Ben Morton
Reviews By Author
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M65 Atomic CannonPublished:
Pen and Sword has published another tome in David Doyle's Images of War series of books. This most recent volume covers the M65 Atomic Cannon. Should you be unaware of this series of books, David Doyle gathers together an immense number of rare and often times never before published photos on the selected subject. There are well written and informative captions for each and every photo. For those that may be unfamiliar with the M65 Atomic Cannon there is a vintage film, produced by the U.S. Army, that highlights the cannon and associated vehicles. And if modeling the M65 is in your future this video may even give you a few ideas for displaying this enormous piece of artillery. Following a brief introductory chapter on the history of large caliber, long ranged artillery… more |
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MiG-15 & MiG-15BIS Gun Barrel Set / Antenna Base / Pitot TubePublished:
In southeastern Poland runs the beautiful, but powerful San River. The San winds its way through the steep mountain gorges on its way to the Vistula River. Before it gets there, the river widens and is used by a number of hamlets along its banks to power various watermills and all manner of machinery. Some of that machinery is diminutive lathes and the other assorted machines common to a tool and die maker. It is within this environment that we find ourselves in the company of a number of gnomes working diligently on various tasks. It is this skilled work force that Master Model of Poland utilizes to manufacture their ever-expanding line of small scale, after-market brass replacement parts. One of Master Model's newer items is a set of gun barrels (three), antenna base, and… more |
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MiG-21 SM/ M/MF /BIS Fishbed J/L/N Pitot TubePublished:
Master Model of Poland is becoming as prolific as Eduard when it comes to supplying modelers with after-market brass bits to enhance their latest projects. One of the latest offerings from Master Model is a brass replacement pitot tube for any 1/144thscale MiG-21. While this part will do nicely with any kit, you'd be hard pressed to find a finer example of a small scale (1/144) MiG-21 than those produced by Eduard. This brass pitot tube is a straightforward replacement for the kit-supplied part. All you need do is snip off the forward section of the kit part, drill a hole in the mounting bracket to accept the new part, and attach the pitot tube (All of this, courtesy some well-drawn instructions). Exercise some caution because I managed to bend the thing just getting it out if… more |
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Shiden-Kai N1K2-J "George" Late TypePublished:
The Shiden Kai was developed, in 1944, to counter US bomber aircraft that were attacking the mainland of Japan. With the combination of a refined airframe and a 2,000-horsepower engine the Shiden Kai was a masterpiece of a fighter with balanced performance. While it might be said that it was too little too late, production of the Shiden Kai was limited due to it being introduced in late1945. This updated boxing of Platz's 1/144th scale airplane kit includes new decals, packaging, and illustrations, while retaining the nicely molded detail and easy-of-assembly of the original. This updated release features:
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RQ-7B Shadow UAVPublished:
Wikipedia strikes again!: The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Army, Australian Army, and Swedish Army for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and battle damage assessment. Launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult, it is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier. Its gimbal-mounted, digitally stabilized, liquid nitrogen-cooled electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera relays video in real time via a C-band line-of-sight-data link to the ground control station (GCS). The RQ-7 Shadow is the result of a continued US Army search for an effective battlefield UAV after the cancellation of the Alliant RQ-6 Outsider aircraft. AAI Corporation followed up their RQ-2… more |
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Tracks for Merkava, Type 3Published:
Without expressed or written consent, I stole the following from an IPMS/USA Review by Mike Lamm: OKB Grigorov is a small model company based in Bulgaria. The company, begun in 2002, focuses primarily on AFVs, tanks, and naval ships in 1/72, 1/350 and 1/700 scales, and they have an extensive list of after-market products available. They produce full resin kits with photo-etch enhancements, as well as resin, photo-etch, and white metal conversion pieces for other models. More recently, they began producing some plastic AFV kits. This review is not of one of those but rather on an after-market set of tracks for Revell's Merkava series of tanks in 1/72nd scale. HobbyBoss has a 1/72nd scale Merkava but they choose to mold the road wheel /tracks as one piece. The Revell kit features… more |
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Abandoned Little TreasuresPublished:
Courtesy of the AK Interactive website: As the title suggests, Abandoned Little Treasures is a book that offers you detailed descriptions of how to create models of various abandoned objects. Following the concept of the best sellers Extreme Reality, we release this new super-book. The best modelers from around the world share their scratch-building, painting, and extreme weathering techniques in richly illustrated step-by-step articles. Amongst the subjects covered, you will find a tank, an aircraft carrier, a WWI airplane, a sci-fi vehicle, a tractor, a building, and a few others. This book shows us how realism can be achieved in scale modeling and will be a good experience for our next projects, 136 pages of quality modeling! Included in this publication are detailed… more |
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German Staff Cars / Cabrio(let)Published:
Longtime readers of IPMS/USA reviews will know that I tend to prefer the tiny stuff. So it shouldn't come as too big a surprise that when Brengun released some accessory items for those of us that build in a diminutive scale (1:144) that I put in my bid for this kit review. 'Kit Review' may be too strong a phrase as these small German Staff Cars 3D printed, in resin, and come as one piece. The only assembly of the actual car is to remove it from the casting block. It should be noted that these cars represent an Opel Admiral Cabriolet, circa 1938. The kit aspect kicks in when you consider that Brengun provides a fret of photo-etch for details and a small set of decals. The decal sheet has license markings for two automobiles with the photo-etch fret holding detail bits for the… more |
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Tecnokar Trailer with 20' TankPublished:
From Italeri's assembly instructions: The 20' Tecnokar Tank trailer is designed to ensure the highest level of efficiency in the liquid and fluid transport. The sturdy steel frame, on a three-axle system, made by the Italian Company, is able to load a 20' tank ideal to be used in the container intermodal logistic. It can well satisfy the need of complex and integrated logistic companies that adopting intermodal transport solution of liquid goods. That’s more and more important taking in consideration that, in the recent years, the intermodal transport solution of liquids, especially the liquids destined to the food industry, is a “must have” to guarantee reliability and respect of the delivery time. Wait! What? Here is what all that means in English. This kit represents… more |
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Browning .50 cal. Cartridges and Empty ShellsPublished:
One of the perks about being a member of the IPMS/USA Review Corps is that occasionally you get pre-notification from a manufacturer on their latest releases. Along with this notification comes the opportunity to order, for review, any of those newer items. Such an opportunity was recently presented to reviewer corps members by Master Model of Poland. Master Model of Poland is a company that was created by a passion for modeling. Their focus is on providing metal details to give the modeler the opportunity to build replicas of the originals. Their turned brass and aluminum items include gun barrels (naval, armor, and aircraft), antenna sets, ship masts, and aircraft pitot tubes. These items range in scale from 1/700th to 1/24th. Direct Website:… more |