely in Japanese, with occasional English words, usually in article titles or in captions. The Vessel Model Special is a quarterly issue that focuses on naval subjects. Each issue leads off with either short articles on a finished build or an in depth step-by-step ‘how to’ on the build and painting. The finished model photographs are of high quality in brightness, color, and depth of focus. Advertising comprises the inside covers (and back cover) along with another four pages showing what is available and new, always useful for building up that wish list. I counted 537 photos and drawings (mostly in color) along with eighteen 1/700 scale drawings. You will find throughout this journal, period photographs of the real ships and aircraft involved in battle. Additionally there are a lot of color scrap drawings highlighting details in the Ship Construction series.

Review Author
David Horn
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$62.99

Aircraft and History

The EA-18G is one of the latest approach to airborne electronic warfare. It’s roots go back to WWII when the radar made it’s first appearance and something as simple as aluminum foil was dropped by aircraft with the intent of fooling enemy radar. Technology made rapid advancements as did radar systems. Various airframes were used over the years to employ “jamming” technology with much success but there were also some limitations. Some of the airframes were effective but had a large crew required to operate and others were stable platforms but if put in a defensive position were sitting ducks. A couple of airframes (EF-111 and EA-6B ) had a great mix of capabilities with a solid jamming platform, defensive and evasive capabilities.

Review Author
Max Welliver
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$68.99

This is Dragon’s eighth and latest release of the Pz. Kpfw. VI Tiger 1. The kit contains many parts, great detail and a nice finished product. It is a re-box of Dragon’s 6700 Tiger 1 released in 2014.

A lot of the sprues have unused parts from the 6700 kit, as well as some other kits. The Zimmerit looks very realistic and there are many other goodies in the build.

Opening the Box

The sturdy Dragon box is filled to the top with parts, and is quite heavy. Each sprue comes in a plastic bag grouped with similar parts. Looking closer at the parts, they are highly detailed with molded weld seems, and molded Zimmerit.

The contents of the box include:

Review Author
Craig Gregory
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
Grade A Large
MSRP
$24.99

This is my sixth Eggplane and the second review of the Hasegawa Eggplane Series. As I mentioned before, they assemble quickly and are generally well engineered. This kit is no exception. I always attempt to try one new technique or skill on each of my builds; I wanted to practice a camouflage paint scheme. Also from experience I know that large decals are hard to get to conform to the typical Eggplanes contours. Therefore, I decided not to use any decals to for the darkest tone of the camouflage pattern,

I started by painting the engine exhausts (A2). I airbrushed them with a base coat of Tamiya XF-24 Dark Gray. I masked the center saw tooth band of the exhausts with Bare Metal Foil and painted the two remaining bands Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum. After the paint had dried over night I masked the entire painted outer surfaces of the exhausts with Bare Metal Foil in preparation for assembly.

Book Author(s)
Managing Editor: Mick Davis
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Cross & Cockade International
MSRP
$33.70

The latest journal of Cross & Cockade International - Spring 2017, features a photograph of a single bay Sopwith 2FR2 Bulldog. The rear cover features three color profiles of aircraft in the Castellorizo, and the Loss of HMS Ben-my-Chree article. If you check out the web site link above, you can get additional sample pics of the current issue.

Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They also provide a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.