Hawker Hurricane Main Wheels

Published: April 7, 2016
Company: Res-Im

RES-IM has come out with a pair of resin main wheels for the Hawker Hurricane in 1/72.

They are cast in a medium gray resin with no flash or seam, smooth surface (no thread) and are slightly flattened at the pour stubs.

I have several soft cover books on the Hurricane and I checked all the pictures to look at the main wheel hubs. I found in my unscientific search that the prototype and the very early Mk1 Hurricanes had 5 spoke main hubs. Sometime during the Mk1 production a 4 spoke main wheel emerged and was the standard for quite some time, only the MkXII variants differed in having a 3 spoke main hub. RES-IM resin main wheels are the 5 spoke type so it would be greatly useful for use on the new 1/72 Airfix early Hurricane with fabric wings. I measured the RES-IM… more

Allied-Axis 33

Published: April 4, 2016
Company: Ampersand Publishing

This is the publication's thirty-third issue and as the subtitle says, it is “the photo journal of the Second World War”. This issue deals with five subjects in 96 pages, the paper being glossy and reproducing the images well in black & white. The only color photos are on the covers (front and back). Two of the subjects are outright allies and one German. The final two started out as allies (French) but after 1940 their tanks were used by the Germans. At the beginning of each chapter there will be a short text on the history of that subject and most of the photos will also have a brief text about that photo. The photo sizes varies, but about 65% of them cover the full page and the remainder have anywhere from two to four pictures per page.

First up is the Sexton-25 pounder-… more

Mercury Spacecraft

Published: February 3, 2020
Company: Horizon Models

America's first manned space program was best summed up by Deputy Administrator, Hugh L. Dryden in the foreword to the book, Project Mercury: A Chronology (NASA SP-4001) where he wrote “ Project Mercury is now history In its short span of four years, eight months, and one week as the Nation's first manned space flight program, Mercury earned a unique place in the annals of science and technology. The culmination of decades of investigation and application of aerodynamics, rocket propulsion, celestial mechanics, aerospace medicine, and electronics, Project Mercury took man beyond the atmosphere into space orbit and confirmed the potential for man's mobility in his universe. It remains for Projects Gemini and Apollo to demonstrate that potential.” There are many fine books on Project… more

Soviet T-10M Heavy Tank

Published: November 3, 2015
Company: Meng Model

The T-10M can trace its history back to the late WWII JS-1/JS-2 heavy tanks. At the September, 1945 Berlin Victory Parade the new JS-3 made its first appearance with a “turtle shell” turret and a “pike nose” front hull that made a worrisome impression on western observers. To keep up with the western powers heavy tank development projects in late 40's, the Russians continually modified the JS tanks up thru JS-7, but done of these went into production. In late 1948, the General Tank Directorate issued an order to develop a new heavy tank that would surpass the performance of the JS-3, but weigh no more than 50 tons. The famous Russian tank designer Zhozef Kotin developed the new design, and prototypes were made in 1949. The military was supportive and the tank was named JS-8. Upgrades… more

14.5mm Russian Machine Gun barrel

Published: November 2, 2015
Company: Master Model

The development of this Russian heavy machine gun started in 1944 and by 1949 it had entered service as an infantry weapon. By the 60's it was withdrawn as it was too heavy to be useful. However, it was also mounted on tanks, BTR's, BRDM-2 and other armor vehicles, even boats. It has heavy fire power and a very long range of 2-3,000m and up to 2,000m vertically as an AA weapon. This version, KPVT (tankovyi) was modified from the infantry version by shortening the receiver, providing a heavier barrel jacket and using a 50-round belt instead of the original 40-round belt. To us Americans, if you convert the 14.5mm it turns out to be .57 caliber. More than half way between the .50 caliber M2 MG and the 20mm round. With the larger bullet and case it provided approximately twice the energy… more

1913 Ford Model T Roadster

Published: September 28, 2015
Company: ICM

I am no expert on the Ford Model T cars, but by using the internet I have found out several things. The Model T was the first affordable car that opened car ownership to the American middle class, which was due to the assembly line production method that reduced car prices. The Model T's made in 1913 were priced at $525 for a runabout, which is another name for this model car. 170,211 Model T's of all types were made in 1913 and this was the last year in which you could get a color choice. The colors being black, gray, green, blue and red. The first Model T was made in 1908 and production lasted for 17 years. Even today the Ford Model T is a name that is recognizable to a majority of American car owners as there are still several thousand of these cars that are still running. If you go… more

M103A2 Heavy Tank

Published: April 13, 2015
Company: Dragon Models

The Berlin Airlift and the beginning of the “Cold War” placed new emphasis on the US postwar tank program. The result was the emergence of three basic designs; the T41 light tank, the T42 medium tank and the T43 heavy tank With the start of the Korean War in 1950, T43 production was authorized. Continual testing and slight modifications resulted in the T43E1 which in turn became the M103. Many small defects were found but with the existence of a state of war it was felt justified to begin production of 200 heavy tanks. Most of these defects were corrected and the modified vehicles became the M103A1. The US Army placed their tanks in Europe to serve along side the M48s. However, with the rise of anti-tank guided missiles even the thick armor of the M103A1 was becoming obsolete, so in… more

Pz.kpfw. 35 (t)

Published: October 21, 2014
Company: Bronco Models

The Pz.Kpfw. 35(t) was one of two light tanks seized by the German army when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938-39. Both light tanks were used to flesh out three German Panzer Divisions and were a very important element in the invasions of Poland (1939), France & the low countries (1940) and Russia in 1941.

The Czech firm Skoda was one of the leading producers of munitions, field guns and tanks in the 1930's. Their design of a light tank for the Czech army was the Lt Vz 35, which weighed 10.5 tons, had a 37mm main gun along with a 7.92mm MG in the turret and another 7.92mm MG in the front hull. It was the equivalent of the German Panzer III. When Germany took the Czech tanks they repainted them and changed their name to the Pz.Kpfw.35(t), the “t” being German for… more

X-15: The World's Fastest Rocket Plane

Published: April 12, 2014
Book Author(s): John Anderson and Richard Passman
Company: Zenith Press

Much has been written about the world's most successful rocket powered research aircraft, the X-15. This airplane was designed to be a vehicle to provide aerodynamic, flight dynamic and structural data for use in the future development of hypersonic aircraft, all before anyone had even broken Mach 3. In October, 1954, NACA decided on the need for a manned hypersonic research vehicle, one that would fly up to Mach 7 and over 126,000 feet in altitude. By the end of the program the X-15 had reached a top speed of Mach 6.7 and an altitude of 347,800 feet during the course of 199 flights.

The authors; John Anderson, curator of aerodynamics at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Richard Passman, chief aerodynamicist on the Bell X-2 have crafted an excellent introductory… more

MV-22B Osprey

Published: January 14, 2014
Company: Hasegawa

Hasegawa has produced the first production model of the Osprey VTOL transport in 1/72 scale, the MV-22B. In 1988, Italeri came out with a kit (# 175) of the preproduction version, which was designated at that time the V-22A (later to be changed to MV-22A). It would be very difficult to modify the MV-22A into the "B" model. Thankfully, modelers do not have that problem now due to Hasegawa's latest release. This article will not go into the long history of VTOL aircraft or into the difficult development of the Osprey that can be found in other sources. (such as The Dream Machine: the untold history of the notorious V-22 Osprey by Richard Whittle, 2010).

The kit comes in the familiar light grey plastic that Hasegawa uses. There are twelve sprues to be found upon opening the box;… more