Book Author(s)
Paul Bradley
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
October 11, 2010
Company
SAM Publications
MSRP
$30.00

Thanks to SAM Publications and Paul Bradley for the review copy.

During the IPMS National Convention in Columbus, I bought the Modeler’s Datafiles 12, 13 and 14, on the F-4 Phantom. I was impressed with these books, and I’m impressed with this one too. This book has all the information a modeler needs to build a Hawker Hunter, including a kit listing, a decal listing and an accessory/conversion listing. I find I spend a lot of time looking for info on aircraft I build, and this book will save me on research next time I build a Hunter.

The table of contents is as follows:

Review Author
Joachim Lotz
Published on
October 11, 2010
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$52.50

History

I could not find very much information on this vehicle since it was a one-off field conversion. It was part of the HQ Company of the s.Pz.Jg. Abt. 653 during the battle of Kursk and it appears that this vehicle survived until at least summer of 1944, but I could not confirm that.

The Kit

This is a kit of the Panther D as a Befehlspanzer or command tank from DML’s Cyberhobby line. The kit comes as a smart kit and is loaded as usual with a boat load of extra parts. And correctly for an early D, it does not have Zimmerit coating since this wasn’t applied to tanks until September of 1943. The kit contains the following:

Review Author
Chris Durden
Published on
October 11, 2010
Company
MiniArt
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$35.95

MiniArt has continued adding to their impressive array of buildings and accessories with the diorama builder in mind. Their latest offering takes them to the North African / Mediterranean theatre with the “North African House”. At 130 parts, this kit comes in a large box with multiple sheets of vacuformed parts and 3 sprues of injection molded detail parts (most of which will end up in the spares box as extras. My sample kits had a “bonus figure” set which unfortunately were not applicable for the building setting (although I am sure that the German “Stalingrad ’42” figures wished they were in North Africa during the Russian winter). Make no mistake; this is a substantial kit that makes up into a large building.

Book Author(s)
Model Art Models
Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
October 11, 2010
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$22.00

PLAMO MANUAL, No. 801 is the latest in a series of modeling manuals from ModelArt. Previous manuals have addressed, among other topics, planes, cars, ships and airbrushing. The subject of this review is a manual on modeling armor.

The manual comes in a convenient size, 7-1/4” X 10”. It consists of 112 picture- packed pages and is bound in a high gloss paper backing. The pages are also of high gloss paper. The photographs are excellent quality, bright, crisp, and each is very focused on its topic. Thepictures in the articles speak for themselves.

The down side of this publication for me is that 99.5% of it is in Japanese. However, because the manual is so well organized, and the material is presented in such a logical manner it is easy to follow.

Book Author(s)
Georges Bernage
Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
October 11, 2010
Company
Editions Heimdal
MSRP
$45.00

The key to the end of World War II in Europe was the capture of Berlin, the heart of the Third Reich. The American, British and French forces were west of Berlin, but due to American influence had no designs on seizing the city. However, the Red Army was obsessed with capturing Berlin and pushed toward the city with all the speed it could muster The subject of this book is Berlin in 1945 before, during, and after its fall.