Review Author
Charles Landrum
Published on
April 1, 2011
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$17.00

For any modeler, but especially ship modelers, it is hard to achieve a realistic effect when gun barrels are out of round, warped or fail to have the right taper and shape; which is often the case with styrene injected or resin barrels. With smaller caliber guns and in smaller scales the barrels are often too fragile to handle. For these reasons turned metal barrels are an attractive alternative. Master Models continues to release well-priced brass barrels for the discriminating ship modeler.

Without a doubt, Dragon’s Smartkit of the Scharnhorst is a real gem with a superb level of detail thanks to its CAD designer. The gun mounts are very detailed and the molded barrels, with the slide mold technology, are quite nice in this scale, including bored muzzles. Dragon has packed the kit with a significant amount of aftermarket detail including injection molded blast bags; a nice touch given how difficult they are to make from scratch.

Review Author
Charles Landrum
Published on
April 1, 2011
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$20.00

For any modeler, but especially ship modelers, it is hard to achieve a realistic effect when gun barrels are out of round, warped or fail to have the right taper and shape; which is often the case with styrene injected or resin barrels. With smaller caliber guns and in smaller scales the barrels are often too fragile to handle. For these reasons turned metal barrels are an attractive alternative. Master Models continues to release well-priced brass barrels for the discriminating ship modeler.

Review Author
Greg Wise
Published on
March 31, 2011
Company
True Details
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.99

Description:

2 resin 265-gallon tip tanks and mount fairings. Ex-KMC mold. For the Revell/Monogram kits.

Inspection:

Packaged is in a clear face, white backed, poly bag stapled to a folded card along with a note sheet. It was clear the vintage KMC molds seem to be holding up pretty well despite the years. Upon opening the package I found the resin almost flawless, detecting only a few pinholes and heavy pour stubs. The details include nice gas caps and mounting points on the tanks. The wing tip fairings appear to be a tad small otherwise they look fine. Squadron included a note warning of “possible resin shrinkage” installing these fairings will require minor surgery of the kit, the wing tips will need to be trimmed to the panel line while remembering you must compensate for ‘resin shrinkage’.

Review Author
John Lyons
Published on
March 31, 2011
Company
Zvezda
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$12.90

Short History:

Due to the nature of the war with Germany the Soviet Navy took a back seat during the Great Patriotic War (WWII). However, one of the areas they were able to contribute greatly was with personnel.

During Naval Infantry’s early battles in 1941 and 1942 they showed high morale by their sheer willingness to accept high casualties during the desperate fighting for their own naval bases. Their stubborn tenacity unnerved the Germans, leading them to be nicknamed the ‘Black Death’ by their German foes because of this and their black uniforms.

The kit:

6 figures of the famous Soviet Unit "Black Death"

ZVEZDA has put out a nice looking kit, lots of details and equipment. All the parts come on 2 trees, with an instruction sheet that has nice painting directions.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
March 30, 2011
Company
Cyber-Hobby
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$27.95

A little quick history. As the Germans got deeper into trouble at the end of WWII, the started trying more and more desperate things to try to stem the inevitable. One of these was to "up" gun the Me262 with a 50mm Mauser Mk 214A V3. That is what this kit depicts. Now to what's in the box: life for this kit started out in the Trimaster range many years ago (late 1980's or so) and the molds went to DML/Dragon who got rid of the white metal with plastic and now on to Dragons bargain line, Cyber-hobby. At the time of the initial release, the Trimaster kits were the most detailed Me262's around with, at the time, revolutionary photoetch included and extensive detailing.